Et Cetera

THE HIT TEAM HIT German police, acting on information from files of the old East German secret service, the Stasi, arrested 11 suspected operators in a network that committed as many as 500 crimes, including murder and burglary. Two of those in custody are former Stasi generals based in Berlin. Police say the Stasi recruited the ring of criminals during the 1970s to kill those it considered enemies of the East German state and to perform other missions. The Stasi paid at least 21 Westerners about $1.25 million to commit the crimes.