Germany Arrests American As Spy

An American woman has been arrested in Germany for allegedly trying to sell German military secrets to a third country, federal prosecutors said Friday.

Prosecutors said they were preparing charges of attempted treason against the German-born woman, a 43-year-old translator living in Canada, for trying to sell sensitive military documents to a "non-NATO country" last October.

A German company had given her the material to translate. Investigators believe it contained "a state secret" whose betrayal to a foreign intelligence service would have raised a serious security threat to Germany, prosecutors said in a statement.

Prosecutors said the sale was prevented but did not say how. They refused to name the country outside the NATO military alliance that allegedly was interested in the materials.

Federal police arrested the woman, a U.S. citizen, in Rhineland-Palatinate state on Monday while she was visiting her parents in Germany, prosecutors said. The woman was identified only as Michaela T.