Voters in Germany's most populous state go to the polls Sunday in a closely watched gauge of Chancellor Angela Merkel's political fortunes ahead of a national vote next year in Europe's top economy.

As well as serving as a bellwether for Merkel and her euro crisis-busting strategy, elections in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) state, home to 18 million people, have also sparked major political upheavals in the past.

Germany's top airline Lufthansa said on Thursday that it intended to shed 3,500 administrative jobs in the next few years as part of a radical cost-cutting program.

The unprecedently steep cuts were intended to reduce administrative costs by a quarter, the airline said in a statement.

A suspected former financial manager working for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party in Europe was arrested in Germany on Friday in the city of Cologne, officials said.

The 45-year-old Turkish national, identified as Abdullah S., was "strongly suspected" of PKK involvement and operated a German regional cell under the code name "Hamza" in 2003 and 2004, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

Borussia Dortmund were crowned German league champions for the second consecutive season on Saturday having proved their worth by beating main title rivals Bayern Munich home and away.

Dortmund's win at home to Moenchengladbach left the defending champions eight points clear with two games remaining and they will be presented with the Bundesliga shield in their final game at home to Freiburg on May 5.

France and German welcomed the decision by the United Nations Security Council on Saturday to send U.N. observers to monitor the fragile ceasefire in Syria, warning Damascus to end the violence there.

The two countries reacted after the Council unanimously passed a resolution allowing a 300-strong ceasefire monitoring mission in Syria despite the strong doubts of many Western nations.

Germany and Austria said Saturday they are sending some 700 more troops to Kosovo to help prevent unrest in the north of the breakaway province ahead of elections in neighboring Serbia on May 6.

Germany's defense ministry said 550 soldiers would be deployed at the request of the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force, while Austria's defense ministry said 150 troops would join the Kosovo Operational Reserve Force.

A German shipping firm on Monday dismissed reports one of its vessels was carrying Iranian arms bound for Syria in violation of EU sanctions against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Respected news weekly Der Spiegel reported at the weekend that the ship, the Atlantic Cruiser, owned by German firm Bockstiegel but chartered by a Ukrainian firm, had been stopped on the high seas with Iranian weapons on board.

A Lebanese man turned the joke of climbing into somebody's suitcase a reality when he hid in the luggage of a German to cross the Turkish border into Greece.

Turkish customs officers at the Pazarkule Customs Gate ordered the German man to open his suitcase when they became suspicious over its enormous size.

Talks between Iran and six world powers in Istanbul on Tehran's nuclear program, the first in 15 months, began Saturday in a "positive atmosphere," a European Union spokesman said.

"There is a positive atmosphere. ... There is a desire for substantive progress," Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, told reporters.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle Wednesday pressed Russia to distance itself from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's deadly crackdown on opposition rebels.

"Russia has to make clear that it does not want to have anything to do with these acts of violence and this repression," Westerwelle said on the sidelines of a two-day meeting with Group of Eight ministers in Washington.