Our relationship is terminated, Arnie

This time he won't be back. Arnold Schwarzenegger's love-affair with his Austrian hometown has been well and truly Terminated.

The large metal letters spelling out the actor-turned-politician's name have been torn down from the Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium in Graz.

And every reference to the city's former favourite son has been wiped from its official website.

The California governor was once the local hero, having been born just outside Graz in 1947 before becoming one of the world's most famous film stars.

But former fans are blanking him out in protest at the execution of gang leader Stanley 'Tookie'Williams.

Schwarzenegger rejected calls for clemency, allowing Williams to die by lethal injection earlier this month.

He was fiercely criticised by officials in Austria, where capital punishment is illegal and where Graz's slogan is 'city of human rights'. Schwarzenegger reacted by asking for his name to be removed from the arena and not to be used for promotional purposes.

And so the 15,300-seat arena, named in his honour eight years ago, has now reverted to its original title of Stadium Graz-Liebenau. The removal job was done in the early hours of Boxing Day - to stop people snatching the letters to sell on eBay.

Wolfgang Benedek, of the Graz-based European Training Centre for Human Rights, said: 'We pleaded with him to show mercy. When he didn't, the city had somehow to react.'

And maybe Mayor Siegfriend Nagl's spokesman was trying for an Arniestyle soundbite when he simply remarked: 'It's all settled.'