Cairo  - Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar Soleiman will meet in Cairo with a delegation from the Palestine Democratic Union on Wednesday to discuss ways to end the inter-Palestinian conflict.

This meeting comes almost two weeks after Egypt's first bilateral meeting with a delegation of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.

"Our party values the role Egypt plays to end the state of division that took place after the Islamic movement Hamas took over the Gaza Strip," Saleh Raafat, Secretary General of the Palestine Democratic Union, told the official MENA news agency on Tuesday after he arrived in Cairo.

Los Angeles  - Cable news channel MSNBC has ousted news hosts Chris Matthews and Keith Olberman from anchoring its election coverage after a series of on-air feuds plus complaints from Republicans that the duo were too left-leaning in their coverage.

The channel said Monday that it had promoted chief White House correspondent David Gregory to anchor its election coverage, though Matthews and Olberman will remain as analysts.

Brussels  - The European Commission said Monday it was probing concerns that the planned acquisition by Dutch airline KLM of Martinair could leave passengers wishing to travel from Amsterdam to the Caribbean islands of Curacao and Aruba with less choice.

"The commission's initial market investigation indicated that the proposed acquisition might substantially reduce competition, and so raise serious doubts as to its compatibility with the (EU's) single market," the European Union executive said in a statement.

Officials in Brussels said they had decided to open an in-depth investigation after remedies proposed by KLM had failed to remove the EU's serious doubts" about the takeover.

Evian, France  - European Union and Ukrainian leaders are set to shift their summit, planned for Tuesday, from the Alpine spa town of Evian to Paris after the EU's top officials took longer than expected in talks in Moscow.

"Given the delays to the visit to Russia and Georgia today, the EU-Ukraine summit, originally planned for Evian, will take place in the Elysee Palace," home of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a statement from the Elysee press service said.

The long-planned summit had been intended to deal with talks on an ongoing partnership between the two sides, with Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko pushing for closer ties with the bloc.

Luanda/Johannesburg  - European and African election observers gave a generally clean bill of health to last weekend's general elections in Angola - the first in 16 years, in which President Eduardo dos Santos' party was poised for a landslide win.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the elections, which the European Union's 108-member observer team described in a preliminary report as "tranquil and peaceful," showed Angola was consolidating its democracy.

Berlin  - The powerful German metalworkers union IG Metall announced Monday it would seek a wage increase of between 7 and 8 per cent for 3.6 million workers in the key sector, its highest demand in 16 years.

IG Metall boss Berthold Huber told journalists in Frankfurt discussions with shop stewards were continuing and that the final demand should become clear in a fortnight.