Former East German spy chief Markus Wolf dead

BERLIN: Markus Wolf, the former spy chief of communist East Germany and one of the most influential figures of the Cold War, died on Thursday, his family said. He was 83.

The shadowy Wolf, dubbed the Man Without a Face because Western intelligence services did not have his picture, was the head of the feared Stasi's foreign intelligence division.

He died in his sleep overnight at his home, his daughter-in-law said, on the 17th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.