Police Germany

Amid an escalating climate of youth violence in eastern Germany, 1,500 to 2,000 German police backed by bulldozers and water cannon fought an intense, two-hour battle Wednesday before clearing militant youths from a squatters' ghetto in the eastern section of Berlin. Police officials said 70 officers and 15 youths were injured and more than 300 people were arrested in connection with the action.

German police drew harsh criticism Friday after failing to respond quickly to a bloody neo-Nazi attack on black Africans that led to one of the worst racial riots in Germany since a wave of rightist violence against foreigners began two years ago. The fracas in the eastern city of Magdeburg started Thursday afternoon when dozens of drunken neo-Nazis drove through the streets "hunting foreigners" and assaulted a group of five Africans, according to police and witnesses.

Berlin police, acting without a search warrant, raided the headquarters of the former East German Communist Party and spent six hours combing for evidence that the party embezzled $67 million and sent it to the Soviet Union. However, a Berlin prosecutor said the raid turned up no such information. Officials of what is now known as the Party of Democratic Socialism and of the Free Democratic Party, junior partner in the new German government, protested the police action.

On the night that neo-Nazi gangs firebombed a refugee hostel here, the chief of police suddenly disappeared mid-riot, later explaining somewhat guilelessly that his shirt was dirty and he had gone home to change it. In Cottbus, along the Polish border, a policeman summoned to a disco where patrons were brawling one Saturday night adamantly refused to venture inside; he had no protective gear and was afraid he might get hurt.

On the night that neo-Nazi gangs firebombed a refugee hostel here, the chief of police suddenly disappeared mid-riot, later explaining somewhat guilelessly that his shirt was dirty and he had gone home to change it. In Cottbus, along the Polish border, a policeman summoned to a disco where patrons were brawling one Saturday night adamantly refused to venture inside; he had no protective gear and was afraid he might get hurt.

German police drew harsh criticism Friday after failing to respond quickly to a bloody neo-Nazi attack on black Africans that led to one of the worst racial riots in Germany since a wave of rightist violence against foreigners began two years ago. The fracas in the eastern city of Magdeburg started Thursday afternoon when dozens of drunken neo-Nazis drove through the streets "hunting foreigners" and assaulted a group of five Africans, according to police and witnesses.

Police in Germany have arrested a man on charges that he stole more than 1 million screws from his employer and sold them on the Internet. Police said the 33-year-old assembly worker took up to 7,000 screws home every day when he left work. Over two years, he stole about 1.1 million screws with an estimated value of $155,000, police in Wurzburg said. The man sold the screws at discount prices; police wondered where he was getting the vast quantities.

A 17-year-old North Hollywood boy was killed early Sunday in a drive-by shooting outside a party in Winnetka, police said. Mark Johnni Germany was attending a large party at a single-family house in the 19700 block of Saticoy Street about 12:30 a.m. when someone in a small white car began shooting a small-caliber pistol at the revelers, police said. Germany was shot once in the torso while fleeing from the car. Police said it was unlikely he had been singled out.

Police arrested about 12 of the 300 protesters who rallied in East Berlin on the 26th anniversary of the Berlin Wall shouting "The wall must go," witnesses in West Berlin said Friday. Hours after Thursday night's protest, a young man ran up to the western side of the wall, doused it with a flammable liquid and set a 12-foot-square section ablaze. He was taken into custody by West Berlin police.

Dictator Josef Stalin had detailed information about Nazi Germany's plans to invade the Soviet Union in 1941 but ignored the warnings and failed to prepare for war, Pravda told its readers Monday. The full-page article in the Communist Party newspaper, the most detailed look yet at what Soviet spies knew about Adolf Hitler's plans, came on the eve of a national observance of the 44th anniversary of victory in World War II. The article marked a sharp break from the Soviet press tradition of publishing uncritical, patriotic reminiscences of Soviet heroism.

Amid an escalating climate of youth violence in eastern Germany, 1,500 to 2,000 German police backed by bulldozers and water cannon fought an intense, two-hour battle Wednesday before clearing militant youths from a squatters' ghetto in the eastern section of Berlin. Police officials said 70 officers and 15 youths were injured and more than 300 people were arrested in connection with the action.

Berlin police, acting without a search warrant, raided the headquarters of the former East German Communist Party and spent six hours combing for evidence that the party embezzled $67 million and sent it to the Soviet Union. However, a Berlin prosecutor said the raid turned up no such information. Officials of what is now known as the Party of Democratic Socialism and of the Free Democratic Party, junior partner in the new German government, protested the police action.

A court-appointed medical panel said Friday that a man accused of turning Jews over to a Nazi execution squad in Lithuania is too ill to stand trial on charges of genocide. The panel was appointed after 91-year-old Kazys Gimzauskas failed to attend the opening of his trial this month. The court is not bound to accept the panel's assessment, and it was unclear when a final ruling would be made. Lithuania does not allow trials in absentia when defendants are ill.

Rightist thugs burned down a tent city for refugees in Leipzig and rumbled with police as Germany grappled again Sunday with racist violence. Police agencies reported neo-Nazi attacks in at least eight cities, most of them in economically depressed eastern Germany. At least 26 people were arrested and a dozen hurt Sunday. Roughly 180 arrests were reported during confrontations the day before.