Straubing, Germany  - A convicted sex killer took a prison's chief psychologist hostage in Germany and allegedly repeatedly raped her before surrendering to police early Wednesday, Bavarian officials said.

The state's justice minister, Beate Merk, said police were still investigating how the 51-year-old prisoner, who had faced his first sex charges at the age of 13, had obtained a knife and managed to tie up the woman in her office Tuesday evening.

He surrendered several hours later after armed police had surrounded the prison at Straubing, near Munich.

Straubing, Germany  - President Nicolas Sarkozy travelled to Bavaria

Straubing, Germany - An ardent proposal of marriage by a 29-
year-old suitor triggered an unidentified-flying-object (UFO) alert,
police in the south-eastern German town of Straubing said Thursday.

As he asked his 27-year-old girlfriend, on the bank of the Isar
river to marry him, he released into the air 50 tiny hot-air balloons
made of paper, with little candles burning under them.

Several shocked residents phoned police Wednesday night to report strange lights in the sky.

Police who tracked down the couple enjoying the magic sight
together reported that she accepted. They are to marry this autumn. dpa- An ardent proposal of marriage by a 29-
year-old suitor triggered an unidentified-flying-object (UFO) alert,