A fire that seriously damaged the birthplace of former East German leader Erich Honecker appears to have resulted from a technical fault, officials said on Thursday. There were no indications of deliberate arson, a police spokesman said two days after the blaze in the historic house in the western German town of Neunkirchen. Honecker led the socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR) as both head of state and leader of the ruling SED party from 1971 until his removal from power in 1989, shortly before the state’s collapse. Initial estimates by investigators put the damage to the house and neig…