World Briefs

A restored waxwork of Adolf Hitler has been returned to Berlin's Madame Tussauds after a demonstrator ripped off its head when it went on show two months ago, the museum said yesterday.

Minutes after the museum opened in July, a former Berlin police officer scuffled with guards and leapt over a rope before tearing off the head of the wax model of the Nazi leader.

Madame Tussauds said the figure had been returned to a room featuring a mock bunker, where visitors can see the figure from behind glass windows, but not touch it.

The waxwork shows a despondent-looking Hitler staring in front of him, his hair slightly dishevelled.

The wax Hitler had sparked a heated debate in Germany even before it went on display in July. Critics argued it was tasteless to display the replica of the man who unleashed World War Two and ordered the extermination of Europe's Jews.

Madame Tussauds said the museum avoided politics.

'Osama' police chief loses Afghan job

A senior British police officer who dressed up as Osama bin Laden to attend a village fair has been dismissed from his job helping to build Afghanistan's security forces.

Chief Superintendent Colin Terry of the Devon and Cornwall Police dressed up as the architect of the September 11 attacks, complete with turban, Arab robes and a face mask, to attend the local charity fete earlier this month. He was spotted by a photographer and reported to the Independent Police Complaints Commission by his own force. Now he has also been dismissed by the Foreign Office, which oversaw his policing contract in Afghanistan.

Witnesses at the family fete and colleagues on the Devon and Cornwall police force were shocked when Mr Terry was revealed to be the man behind the Osama bin Laden fancy dress.

Mr Terry was in turn surprised by everyone's outrage. "I am quite horrifed that someone would see this negatively," he was quoted as saying in the Guardian newspaper at the time. "This is a local event that has been running for many, many years, raising money for charity."

Sarkozy to get judo lessons from Putin

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a champion judoka, could soon be flooring France's Nicolas Sarkozy with some of his famous throws after agreeing to pass on some of his black belt skills to the French President.

"He (Sarkozy) is interested in martial arts and we have decided to do some training together," 55-year-old Mr Putin was quoted as saying in an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro published on Saturday.

The Mr Putin's prowess in the martial art of judo is well documented and videos of him wearing his black belt and throwing opponents to the ground are easy to find on the Internet.

Mr Sarkozy, 53, was not previously known to have an interest in martial arts. He has often been photographed jogging.

Banker gambled clients' savings

Greek police arrested a bank manager from the small Aegean island of Leros over the weekend after he gambled away in casinos more than €1 million embezzled from his clients' savings and bank bonds.

Police said the 58-year-old man ran the local branch of the National Bank of Greece, the country's largest lender, on the remote island of fewer than 10,000 inhabitants. He had travelled to casinos across Greece for four months to bet the stolen money.

"He was always losing," said a police official, who asked not to be identified. "Every time he played a small amount of money to break even, he lost it, so the next time he had to take a little bit more." When savers asked to withdraw their money, the bank manager told them it was locked in long-term deposits and could not be withdrawn immediately, police said. His activities were uncovered when clients presented a court case, prompting investigators to review the bank's accounts.

Spy who was very tempted

Spy-writer John le Carre toyed with the idea of defecting to the Soviet Union while working as a British secret agent in the Cold War, he has disclosed. Mr Le Carre said his work for Britain's secret service, when he spent hours examining and analysing the Soviet threat, left him wondering what it would be like to slip over to the other side.

"I wasn't tempted ideologically," he told Britain's Sunday Times newspaper when asked whether he ever thought about defecting. "God, no, no, no. Never for ideological reasons.

"But when you spy intensively and you get closer and closer to the border... it seems such a small step to jump ...and, you know, find out the rest."

Mr Le Carre, author of more than 20 novels including A Perfect Spy and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, worked for MI6 in the early 1960s after stints with the British Foreign Office in Germany.