A fragment of the meteor which injured over 1,500 people when it exploded over a Russian town earlier this year is up for auction.

It was part of a small asteroid that entered the earth’s atmosphere at an estimated speed of 41,000 miles per hour, 50 times the speed of sound, on February 15.

The meteor exploded, creating thousands of small pieces of meteorite, 15 miles above the city of Chelyabinsk.

A factory was knocked down, windows blown in and 1,500 people injured by flying glass.

Rob Elliot, from Milton of Balgonie in Fife, is the owner of the UK’s largest private collection of space memorabilia.

He arranged for pieces of it to be smuggled out of the country and it is one of the only pieces of the Russian meteorite to have made it to the West.

‘The Russian government told the local residents that they would arrest anyone selling pieces of the meteorite overseas, so my contact had to disguise the airmail package and mix the meteorites with pieces of electronic equipment to hide them,’ said Elliott.

Although the package was opened by Russian customs and several meteorites confiscated, most of them made it to Mr Elliott.

The Chelyabinsk meteorite, lot 44 in the auction, weighing 27.1g, has been valued at £400 to £600.

A museum dedicated to the founder of the modern Turkish state has reopened in his native city in northern Greece following a year’s restoration work.

Greek and Turkish government officials said the museum, at the house where Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is believed to have been born in 1881, would help efforts to strengthen ties between the two historic rivals.

The three-level house inaugurated in Thessaloniki on Friday lies within the Turkish Consulate complex. It has been declared a modern monument by Greek cultural authorities, and was restored to the appearance it had in 1881.

Ataturk, who led Turkey’s defeat of Greek expeditionary forces in the 1919-22 war, lived part of his childhood in Thessaloniki. He became Turkey’s first president, heading efforts at reconciliation with Greece, and died in 1938.

German consumer goods company Henkel has caused a stink with its brand of toilet freshener after Ukrainians complained that it resembled their national flag.

The yellow-and-blue Bref Duo Stick freshener has been removed from sale in eastern Europe after a TV advertisement aired on a Russian channel was seen in neighbouring Ukraine.

The advert shows the freshener that looks like the flag being put under the toilet rim.

Tore Birol, Henkel’s general manager for laundry and home care products in Ukraine, said yesterday that the company had pulled the product within three days of the complaints.

He said: ‘We are very sorry if people were offended by the design of our new product’

Mr Birol explained that the freshener was coloured yellow to represent its lemon scent and blue to symbolise water and hygiene.

Uno problemo… Construction firm builds 47-storey skyscraper in Benidorm but forget to fit a liftThe 200metre high InTempo towers in Benidorm were billed as ‘a vision of the future’ and a symbol of Spain’s reemergence from a crippling financial crisis.

With 47 floors of living space it was intended to be the tallest residential building in Europe.

But with only months until it is due for completion, contractors have hit upon a slight problem .

They forgot to build a lift.

The towers were originally designed to be only 20 floors high, but ambitious developers decided to double the scale of the project midway through.

A lift exists for the first 20 floors, but beyond that there is only the stairs. And reports seen by Spain’s El Pais newspaper suggest there is no more space for another lift or motor equipment.

Despite plans to open the twin towers to great fanfare in 2009, the block remains only 94 per cent complete. Only 35 per cent of the 269 units have been sold. It is now expected to be finished in December of this year, and the remaining flats will go on sale at a lower price.