GERMAN SPD DEFEATS KOHL'S RULING PARTY

The Social Democratic Party, defeating Chancellor Helmut Kohl's conservative party for the third time this year, won elections by a landslide in Hamburg. Official results showed the Social Democratic Party, or SPD, garnered 48 percent of the vote Sunday, giving it a narrow majority in the Hamburg parliament.

Shortly after the results were announced, the liberal Free Democratic Party turned down an SPD offer to remain in Hamburg's governing coalition.

Kohl's Christian Democratic Union suffered a major defeat, winning only 35 percent of the vote, about 5 percent less than in the last elections in 1987.