2,000 on duty

LEIPZIG: Police in Leipzig plan to step up security for Iran’s last match against Angola on Wednesday. Regional police chief Klaus Fleischmann said about 2,000 officers will be on duty, compared with between 1,400 and 1,600 for other games in the eastern city. Demonstrators turned out in Nuremberg and Frankfurt before Iran’s first two games to protest Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s dismissal of the Holocaust as a myth. Another such protest is planned in Leipzig. German Jewish groups also have voiced concern that Germany’s far-right fringe could stage shows of support for Ahmadinejad.

No deal

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel isn’t betting on who will win the World Cup, but she says Germany has offered reasons for hope. Merkel told ZDF television she had not bet on the winner with her husband — “I am very cautious anyway with betting.” But, she added, after Germany beat Poland last week, “we can watch our soccer players with our minds at ease, and I think they will give what they can.” “The public is supporting them in a way that is simply wonderful,” she added.