German Chancellor Angela Merkel intends to run for a third mandate in the 2013 elections, she said on television on Saturday.

"I have high hopes that the Social Democrats will find me an adversary before the next election," the 56-year-old Christian Democrat leader, who has been in her job since 2005 and was re-elected in October 2009, told the SAT1 television channel.

Exports from Germany, Europe's biggest economy, bounced back in May, helping the country's trade surplus to widen, official figures showed Friday.

Germany exported goods and services worth €92.1 billion ($132 billion) in May, the Federal Statistical Office said. That was up 4.3 percent from the previous month and 19.9 percent in year-on-year terms.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel Friday defended her government's silence on a reported secret deal to sell hundreds of tanks to Saudi Arabia, and said she was committed to democracy in the region.

"Deliberation and decisions by the federal security council are secret for good reason," she told the daily Mittelbayerische Zeitung, referring to the panel including the chancellor and top ministers that rules on arms exports.

The European Food Safety Agency on Tuesday identified a batch of fenugreek seeds imported from Egypt as the likely suspect in the outbreaks of E. coli disease in both Germany and France.

An EFSA task force set up to track the possible source of the disease said it recommended in consequence that "all efforts be made to prevent any consumer exposure to the suspect seeds".

Michael Ballack, Germany's long-serving captain who was unceremoniously dumped last week by national trainer Joachim Loew, is angrily refusing to go away quietly.

"It was clearly and unambiguously agreed by both sides that I would be able to announce calmly my decision to retire (from international football) during the summer break," the 34-year-old midfielder said in a statement issued on Sunday.

British luxury handbag maker Mulberry said Thursday that annual profits more than quadrupled, as the group celebrated its 40th anniversary with stunning sales growth and eyed more global expansion.

Pre-tax earnings rocketed by a staggering 358 percent to £23.3 million ($37.6 million, 26.6 million Euros) in the 12 months to the end of March, Mulberry said in a results statement.

Former Germany captain Michael Ballack's international career is over, the national football federation said Thursday after talks between coach Joachim Loew with the ex-Chelsea midfielder.

"Michael Ballack will no longer be a part of the German national squad," the DfB said in a statement.

European police have arrested six suspected members of a multi-national drug trafficking and money laundering ring and confiscated millions in cash, two police agencies in Europe said.

“More than eight European arrest warrants were issued against German, Dutch, Colombian, Lebanese and Turkish nationals suspected of being active members of this large and highly complex network,” the Hague-based European police and judicial co-operation agencies Europol and Eurojust said on Wednesday.

Scientists have uncovered a trio of genes tied to migraine headaches, including one in which the link is exclusive to women, according to a new study.

Migraines are acutely debilitating headaches -- sometimes with an "aura", in which patients have the impression of seeing through frosted glass -- that strike up to 20 percent of the population.

The Syrian army's operations in the north of country makes a U.N. Security Council resolution all the more pressing, Germany said on Sunday.

"The dangerous situation makes a clear reaction from the U.N. Security Council all the more urgent," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, whose country currently holds a non-permanent seat on the council, said in a statement.