Prisoners Germany

Five months after his disappearance sparked an international manhunt, money manager Martin R. Frankel was charged with stealing more than $200 million from several Southern insurance companies. A U.S. federal grand jury that was convened in June returned a 36-count indictment Thursday against Frankel, 44, who was captured by German police at Hamburg's Prem Hotel in September. The charges range from money laundering to racketeering. Hugh Keefe, who withdrew as Frankel's U.S.

German police recaptured a convicted child rapist who was on his sixth flight from custody, ending a 13-day manhunt. Frank Schmoekel, 38, is suspected of murdering a 60-year-old man found dead Thursday. Schmoekel was found hiding in a garden cottage in Bautzen after a shopkeeper reported a break-in. Police said they shot the knife-brandishing Schmoekel in the stomach when he grabbed an officer. Hundreds of police had been searching for Schmoekel since his Oct.

German police recaptured a convicted child rapist who was on his sixth flight from custody, ending a 13-day manhunt. Frank Schmoekel, 38, is suspected of murdering a 60-year-old man found dead Thursday. Schmoekel was found hiding in a garden cottage in Bautzen after a shopkeeper reported a break-in. Police said they shot the knife-brandishing Schmoekel in the stomach when he grabbed an officer. Hundreds of police had been searching for Schmoekel since his Oct.

Five months after his disappearance sparked an international manhunt, money manager Martin R. Frankel was charged with stealing more than $200 million from several Southern insurance companies. A U.S. federal grand jury that was convened in June returned a 36-count indictment Thursday against Frankel, 44, who was captured by German police at Hamburg's Prem Hotel in September. The charges range from money laundering to racketeering. Hugh Keefe, who withdrew as Frankel's U.S.

Alleged Nazi war criminal Josef Schwammberger, who hid in Argentina for 40 years, has been charged in connection with the deaths of more than 3,400 Jews, a state prosecutor's office announced Friday. The trial of Schwammberger, 79, could be the last major Nazi war crimes hearing of its type, prosecutors said. Like many elderly former Nazis tried in recent years, Schwammberger is in frail health and has complained of heart problems.

Erich Mielke, the former chief of East Germany's despised secret police, the Stasi, was quietly released from prison Tuesday, ending one of the most bizarre, troubling chapters in the annals of modern German criminal law. With Mielke's release, not a single member of the top leadership of the East German Communist Party remains in custody. Complaints are still outstanding against a few other former senior officials.

Giving the world a glimpse of his diplomacy, U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar conferred with Israeli envoys in Geneva on Wednesday, then phoned Iran--although he failed to announce any new movement in the impasse over the hostages in Lebanon. "It would be naive to expect something in the next days," he told reporters afterward. Yet, the lines--and some of the snags--in an agreement were taking shape.

Five Holocaust survivors who were forced to build a factory for German airplanes during World War II on Friday filed the first lawsuit in California seeking compensation for their toil as slave laborers. The suit, filed against Philipp Holzmann AG, a multibillion-dollar German construction company that does considerable business in the United States, including California, seeks compensation for the survivors' unpaid services and for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Lebanese kidnaper Abbas Hamadi, deported by Germany after serving half of a 13-year prison sentence, arrived home in Lebanon on Friday. Abdul Hadi Hamadi, Abbas' elder brother and security chief in the pro-Iranian movement Hezbollah (Party of God), was at the airport, apparently to meet his brother, who left by an entrance out of sight of journalists.

Six former East German generals received substantial sentences Tuesday for ordering guards at the old border between East and West Germany to shoot people trying to escape the now-defunct Communist state. A Berlin state court sentenced the main defendant, former East German Deputy Defense Minister Klaus-Dieter Baumgarten, to 6 1/2 years in prison for manslaughter. It was one of the longest prison terms given to date in any trial of a former East German official.

Five Holocaust survivors who were forced to build a factory for German airplanes during World War II on Friday filed the first lawsuit in California seeking compensation for their toil as slave laborers. The suit, filed against Philipp Holzmann AG, a multibillion-dollar German construction company that does considerable business in the United States, including California, seeks compensation for the survivors' unpaid services and for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Six former East German generals received substantial sentences Tuesday for ordering guards at the old border between East and West Germany to shoot people trying to escape the now-defunct Communist state. A Berlin state court sentenced the main defendant, former East German Deputy Defense Minister Klaus-Dieter Baumgarten, to 6 1/2 years in prison for manslaughter. It was one of the longest prison terms given to date in any trial of a former East German official.

Erich Mielke, the former chief of East Germany's despised secret police, the Stasi, was quietly released from prison Tuesday, ending one of the most bizarre, troubling chapters in the annals of modern German criminal law. With Mielke's release, not a single member of the top leadership of the East German Communist Party remains in custody. Complaints are still outstanding against a few other former senior officials.

Lebanese kidnaper Abbas Hamadi, deported by Germany after serving half of a 13-year prison sentence, arrived home in Lebanon on Friday. Abdul Hadi Hamadi, Abbas' elder brother and security chief in the pro-Iranian movement Hezbollah (Party of God), was at the airport, apparently to meet his brother, who left by an entrance out of sight of journalists.

Giving the world a glimpse of his diplomacy, U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar conferred with Israeli envoys in Geneva on Wednesday, then phoned Iran--although he failed to announce any new movement in the impasse over the hostages in Lebanon. "It would be naive to expect something in the next days," he told reporters afterward. Yet, the lines--and some of the snags--in an agreement were taking shape.

Alleged Nazi war criminal Josef Schwammberger, who hid in Argentina for 40 years, has been charged in connection with the deaths of more than 3,400 Jews, a state prosecutor's office announced Friday. The trial of Schwammberger, 79, could be the last major Nazi war crimes hearing of its type, prosecutors said. Like many elderly former Nazis tried in recent years, Schwammberger is in frail health and has complained of heart problems.