German Police

An East German pilot fled to West Germany in a crop-duster today, West German border police reported. The 33-year-old man landed near the border near the Bavarian city of Hof. The pilot told West German police that he was not detected by East German police and that his escape was without incident.

Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes in Hanover as experts disposed of three World War II-era bombs, German police said. The American-made bombs were dropped in an Allied raid in October 1943 and were found with the help of aerial photos. All were embedded as deep as 21 feet. A fire service spokesman said one of the bombs had smashed on impact and was harmless. The other two were defused.

German police opened fire on rioters during a massive free-for-all outside a soccer stadium in downtown Leipzig, killing one person and wounding three, authorities said. A police spokesman said officers were justified in firing on the rioters because they were under intense attack by stone-throwing mobs. Police made more than 80 arrests during the melee, which broke out before the start of a match between the local Sachsen Leipzig team and the visiting FC Berlin.

German police boarded a plane minutes before takeoff and arrested a pair of ethnic Somalis who they say wrote a suicide note proclaiming their desire to fight in a holy war and die in a terrorist attack. A 23-year-old Somali and a 24-year-old Somalia-born German were removed from a KLM flight to Amsterdam at Cologne-Bonn Airport. Officials said they did not think the men planned to hijack the plane. An airport spokesman said the pair were unarmed.

German police said a 25-year-old man confessed to murdering fashion designer Rudolph Moshammer, 64, who was found dead in his Munich villa Friday with a cable around his neck. Police arrested a man, an Iraqi asylum seeker named Herisch A., on Saturday after DNA samples made him a suspect, chief police inspector Harald Pickert said. German authorities normally do not release suspects' last names. "After several hours of interrogations he made a confession," Pickert said.

Eleven people, including an American soldier, his wife and their two young children, died in a fire caused by an explosion at a Korean restaurant, police and U.S. officials said today. Police ruled out a terrorist attack, but said they were still investigating the explosion and fire Wednesday night in the packed second-floor restaurant. Several people escaped by jumping out the windows. "Our information is that a terrorist act or arson can be excluded," said Ann Adams, a U.S.

A bomb attached to a U.S. Army truck exploded early this morning, destroying the vehicle and three nearby fuel storage tanks but causing no injuries, the military said. The blast occurred about 3 a.m. at the Haide barracks near the town of Kirchheimbolanden, the Army said in a statement sent by telex to news organizations. The site is a refueling stop for the U.S. Army about 35 miles southwest of Frankfurt.

The U.S. Air Force says two of its airmen have been killed and two wounded in a shooting outside Frankfurt airport. Spokeswoman Maj. Beverly Mock said German police have the suspect in Wednesday afternoon's shooting in custody and that she could not release any further details on the victims until their next of kin have been notified. The gunman opened fire on a bus carrying the airmen as it sat outside Terminal 2 at the airport, Frankfurt police spokesman Manfred Fuellhardt said.

A French Defense Ministry official was ambushed and shot to death Friday night in front of his suburban home, and the left-wing terrorist group Direct Action claimed responsibility. The victim was Rene Audran, 56, deputy director of international affairs for the ministry. Initial reports said he was struck by at least six bullets as he returned to his home in La-Celle-Saint-Cloud, just west of Paris. The ministry announced the death of Audran, the father of two children, but gave few details.