Berlin Wall goes under the hammer

Four graffiti-covered giant slabs of the Berlin Wall could fetch as much as 3,000 euros ($4,350) each at an auction today, a Berlin auction house said yesterday. The four 2.8-tonne chunks of the wall that once divided Communist East Berlin and capitalist West Berlin are pieces of German history, said Hans Peter Plettner, spokesman for Deutsche Grundstuecksauktionen AG. Even though much of the Berlin Wall was quickly broken up ground down for road construction after it was demolished in 1989, a myriad of its pieces chipped off by souvenir hunters remain popular with tourists and Berliners alike.

Precious few segments of the 3.5-metre high "anti-fascist protection barrier" -- as East German leaders called the 155-km long fortification -- have survived. "We're hoping the bidding will reach 12,000 euros for all four," Plettner said.

He said there had been many fake pieces of the wall sold but his lots were genuine.

Italian police dress as doctors to nab mafia boss

Italian police said yesterday officers entered a clinic disguised as doctors and arrested the suspected head of a mafia clan linked to the murder of six men in Germany. Francesco Pelle is believed to head the Pelle-Vottari clan of the 'Ndrangheta, the mafia from San Luca in Calabria which has become Italy's most powerful crime syndicate, dominating Europe's illegal drugs trade.

He was arrested late on Wednesday after having surgery in a private clinic in Pavia, northern Italy, to try to recover the use of his legs after an attack which left him unable to walk. Police dressed up as doctors out of fear Pelle would resist arrest, but he turned out to be unarmed.He is suspected of ordering the murder of a rival clan leader's wife at Christmas 2006 in revenge for the attack on him. A feud that began in 1991 over an egg-throwing incident during carnival has grown into a drugs turf war.

The murder triggered a bloody escalation in rivalry that police believeS led to the shooting of six Italian men outside a pizzeria in Duisburg, Germany, in August 2007. The six were linked to the Pelle-Vottari clan and about 30 people have since been arrested in connection with the attack.