German Family Stabbed to Death

Burglars killed a German auto executive and his family in their home in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, officials said. Juergen Pfrang, 50, a DaimlerChrysler executive who had lived in China since 1997, his wife, and two children, aged 11 and 14, were stabbed Saturday night, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said in Berlin. The others’ names were not released. The incident was unusual for China, where crimes against foreigners are rare and the rate of reported crime is relatively low. Four young farmers were arrested in the residential compound where the family lived. The New China News Agency said the men had confessed and that police believed the break-in had no political overtones.