Unsere Regeln! » sures for the Oktoberfest,

MADRID Cheap Air Max Tavas , Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Atletico Madrid and Chelsea onThursday announced they have reached the "basis of an agreement"for Atletico to buy back Brazilian born Spanish internationalstriker Diego Costa.


Both clubs published the news on their respective websites, withCosta expected to cost Atletico around 50 million pounds; more thanthe 32 million pounds Chelsea paid for him three years ago from theSpanish side.


"Atletico de Madrid and Chelsea have reached an initialagreement for the transfer of Diego Costa," read the Atleticowebsite, explaining the agreement was "pending the formalization ofthe contract between our club and the Spanish internationalforward. The English club has authorized Diego Costa to travel toMadrid in the coming days to undergo medical tests and settle hiscontract with our club."


Costa is expected to be in the stands to watch Atleticoentertain Sevilla at 1pm on Saturday.


He will be able to start training with Atletico as soon as thedeal is signed, but due to the FIFA transfer ban imposed on theclub, he will not be play for them until the start of January.


He scored 59 goals for Chelsea, but relations with coach AntonioConte deteriorated last season and he has not played since the endof last season.


The 28-year-old had previously netted 43 goals in 94 leagueappearances for Atletico, where his physical presence was also amajor asset to Diego Simeone's side. Enditem


BERLIN, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The upcoming Sunday will see Germans cast their ballot for the next federal parliament at nearly 70,000 polling stations across the country. Amid strained security situation in Europe and reported loopholes in the election software, Germany faces challenges to keep sabotagers and hackers at bay.


Apart from alert due to terror attacks occurred lately in other European countries, controversies surrounding this year's election, concurrent events such as the Berlin Marathon and Munich's Oktoberfest, as well as feared cyber attack further strained security situation in the country in the lead up to the federal election.


CONTROVERSY SPARKED OFFENSES


Controversies surrounding certain political parties lead to election related offenses. Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has reported 2,250 offenses in connection with the federal election campaign as of Sept. 13, 54 cases of which were acts of violence such as bodily harm, according to a BKA situation picture.


Victims of attacks during the election campaign are more often representatives or helpers of the far-right Party AfD. "Especially the candidates of the AfD and their events are increasingly affected by the reports of material damage and disturbances", according to the BKA situation picture.


One of the most frequent offenses is the damage to election posters. In Saxony-Anhalt, according to police, significantly more posters were destroyed than during the last federal election in 2013. The provincial council office in Magdeburg counted 1,238 damaged or stolen posters, the AfD being particularly affected with 867 destroyed posters, followed by the CDU with 121 and the SPD with 95.


In Dresden, a man attacked an election information stand of the AfD and injured a 72-year-old helper of the party.


CONCURRENT EVENTS


More nerve-wracking for law enforcers of the country is the fact that the election will be held concurrently with the Berlin Marathon and Munich Oktoberfest.


On Sunday, in the German capital, the 44th Berlin Marathon will take place with its various individual competitions. This year more than 60,000 participants are expected to attend the event, according to the Berlin Police.


Amid a spate of terrorist attacks that struck Europe in the recent past, including one truck attack that killed at least 12 in Berlin last December, a big event like Marathon demands strong security presence.


"Hosting federal election on the same day of the Berlin Marathon is not optimal," Stephan Mayer, the CDUCSU interior affairs spokesman, was quoted by RP online as saying. Meanwhile he was convinced that the authorities and the organizers were doing everything they could to ensure optimum security.


SPD faction leader Thomas Oppermann defended the event by saying major events must be possible even if it poses a logistic challenge, the RP online reported.


In Munich, the federal election is concurrent with the all-popular folk festival, Oktoberfest. This year, too, an "abstractly high threat situation" would have to be assumed, but there are no concrete threats, Werner Feiler, police chief of Munich, was quoted as saying by local media Sueddeutsche Zeitung.


Munich geared up security measures for the Oktoberfest, including applying loudspeaker system and body cameras, according to Feiler. However, the police chief believed the upcoming federal election does not present any particular threat.


HACKING RISK


Security experts have long warned that German authorities did not have a sound plan for hacking-proof election security, but officials said that a hand-counted result could not be manipulated.