Hamburg  - TSG Hoffenheim will continue to shine while SV Hamburg and Bayer Leverkusen could also pose a threat to Bayern Munich's Bundesliga title ambitions, Germany coach Joachim Loew said.

Speaking ahead of the Friday night Bundesliga restart with the duel between Hamburg and Munich which he will attend, Loew told the Bild daily that he doesn't necessarily expect Bayern to romp to another title.

"Everyone is speaking of Hoffenheim and Bayern, but I rate Hamburg a title contender as well because the team is quite robust. I also consider Leverkusen strong. They will play at the top," Loew said.

Hoffenheim top the league on goal difference over Munich, with Hamburg and Hertha Berlin just two points behind and Leverkusen three.

Johannesburg  - German automaker Volkswagen AG plans to cut 400 jobs at its South African plant, news reports said Friday.

Company spokesmen Bill Stevens said the cuts were necessary because of an expected 10-per-cent drop in new car sales this year, the SAFM radio station said.

Furthermore, Volkswagen plans to cut down production around the Easter holidays to cushion drops in export demand.

Volkswagen builds its right-hand-steered Golf cars in South Africa for export.

Vienna  - , chief executive of Austrian Airlines AG, was forced to step down with immediate effect, ahead of the flag carrier's planned takeover by German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Austrian media reported Thursday.

Lufthansa agreed last December to buy a 42 per cent stake in the ailing carrier currently held by Austria's state holding OeIAG. The deal is pending on approval from the European Commission.

Berlin  - Senior NATO officers responsible for fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan have rejected an order also to fight non- Taliban drug gangs, according to news reports which were confirmed by German military sources on Thursday.

A US general in Kabul and a German general overseeing NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from Europe have told the NATO supreme commander, General John Craddock of the United States, that his order is illegal.

Berlin  - Germany and China moved to strengthen their economic ties Thursday amid a severe slowdown in the global economy that has already dramatically undercut economic growth in the world's two leading export nations.

Following talks in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said Europe's biggest economy and China, Asia's emerging economic powerhouse, should "intensify their co-operation to beat the (financial) crisis."

Nairobi- Pirates on Thursday hijacked a German-owned tanker carrying liquified petroleum gas off the coast of Somalia, a maritime official said.

"The German-owned LPG tanker MV Longchamp was seized on Thursday morning," Andrew Mwangura, of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "She was sailing from Europe to the Far East."

The ship, which has a capacity of 3,415 tonnes, was fully loaded when it was taken, Mwangura said.