by Biodun Iginla and Natalie de Vallieres, BBC News

Baden-Wuerttemberg has the lowest unemployment and fastest growth in Germany

Germans are voting in a state election in Baden-Wuerttemberg, which analysts say will test Chancellor Angela Merkel's hold on power.

Mrs Merkel's Christian Democrats could be ousted in the state for the first time since 1953, opinion polls suggest.

They say that the Social Democrats and the Greens have enough support to form a governing coalition.

The opposition to Mrs Merkel's party has also been energised by anti-nuclear sentiment.

On Saturday, tens of thousands of Germans took part in what are thought to be the country's biggest-ever protests against nuclear power, in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear crisis in Japan.

Japan is still struggling to stabilise the Fukushima plant, crippled by the earthquake and tsunami of 11 March.

Polling stations across Baden-Wuerttemberg opened at 0600 GMT and will close at 1600 GMT. About eight million people are eligible to cast their votes in one of Germany's industrial powerhouses.

Angela Merkel changed policy on nuclear power a week ago

Recent polls have suggested that the Social Democrats and Greens could secure 48% of the vote.

Mrs Merkel's party and the Free Democrats, a coalition partner, are forecast to win about 43%.

The BBC's Germany correspondent Stephen Evans says that two specific issues have driven discontent against the Christian Democrats: nuclear power, particularly after the disaster in Japan, and a plan for a big railway project which could transform the centre of Stuttgart.

Mrs Merkel changed policy on nuclear power a week ago, suspending for three months an earlier decision to extend the lifetime of Germany's nuclear reactors. Four of them are based in Baden-Wuerttemberg.

The chancellor also temporarily shut off the seven oldest reactors pending a safety review.

But one of Mrs Merkel's ministers said in a leaked memo that such decisions made on the eve of elections "were not always rational".

Germany - which was hit by fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster - has long had a large body of public opposition to nuclear power.

Our correspondent also says that some voters in the state say they feel their views have been ignored in favour of those of bigger corporate interests.

Preliminary results are expected soon after the voting ends.

by Natalie de Vallieres, BBC News EU Desk, for the BBC's Biodun Iginla

Extra security measures will remain in place until further notice, the interior minister said

Germany is increasing security at airports and railway stations in light of "concrete indications" of terrorist attacks being planned for the end of November.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said it followed a tip-off from another, unnamed country.

Germany had information on "sustained efforts" by Islamist extremists to carry out attacks, he said.

He said the extra security would remain in place "until further notice".

"There are grounds for concern, but not for hysteria," Mr de Maiziere told a news conference in Berlin.

The federal police force has been ordered to step up checks at airports and train stations, he added.

Mr de Maiziere said Germany had received a tip-off after two parcel bombs were intercepted en route from Yemen to the United States last month.

One of the bombs was despatched via the German city of Cologne but was intercepted in the UK.

The Yemen plot showed "the adaptability and the persistence of terrorists in pursuing their aims," Mr de Maiziere said, and also underlines "the reliability of some leads."

Germany would not allow international terrorism to constrict its way of life or liberal culture, he said.

Last year, twelve militants vanished from Hamburg, some to resurface in Northern Pakistan where at least one, but not all were killed in an American drone attack.

Some of the new security measures would be clearly visible, Mr de Maiziere said, but others would not.

The BBC's Stephen Evans, in Berlin, says a month ago, Germany was dismissive of American warnings of attacks. That feeling has now gone.

One of the parcel bombs from Yemen was shipped through Cologne airport

Germany is increasing security at airports and railway stations in light of "concrete indications" of terrorist attacks being planned for the end of November.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said it followed a tip-off from another, unnamed country.

Germany had information on "sustained efforts" by Islamist extremists to carry out attacks, he said.

He said the extra security would remain in place "until further notice".

"There are grounds for concern, but not for hysteria," Mr de Maiziere told a news conference in Berlin.

He said Germany received a tip-off after two parcel bombs were intercepted en route from Yemen to the United States. One of the bombs was despatched via the German city of Cologne but was only intercepted in the UK.

The Yemen plot showed "the adaptability and the persistence of terrorists in pursuing their aims," Mr de Maiziere said, and also underlines "the reliability of some leads."

Germany would not allow international terrorism to constrict its way of life or liberal culture, he said.

The BBC's Stephen Evans, in Berlin, says Germany downplayed the risk when the US increased its terrorism alert warning level for Europe three weeks ago.

Some of the new security measures would be clearly visible, Mr de Maiziere said, but others would not.

by Natalie de Vallieres, BBC News Analyst, for the BBC's Biodun Iginla

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel: "lmmigrants should learn to speak German"

Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have "utterly failed", Chancellor Angela Merkel says.

In a speech in Potsdam, she said the so-called "multikulti" concept - where people would "live side-by-side" happily - did not work.

Mrs Merkel's comments come amid recent outpourings of strong anti-immigrant feeling from mainstream politicians.

A recent survey showed that more than 30% of Germans believed Germany was "overrun by foreigners".

The study - by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation think-tank - also showed that roughly the same number thought that some 16 million of Germany's immigrants or people with foreign origins had come to the country for the social benefits.

Mrs Merkel told a gathering of younger members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party on Saturday that at "the beginning of the 60s our country called the foreign workers to come to Germany and now they live in our country... We kidded ourselves a while, we said: 'They won't stay, sometime they will be gone', but this isn't reality.

"And of course, the approach [to build] a multicultural [society] and to live side-by-side and to enjoy each other... has failed, utterly failed."

In her speech, the chancellor specifically referred to recent comments by German President Christian Wulff who said that Islam was "part of Germany" like Christianity and Judaism.

Mrs Merkel says Islam is part of Germany but more must be done on integration

While acknowledging that this was the case, Mrs Merkel stressed that immigrants living in Germany needed to do more to integrate, including learning to speak German.

"Anyone who does not immediately speak German", she said, "is not welcome".

By speaking now, Mrs Merkel has now joined the increasingly hot debate on multiculturalism, coming down on the side of those who are uneasy about immigration, says the BBC's correspondent in Berlin, Stephen Evans.

Her comments come a week after she held talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which the two leaders pledged to do more to improve the often poor integration record of Germany's estimated 2.5 million-strong Turkish community.

Earlier this week, Horst Seehofer, the leader of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, CSU, said about integration that it was "obvious that immigrants from different cultures like Turkey and Arab countries, all in all, find it harder".

"'Multikulti' is dead," Mr Seehofer said.

In August, Thilo Sarrazin, a senior official at Germany's central bank, said that "no immigrant group other than Muslims is so strongly connected with claims on the welfare state and crime". Mr Sarrazin has since resigned.

Such recent strong anti-immigrant feelings from mainstream politicians come amid an anger in Germany about high unemployment, even if the economy is growing faster than those of its rivals, our correspondent says.

He adds that there also seems to be a new strident tone in the country, perhaps leading to less reticence about no-go-areas of the past.