Klinsmann dismissed as Bayern Munich coach

German champions Bayern Munich have sacked coach Jurgen Klinsmann and appointed the experienced Jupp Heynckes as his replacement for the final five games of the Bundesliga season.

Klinsmann's fate was sealed after Bayern Munich's 1-0 home defeat by Schalke on Saturday.

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Klinsmann's fate was sealed after a meeting with club chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, general manager Uli Hoeness and director Karl Hopfner on Monday morning.

The 44-year-old took charge of Bayern last July, after leading an unfancied Germany side to the 2006 World Cup semifinals on home soil.

However, despite taking the club to the quarterfinals of the Champions League, he has been dismissed after Saturday's 1-0 defeat at home to Schalke left the club three points adrift of league leaders Wolfsburg.

Saturday's defeat, following the 5-1 Champions League aggregate reverse to Barcelona, and elimination by Bayer Leverkusen in the German Cup, has proved he final straw for the club's board, eager to ensure qualification for next season's Champions League.

A statement on the Bavarian club's official Web site confirmed the decision: "The board have informed Jurgen Klinsmann that we have decided to end our co-operation. This also applies to the assistant coaches Martin Vasquez and Nick Theslof.

"The board has seen the minimum aim for the season come under threat with our recent results and has therefore decided to take this step. The board thanks Jurgen Klinsmann and his coaching team for their work and wish them all the best for the future."

Klinsmann also issued a statement on the official Web site saying: "Of course, I am very disappointed at the moment. Nevertheless, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Bayern Munich, the fans, the coaches, the players and my colleagues for an exciting time. We have laid the foundations for the future. I still believe that the team can be German champions this season."

Talking about the decision, club chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said: "We did not come to this decision lightly. But the results of the past weeks, the way in which they came about and above all, the situation we find ourselves in five games before the end of the season forced us to act out of a sense of responsibility to the club.

"In Jupp Heynckes and Hermann Gerland, we have two experienced coaches who will take over the running of the team until the end of the season."

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Klinsmann signed a two-year contract when he joined the club last July, his first-ever domestic coaching role.

However, despite remaining in the hunt for the Bundesliga for the majority of the season, there have been many un-Bayern like moments for the club's supporters to endure. The first signs of trouble came last September when Werder Bremen embarrassed Bayern 5-2 in front of their own fans at Munich's Allianz Arena.

The 4-2 German Cup defeat by Leverkusen in March was another low-point, as was the 5-1 hammering at league leaders Wolfsburg earlier this month.

Klinsmann's replacement Heynckes has already successfully coached Bayern, winning two consecutive Bundesliga titles in 1989 and 1990 in his first coaching stint in Munich between 1987 and 1991.

He then coached Athletic Bilbao between 1992 and 1994, Eintracht Frankfurt and Tenerife before moving to Real Madrid where he delivered the Champions League to the Spanish giants in 1998 after a 32-year wait.

A lack of domestic success saw him replaced at the Bernabeu and he had brief stints at Benfica and a return to Athletic Bilbao before heading back to the Bundesliga as coach of Schalke in June 2003.

In June 2006, he was appointed coach of Borussia Moenchengladbach but stepped down after a dreadful run of results that saw the team drop to 17th place in the table after 14 consecutive games without a win.

Yemeni troops free oil tanker; 11 pirates arrested

A Yemeni oil tanker hijacked in the Gulf of Aden was freed Monday and 11 Somali pirates were arrested, Yemen's official news agency said.

11 pirates were arrested by Yemeni security forces in an operation to free the oil tanker.

Three marines were wounded in the operation conducted by Yemeni forces, according to the SABA news agency.

The tanker was seized Sunday on its way to Aden, SABA said. Aden is a port city in southwestern Yemen.

Meanwhile, two pirates were killed and one injured when Yemeni troops freed three other ships Sunday, SABA reported. Four pirates were also arrested in the operation, it added.

Piracy has become a major problem in recent years in the waters off Somalia, which has not had an effective government since 1991.

Despite the introduction of international naval patrols in the region, pirates have continued to attack commercial vessels and collect large ransoms, running into millions of dollars, from shipping companies.

Attacks on ships in the Gulf of Aden and off Somalia's coast accounted for 61 of the 102 attacks during the first quarter of this year. That compares with six incidents for the same period in 2008, said the International Maritime Bureau, which issues regular reports on piracy worldwide.

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The European Union and several nations, including the United States, have naval forces in the region to protect vessels against pirate attacks. The head of EU naval forces in the waters off Somalia said recently that restoring long-term stability to Somalia will be what ultimately stops the attacks.

Rear Adm. Philip Jones said: "It'll be a long period of time before that's successful, and we must be ready to secure the seas until that's in place."

White House apologizes for low-flying plane

A White House official apologized Monday after a low-flying Boeing 747 spotted above the Manhattan skyline frightened workers and residents into evacuating buildings.

Witnesses reported seeing the plane circle over the Upper New York Bay near the Statue of Liberty.

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The huge aircraft, which functions as Air Force One when the president is aboard, was taking part in a classified, government-sanctioned photo shoot, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

"Last week, I approved a mission over New York. I take responsibility for that decision," said Louis Caldera, director of the White House Military Office. "While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, it's clear that the mission created confusion and disruption."

Witnesses reported seeing the plane circle over the Upper New York Bay near the Statue of Liberty before flying up the Hudson River. It was accompanied by two F-16s. Watch the plane fly over Manhattan »

Two officials told CNN the White House Military Office was trying to update its file photos of Air Force One. The officials said the president was angry when he learned Monday afternoon about the flight, which sparked fear in the New York-New Jersey area.

"The president was furious about it," one of the officials said. The incident outraged many New Yorkers, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

"First thing is, I'm annoyed -- furious is a better word -- that I wasn't told," he said, calling the aviation administration's decision to withhold details about the flight "ridiculous" and "poor judgment."

"Why the Defense Department wanted to do a photo op right around the site of the World Trade Center defies the imagination," he said. "Had we known, I would have asked them not to." Watch the White House respond to questions about the scare »

"I was here on 9/11," said iReporter Tom Kruk, who spotted the plane as he was getting coffee Monday morning and snapped a photo. Kruk called the sight of the aircraft low in the sky "unsettling."

Linda Garcia-Rose, a social worker who counsels post-traumatic stress disorder patients in an office just three blocks from where the World Trade Center towers once stood, called the flight an "absolute travesty."

"There was no warning. It looked like the plane was about to come into us," she said. "I'm a therapist, and I actually had a panic attack."

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Garcia-Rose, who works with nearly two dozen post-traumatic stress disorder patients ages 15 to 47, said she was inundated with phone calls from patients Monday morning.

"They're traumatized. They're asking 'How could this happen?' They're nervous. Their anxiety levels are high," she said.

Garcia-Rose is considering filing a class-action suit against the government for sanctioning the plane's unannounced flight. "I believe the government has done something really wrong," she said.

Capt. Anna Carpenter of Andrews Air Force Base said local law enforcement agencies and the Federal Aviation Administration had been given notice of the exercise.

New York Police Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne said the department had been alerted to the flight by the federal agency "with directives to local authorities not to disclose information about it."

Sen. Chuck Schumer echoed the mayor's sentiments in a separate news conference Monday afternoon, saying the Federal Aviation Administration should have notified the public to avoid panic.

"It is absolutely outrageous and appalling to think that the FAA would plan such a photo shoot and not warn the public, knowing full well New Yorkers still have the vivid memory of 9/11 sketched in their minds," the New York Democrat said. Schumer said the FAA's decision to not announce the fly-by "really borders on being either cruel or very very stupid."

Building evacuations also took place across the Hudson River in Jersey City, New Jersey.