Eight million Germans are voting in a closely watched state election that could see Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party lose power in southern Baden-Wuerttemberg for the first time in almost six decades.

Germany's main industrial union is poised to begin a wage strike after workers expected to boycott the night shift at DaimlerChrysler's flagship car plant.

Protesters chained themselves to the tracks at a German freight train depot today to hinder the departure of containers being used for a nuclear waste shipment to a British reprocessing plant.