Berlin -- Two policemen guarding German Chancellor Angela Merkel's weekend residence outside Berlin are former officers of the East German secret police, the Stasi, according to a television report.

The officers are senior members of the police unit responsible for round-the-clock protection of the residence in the Uckermark region north of Berlin, public channel ARD reported in its Monitor programme late on Thursday.

One of them used to be a member of Stasi-Abteilung III, a unit whose responsibilities including bugging telephone calls in West Germany, the report said.

In total, more than 100 former members of the hated Stasi are now employed in the police force of the eastern state of Brandenburg where Uckermark is located, it added.

Merkel grew up in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), as the communist country was known, where the Stasi was responsible for spying on and imprisoning hundreds of people who criticised the regime.

In November, Germany marks 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall in a peaceful revolution in 1989.

A year later, East and West Germany became one country.

AFP/Expatica

Italy adopts controversial law against illegal immigration

The European Commission announced it would examine the new measures to determine whether they comply with EU norms, warning that "automatic expulsion rules for entire categories are not acceptable."

Rome -- Italy adopted a tough law against illegal immigration last week, including a measure allowing citizens to mount their own patrols, despite fierce criticism from rights groups and the Vatican.

The European Commission announced it would examine the new measures to determine whether they comply with EU norms, warning that "automatic expulsion rules for entire categories are not acceptable."

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had made tougher immigration rules a cornerstone of the election campaign that saw him returned to power in May 2008.