Passau, Germany - A German police chief wounded in a knife attack by a suspected neo-Nazi was released from hospital on Friday as a search for the assailant continued.

Alois Mannichl, 52, chief of police in the southern city of Passau, was stabbed in the stomach outside his home by a skinhead who yelled neo-Nazi abuse at him, then left with a getaway driver.

A 33-year-old man and his wife, aged 22, were arrested three days after the December 13 attack on charges of complicity in attempted murder after police traced the getaway car to them.

Both suspects were known to police for connections to Germany's right-wing scene.

Washington, December 19 : Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston have identified two proteins, whose presence in the blood may indicate that a patient is at an increased risk of having a stroke.

The researchers have revealed that the two biomarkers are lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), which are known to be linked with the kind of stroke that occurs when blood flow to the brain is blocked.

Budapest - A nationwide strike by public sector workers in Hungary scheduled for January 12 has been averted after union and government representatives struck a compromise deal at 4 am on Friday following lengthy negotiations.

Twenty unions have signed a deal over "thirteenth month" bonuses, state secretary for employment Gabor Csizmar announced on morning television on Friday.

"On the basis of this agreement, the overwhelming majority of unions have agreed to call off the January 12 strike," said Laszlo Varga, head of the union forum involved in the negotiations.

All Hungarian public sector workers traditionally receive an extra payment equivalent to one full month's pay at the end of the year.

On prospects of more measures from the government to stimulate the ailing real estate and auto sectors, stocks from these segments have rallied sharply in today’s session.

The key realty stocks gained the most followed by auto and power stocks.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE Realty surged 8.59%, Auto zoomed 3.05% and Power arose 2.11%, while IT lost 0.89%.

The Sensex, which had slipped into the negative around noon after an earlier sharp upmove, gained momentum on account of buying interest across index heavyweights.

New York, Dec 19 : The man known as Deep Throat, the secret informant in the Watergate scandal that led to the downfall of US President Richard Nixon in 1974, has died at the age of 95.

Mark Felt, the "most famous anonymous source in American history," died in his sleep today at a California hospice, reported Bob Woodward, one of the two Washington Post journalists who exposed the Watergate affair.

The former FBI agent suffered from congestive heart failure, but the cause of death wasn't immediately known.

Srinagar, Kashmir - Security forces on Friday shot and killed three suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants, including a top commander, in India-administered Kashmir, police said.

A soldier was also killed in the eight-hour firefight in a forested region in Doda district, 200 kilometres north-east of the state's winter capital of Jammu, senior police official Hemant Lohia said.

The Indian army's elite Rashtriya Rifles troops launched an operation late Thursday after a tip-off that militants were hiding in the area.

"Three LeT militants including Iqbal Malik, the district's LeT commander were killed in the gun battle that continued until Friday morning," Lohia said.