Germans

Apple has sold its 25 billionth song through its iTunes digital store, and to celebrate the occasion, the company said it is giving the man who purchased the song an iTunes gift card worth about $13,525. To be precise, the gift card is worth 10,000 euros because the winner, Phillip Lüpke, is from Germany. Apple didn't give too many details about Lüpke other than the $0.99 song he purchased, which was “Monkey Drums,” the Goksel Vancin Remix, by Chase Buch. A version of " Monkey Drums " can be heard on YouTube.  QUIZ: Test your Apple knowledge With most iTunes songs costing $1.29 before tax,  Lüpke will be able to use the gift card to buy more than 10,400 songs -- although he could of course use it for movies and TV shows.

Phillip Lüpke likes to jam to and buy electronic music. Now he won't have to pay for it -- at least for a few years. Lüpke won an iTunes gift card worth $13,525 for downloading the 25 billionth song from Apple Inc.'s digital store Wednesday. The 22-year-old from Hover, Germany, said he got a call from Apple but at first didn't believe that he had won a gift card with 10,000 euros on it. That's roughly $13,525 based on today's exchange rate. "I was very surprised. First, I didn't believe that it's the truth, but Apple called me and yeah it's true," Lüpke told the Times in an online conversation, adding a smiley emoticon.

Stock and bond markets in the U.S. were closed Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, but trading took place in the rest of the world. European stocks rose while German bonds declined as European finance ministers met for the first time this year to discuss the debt crisis. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.3%, with the volume of shares changing hands 34% less than the 30-day average. In Japan, the yen rose from a two-year low, strengthening 0.5% to 89.64 yen per dollar.

German actor and writer Hardy Kruger has listed his forested retreat in Crestline for $800,000. The 8-acre compound overlooking Lake Gregory once belonged to Hungarian horror film actor Bela Lugosi, known for playing the title role in the 1931 film "Dracula. " Kruger bought the site for his wife, Anita, and built its log home in 1980. Scenes from their time in the mountains are chronicled in his book "Wanderjahre. " Features include an open plan kitchen, dining and living room with a fireplace and a library.

COLOGNE, Germany - On a street corner in the old part of Cologne, a boy of 9 or 10 approximates Christmas songs on his trumpet. Around him, the elaborate huts of the Altstadt Christmas market play a siren song audible only to ladies of a certain age and their long-suffering husbands. Booths selling the usual beeswax candles, Russian dolls and kitchen utensils made of olive wood you can find at any market are interspersed with those offering Battenberg lace, lamps made of wood veneer and various other hand-crafted items.

Google has come out swinging against German legislation that would require search engines to pay for using snippets of newspaper articles, photographs and other media content. German lawmakers are slated to debate the legislation Thursday, one in a string of proposals pushed across Europe by frustrated publishers seeking ways to survive in the Internet era. Google has likened the idea to making taxi drivers pay restaurants for dropping off customers at their doors. The company is now seeking to mobilize Internet users against the German measure, arguing that it would hamper their searches.

BERLIN - By now, the sleek new Berlin Brandenburg Airport was supposed to be bustling with passengers. But the opening has already been delayed three times, and the main terminal looks more like an abandoned movie set than the busy hub that was built to connect Germany's capital with the rest of the world. Computer monitors, chairs and line dividers remain wrapped in plastic. A giant tapestry made of thin red woven aluminum strips, by Los Angeles artist Pae White, hangs unobserved above empty check-in counters and pristine marble tiles.

Two entertainment industry executives announced plans to acquire two companies in a $430-million transaction aimed at capitalizing on the growing consumer demand for in-flight services. Global Eagle Acquisitions said it has reached an agreement to buy privately held Row 44 Inc., a Westlake Village company that provides satellite broadband service for Southwest Airlines, the nation's largest domestic carrier. It also agreed to acquire 86% of the outstanding shares of Advanced Inflight Alliance, a German company that supplies games, movies, general entertainment and applications to more than 130 airlines worldwide.

Hans Werner Henze, 86, a leading composer of the late 20th century whose prolific and wide-ranging work included a wealth of operas and 10 symphonies, died Saturday in Dresden, Germany, his publisher said. A cause of death was not given. The native German's compositions straddled musical genres and included stage works, symphonies, concertos, ballets, chamber works and a requiem. He was born July 1, 1926, and grew up as the Nazis tightened their grip on the country. During World War II, Henze was forced to join the German army and was briefly held prisoner of war. His compositions often reflected his political consciousness, especially a hatred of fascism born of early experiences.

The sacrificial piano sat stage right during German band Faust's concert at REDCAT. It was a church basement clunker, a blond-wooded upright with broken-tooth keys and a chipped veneer. Whatever sacred beauty it delivered in better days, the piano was now doomed, sentenced to death by a band that 40 years ago helped transform the direction of experimental rock and noise music with transfixing grooves and an abundance of free-spirited, Dada-inspired non sequiturs. In the first of two Friday-night performances at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater in downtown L.A., the four-piece version of a band co-founded in 1970 by, among others, current members Jean-Hervé Péron and percussionist Werner "Zappi" Diermaier, delivered art-damaged (quite literally)