Ex-Stasi spies exposed at Berlin paper

Two senior journalists have been "relieved of their duties" at the left-leaning Berliner Zeitung after their past as spies for East Germany's Stasi emerged. The paper's magazine and feature editor, Thomas Leinkauf, was exposed when a file surfaced. Then the assistant politics editor, who has not been named, owned up to having been a Stasi informant. Now the paper's editor, Josef Depenbrock, says background checks will be carried out on all 120 editorial staff. The Daily Telegraph's Berlin correspondent, Harry de Quetteville, calls it "a bizarre episode." (Via Spiegel online)