MONDO EUROPE: Maradona speed car fetches a quick buck

Only 1200 of the Type 964 Carrera 2s were ever made, but the car’s inflated price – three times the estimate – is due to its connection with Maradona, who died last November. 

He bought the Porsche while playing for Seville in November 1992 and was arrested in the city centre half an hour after picking it up. 

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A hospital chapel in Essen is at the centre of a row over whether to restore its swastika-emblazoned ceiling.

The church has been closed for renovation since 2019 but its reopening has been delayed because of whether to restore the 1937 design, which features the Nazi symbols intertwined with Christian crosses and the symbols for alpha and omega, Heritage experts say it shows “testimony of the church’s struggle in the time of National Socialism.”

An altar from the chapel showing an Aryan-style blond and blue-eyed Jesus was removed in 1994.

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A Covid curfew protestor in Utrecht who bangs a pan with a ladle for 13 minutes every night has seen support grow after his pan and ladle were confiscated by police.

Jorge Arraneda, who has been fined three times for causing a noise nuisance, has pledged to continue after buying new kitchenware and says neighbours are now joining in with their own pans and more conventional instruments, including tambourines and a trumpet. 

Arraneda, a Chilean who says the curfew reminds him of growing up under the dictatorship of General Pinochet, claimed that he found the public response to his 9pm protests “beautiful”. His lawyer said: “I have suggested whether it could be a bit shorter. He is thinking about that.”

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A nine-year-old burglary in Schwelm, Germany, has been solved using a DNA match on a half-eaten sausage found at the scene of the crime.

Police registered the find in 2012, but only now have they been able to identify the likely culprit as a 30-year-old Albanian who had a DNA sample taken in France earlier this year after a violent crime.

However, he is unlikely to face charges as the statute of limitations for the theft has expired.

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A naked man seen walking through the streets of Pleszew told residents of the Polish town “he had just come out of the grave and had to say mass”.

The 29-year-old was first spotted pouring paint over his head. Police who took him to hospital said he was under the influence of a strong legal high.

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Thor the lion, a star attraction at Arnhem’s Burgers Zoo, has had a vasectomy after fathering five cubs with two lionesses in the past year.

Vet Henk Luten said that it was the first time in his 35-year career that he had carried out the procedure, but that it was necessary to protect genetic diversity within the zoo’s pride of lions.

He decided to tie up Thor’s vas deferens rather than remove his testicles so the lion would not lose his mane and therefore his place in the pride’s hierarchy.
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A new crackdown on Bosnian pickpocket gangs targeting Paris Metro travellers has begun after a police commander had his wallet stolen.

Gendarmes say the crime, and a rash of similar cases, show the thieves are back in business after a Covid-enforced break. Authorities had created a 1,000-strong surveillance force to help foil the gangs, who train trafficked minors from Eastern Europe as thieves before robberies fell sharply at the start of the pandemic because of a lack of potential tourist victims.

Police believe the gang target people who they have seen using a card and its PIN to buy Metro tickets. In the case of the police commander, the teenage thieves managed to use his bank card to make two withdrawals of 500 euros with his bank card before being arrested.

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A 70-year-old’s birthday party in Feldkirch, western Austria, went wrong when he was beaten up by his carer.

The pensioner said he and his private nurse, 51, had continued drinking after the invited guests left, but then an argument ensued during which he was repeatedly punched and kicked.

The carer, who said he could barely remember the incident, was fined €1,600.