Mafia accused of Italian school bombing

A shadowy Mafia organisation is suspected of a bombing that killed a 16-year-old girl and injured up to 10 other students in the southern Italian city of Brindisi on Saturday.

Police and paramilitary Carabinieri were raiding the homes of suspected mafiosi belonging to a crime group known as the Sacra Corona Unita, or United Sacred Crown, and checking their whereabouts prior to the attack.

Two gas canisters equipped with a timer device exploded outside the Morvillo-Falcone vocational institute, which is named after an anti-Mafia prosecutor, Giovanni Falcone, and his wife, Francesca Morvillo, a judge, who were blown up by Sicily's Cosa Nostra Mafia almost exactly 20 years near Palermo airport.

Read more: DNA

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Italian mafia boss Zagaria arrested from bunker

[ BBC Europe ] 7 Dec

Italian police have arrested the notorious chief of a Naples mafia clan, Michele Zagaria, who has been on the run for 16 years.

Police said they found him after digging into a secret bunker in his hometown of Casapesenna near Naples. The Casalesi clan has been involved in drug trafficking and corruption in the construction industry.

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Is Russian Mafia the mightiest of all?

Full Story: Pravda 7 November 2011

The Russian newspaper Pravda quotes the officials with the US State Department that the Russian mafia is the mafia of all mafias. World-known mafia brands such as Cosa Nostra and Yakuza pale in comparison with the great and terrible Russian gangsters.

This is what the USA claims - but the newspaper has its own analysis and review of the accusation. Read full story for details.

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