Wiesbaden, Germany - Plans for a provincial alliance between Germany's co-ruling Social Democrats (SPD) and the small opposition Left party foundered Monday, with dissenting legislators in the state of Hesse saying they would not vote for it.

The fragile link-up, drafted by the state SPD leader Andrea Ypsilanti, had been described by opponents as possibly a model for a federal government after a general election in September next year.

Hamburg - Jelena Jankovic heads into the season-ending WTA championships which started on Monday as the top-ranked tennis player and with the knowledge that she will keep this place for the rest of the year.

The Serb Jankovic tops the latest rankings issued on Monday with 4,555 points and can't be toppled at the final event of the year in Doha which brings together the leading eight players.

Russia's Dinara Safina is second on 3,752 points and Serena Williams of the US third on 3,716 in an unchanged top 10.

London, Nov 3 : A rare blue-grey diamond, which traces its history to India, and had been given to the girl in one of the most famous paintings in Western art, will soon go under the hammer at Christie’s, London.

The Wittelsbach diamond, which apparently originated from the Indian diamond mines, is almost once inch in width.

A Christie’s spokesperson claimed that offering a blue diamond of this type was ''truly extraordinary''.

It was given to Infanta Margarita Teresa by her father King Philip IV of Spain on her engagement to her uncle Leopold I of Austria—one of the most historic events in European history.

Paris - French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has threatened to nationalize any French bank receiving emergency government aid that does not extend loans to businesses, the online edition of the daily Le Figaro reported on Monday.

Interviewed for a television program to be broadcast late Monday, Fillon said, "If we feel that the banks are not doing the necessary work ... we will take back the credits we have given them."

Without this government aid, Fillon said, the banks will find themselves in difficulty.

"The next question is if we will then take over the bank's capital, possibly to change their leadership, to oversee their strategy," he said.

London, Nov 3 : A novel imaging programme for facial surgery called DI3D system, which could produce life-like 3-D images on a computer from photographs, has been chosen for a top innovation award.

The DI3D system could help transform the treatment of facial surgery, burns, and orthodontics.

The Gannochy Trust innovation award of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) will be given to Dr. Colin Urquhart, of Glasgow-based Dimensional Imaging on November
7.

Cairo - Egyptian police shot dead a Sudanese man on Monday south of Rafah near the Egyptian-Israeli border, security sources said.