Bureaucrat whose blunder brought Berlin Wall down dead at 86

Berlin (AFP) - Former East German bureaucrat Guenter Schabowski, who died Sunday aged 86, went down in history for a slip of the tongue in 1989 that inadvertently brought down the Berlin Wall.

The former spokesman of the Politburo central committee of East Germany's ruling communist party died in the reunified capital, his widow Irina told news agency DPA.

After months of mass protests against regime and East Germans fleeing in their droves via Czechoslovakia and Hungary, the Politburo asked the government in 1989 to prepare a law loosening restrictions on travel outside the country.

It was at the end of an evening press conference on November 9 when Schabowski pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket and read out a decree stating that visas would be freely granted to those wanting to travel outside or leave the Stalinist state.

Market employees shoot and kill masked robbers in Reading

READING, Pa. - Police are investigating a late night robbery and double shooting at the Latino's Meat Market in Reading.

According to Reading police, officers were dispatched to the market - located at 11th and Greenwich streets - shortly before 11 p.m. Saturday for the report of a shooting.

When police arrived on scene, they found two males suffering from gunshot wounds. Police say one male died at the scene and the other male died a short time later at Reading Hospital.

Reading police say it looks as though three masked males entered the market. One male was armed with a pistol, which he fired inside the market, and another male could be seen pointing a stun gun at one of the employees. Police do not know if the third male was armed.