French police arrested two suspected ETA members Unai Fano and María Lizarraga Merino in central France

French police arrested two suspected ETA members in central France Tuesday, a day after the Basque terrorist group killed a Spanish army officer in one of three car bombings in the Basque Country and Cantabria during the weekend.Authorities identified the two suspects as Unai Fano and María Lizarraga Merino, both thought to be part of ETA's logistics division. They had guns, false identity documents and cash when they were stopped near the town of Prelion in France's Loire region.Neither is considered directly connected with the 21 September bombings, one of which killed Luis Conde, a 46-year-old non-commissioned officer. Conde's funeral was held hours after the arrests, at his military base in Segovia.

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Spain claims that the treasure, which experts value at EUR 500 million, came from the “Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes”,

Spain said Tuesday that it presented "abundant and definitive" evidence to support its claim to half a million gold and silver coins gathered from an Atlantic shipwreck by US salvage company Odyssey Marine Exploration in 2007.
In a statement, the Culture Ministry argued that the booty, which Odyssey recovered in May 2007, forms part of Spain's national heritage and therefore should be returned to the country.
Spain claims that the treasure, which experts value at EUR 500 million, came from the “Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes”, a Spanish warship sunk by a British fleet off the coast of Portugal in 1804. The case is currently in court in the US state of Florida where Odyssey has its headquarters.Odyssey never confirmed the identity of the ship, which it code-named the “Black Swan”.

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Francesco Pelle is believed to head the Pelle-Vottari clan of the 'Ndrangheta, the mafia from San Luca in Calabria

Francesco Pelle is believed to head the Pelle-Vottari clan of the 'Ndrangheta, the mafia from San Luca in Calabria which has become Italy's most powerful crime syndicate, dominating Europe's illegal drugs trade. police officers entered a clinic disguised as doctors and arrested the suspected head of a mafia clan linked to the murder of six men in Germany.He was arrested late on Wednesday after having surgery in a private clinic in Pavia, northern Italy, to try to recover the use of his legs after an attack which left him unable to walk. Police dressed up as doctors out of fear Pelle would resist arrest, but he turned out to be unarmed. He is suspected of ordering the murder of a rival clan leader's wife at Christmas 2006 in revenge for the attack on him. A feud that began in 1991 over an egg-throwing incident during carnival has grown into a drugs turf war. The murder triggered a bloody escalation in rivalry that police believe led to the shooting of six Italian men outside a pizzeria in Duisburg, Germany, in August 2007. The six were linked to the Pelle-Vottari clan and about 30 people have since been arrested in connection with the attack.

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Nick Rizzuto, along with Paolo Renda, Francesco Arcadi, Lorenzo Giordano, Francesco Del Balso and Rocco Sollecito will be sentenced on October 16

84-year-old Nick Rizzuto, and five of his associates pleaded guilty Thursday to gangsterism, extortion, and importing and trafficking drugs.The six men were arrested in a police dragnet in November 2006 and faced more than 60 charges backed by a mountain of evidence.Police said they recorded more than one million of their conversations by wiretap and on 191 occasions photographed them dividing up bundles of cash at a cafe in Montreal's north end where Rizzuto and his captains held court.
Rizzuto, along with Paolo Renda, Francesco Arcadi, Lorenzo Giordano, Francesco Del Balso and Rocco Sollecito will be sentenced on October 16.His son Vito Rizzuto, once believed to be Canada's top mafioso, was arrested in 2004 and is serving a 10-year sentence in the United States for his role in the murders of three captains in the notorious Bonnanno clan of New York, in 1981.The elder Rizzuto came to Canada in 1954 from the Sicilian town of Cattolica Eraclea. During a criminal underworld power struggle in the late 1970s, he was forced into exile.He returned to Canada in 1993 after serving a sentence for cocaine possession in Venezuela.

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seized more than a quarter of a ton of cannabis with a street value of million, Brian Deans,was being held along with 41-year-old Dean Hinton,

Costa Blanca. Brian Deans, 45, of Dundee, was being held along with 41-year-old Dean Hinton, of Northampton.The pair were arrested by detectives in the small resort of Oliva on the Costa Blanca.Officers also seized more than a quarter of a ton of cannabis with a street value of more than £1million.Deans's family in Dundee were shocked after the news of his arrest was broken to them by the Record.They claimed the former jute factory worker - who has been married and divorced three times - had never been involved in drugs.Youngest sister Karen Bruce, 41, said: "I haven't seen Brian for five or six years. We didn't fall out or anything - he just moved away from Dundee to Salou and he must have ended up in Costa Blanca."She added: "This is a huge shock. I hadn't heard anything about Brian being arrested."He's never been involved with drugs. As far as I know, he's never touched the stuff."He is a good person and this is worrying."Both men were taken to Alicante for questioning.
Police sources said the swoop was linked to the seizure in July of five tons of cannabis worth £15million in the city.Alicante is regarded as the drugs capital of Spain and gateway to Europe for smuggling drugs from Morocco.

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Andy Kershaw says he is on the run and is sleeping on friends' floors to avoid arrest by the police.

Andy Kershaw says he is on the run and is sleeping on friends' floors to avoid arrest by the police.Troubled Kershaw, who grew up in Oldham, has been arrested on a number of occasions and has already served a prison sentence for breaking an order banning him from contacting his former partner, Juliette Banner.
Father-of-two Kershaw had been with Juliette for 17 years, until they split in 2006. And in 2007 she won a restraining order against him.In January he served 44 days of a three-month prison sentence for breaking the terms of the order on the Isle of Man, where the couple had made their home.
And now he claims he is living away from the island in the knowledge that the police from the Isle of Man have a warrant out for his arrest.During the 90s Kershaw became one of the country's most respected broadcasters. And after the couple moved to the Isle of Man in 2006 - amid worries about the standards of schools close to their former north London home - he continued to broadcast his show and brought performers to the island for a series of concerts.But shortly after the move, Kershaw says Juliette discovered he had had a fling while in London, after reading a text message stored on his phone.After Juliette moved out in October 2006, Kershaw repeatedly tried to convince her to return. But by July 2007, by which time Juliette had a new partner, there had been a number of disagreements between them and Juliette obtained a restraining order against him.After a series of breeches of the order, Kershaw was sentenced to three months in prison in January, of which he served just over half.Speaking of his time in prison on the Isle of Man, he is reported to have said: "It would have made Charles Darwin wince. The place was full of heroin.
"I feel no bitterness or hostility towards the officers in that jail, the majority of whom were very nice and sympathetic. Just about every officer and prisoner said I shouldn't be in there. The majority were in there for drugs offences.
"I was with heroin dealers and men of violence. They realised I was a regular bloke and that I was in there for an enormous injustice."The main problem that I had was the sheer, crushing boredom. I read 32 books in 47 days. Unless you go in there you won't understand how boring it is. You are locked up for 22 hours a day.
Just days after his release Kershaw was arrested for breaching the restraining order and at a court hearing he was given a one-year jail term, suspended for two years.
Now he is living in a secret location - reportedly sleeping on friends' floors and sleeping rough - amid fears that the police in the Isle of Man have a warrant out for his arrest.At one point he was reported as a missing person by his sister. And after contacting police in Derby, in order to be taken off the Missing Person's Register, he says police from the Isle of Man made an attempt to arrest him.In the interview Kershaw, who says he now has a new partner, says he intends to seek legal advice later this month in order to take the matter forward.

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