Wiesbaden, Germany  - After months of political manoeuvring, a German Social Democratic (SPD) leader on Friday unveiled details of her legislative takeover bid in the central state of Hesse.

Andrea Ypsilanti said she would invite legislators to elect her as premier on November 4, leading a minority coalition government with the Greens and counting on the votes of the Left party.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) immediately accused Ypsilanti of breaking a pre-election promise not to ally with the Left, which embraces former East German communists and western leftists.

Lusaka - Friday's celebration of Zambian independence took a back seat to campaigning in next week's presidential election, with acting president Rupiah Banda and opposition leader Michael Sata slugging it out to succeed recently deceased leader, Levy Mwanawasa, amid warnings of possible violence.

Zambia's army chaplain Colonel James Phiri used the occasion of the country's 44th anniversary of independence from Britain to appeal to the candidates to denounce violence ahead of the October 30 poll.

Jerusalem- Early elections in Israel are becoming increasingly likely, after the ultra-Orthodox Shas party announced Friday that it would not join a coalition led by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

Shas' decision, which came after Livni issued an ultimatum late Thursday, dealt a serious blow to her efforts to form a government by early next week.

Vienna  - Austrian authorities said Friday they would soon start a new probe into the abduction and eight years of incarceration of Natascha Kampusch, in order to investigate whether her abductor had accomplices and whether there had been other victims.

The decision came after an independent commission installed by the interior ministry found flaws in the investigations in July.

Kampusch, who is 20 years old today, managed to flee her abductor Wolfgang Priklopil two years ago, after he had abducted her on her way to school in 1998.