News In Brief

West Germany holds suspect as spy in NATO plane project

West German counterintelligence agents have detained an employee of Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohm, a leading manufacturer of NATO's latest multirole combat plane Tornado, on suspicion of spying, an official spokesman said Monday. ''This is no small fry.... It's a major coup,'' he said, declining to give any details.

The conservative newspaper Die Welt identified the suspect as a senior planning executive of the Munich-based company who is alleged to have had links with Soviet KGB intelligence agents since 1982.