Amsterdam - Italian national Giuseppe Nirta, aged 35, will remain in custody in the Netherlands until an Amsterdam court has decided whether or not he will be extradited to Italy to serve a prison sentence of 14 years and 18 months for dealing in drugs.

The leader of the so-called 'Ndrangheta clan from Italy is also a suspect for the German police in the gangland-style massacre.

In August 2007, a total of six Italians were murdered in Duisburg.

Wim de Bruin, spokesman of the Dutch public prosecutor, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Tuesday that Italy had filed its request for the Nirta's arrest last month.

Berlin- A former state premier who was a prominent minister at federal level quit Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) on Tuesday after receiving a reprimand over critical remarks that "breached party solidarity."

Wolfgang Clement ended 38 years of membership in the centre-left party that co-rules in Berlin with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives after calling the rebuke "inappropriate and wrong."

Hamburg - The fans loved it, some of the players as well, but the ruling German football body DFB was not amused about a referee showing two yellow cards simultaneously during a second division match on the weekend.

On Sunday, referee Thomas Metzen dug deep into his shirt pockets and threw up his hands with a yellow card in each one to book Mainz 05 player Miroslav Karhan und St Pauli Hamburg's Florian Bruns.

News reports on Tuesday said that Metzen has received a warning from the DFB and was told never to do this again. He reportedly escaped further sanctions and told the Bild daily that "it was a mistake."

Berlin - Germany is ready to contribute up to 1,400 military personnel to a European Union security mission to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia, a leading daily reported Tuesday.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine said the defence ministry had given the green light for the troops and sailors to take part in Operation Atalanta, due to be launched around mid-December.

Berlin - Despite signs of a deepening economic downturn, German consumer confidence posted a surprise increase, a key survey released Tuesday showed.

The Nuremberg-based GfK market research institute said its forward-looking consumer confidence indicator for December edged up to 2.2 from 1.9 in November.

"Many Germans don't believe yet that they will be significantly affected by the downturn," GfK said, releasing its latest index.

Berlin  - Nothing remotely links the Florentine Renaissance busts of Baccio Bandinelli with the minimalist paintings and sculptures of present day Turin artist Gianni Piacentino.

But by an "art coincidence" the work of both men, albeit with a 450-year gap in between, is currently attracting public attention in Berlin.

Since July 2007 the Bode Museum has been prominently featuring in its Florentine Renaissance Hall the Bust of a Young Man by sculptor Bandinelli (1493-1560).

Art critic Klaus Grimberg, writing in the German Times, quotes one visitor as saying: "If Nefertiti is the most beautiful woman in Berlin's museums, then this youth is the most beautiful man."