‘Mafia boss’ arrested in Italy
February 21, 2008
Mr Condello is also known as “the supreme one” |
Italian police have arrested the leader of one of the country’s most powerful mafia groups, officials have said. Pasquale Condello, 57, was held in a house in Reggio Calabria, on mainland Italy’s southern tip, police said.
Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said Mr Condello was the “number one boss of the ‘Ndrangheta” crime syndicate.
Mr Condello had been on the run since a murder conviction in 1987. The ‘Ndrangheta is considered to be more powerful than the Sicilian Mafia.
“It is the latest, extraordinary operation against organised crime,” Mr Amato said of the arrest.
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He said investigators called him the “Provenzano of Calabria” - a reference to Bernardo Provenzano, the Sicilian “boss of bosses” who was arrested in 2006 after some 40 years as a fugitive.
Mr Condello is also known as “the supreme one” for his role at the top of the crime syndicate.
He was taken into custody without a struggle, police said. He had been trailed for days and was found in the company of his son-in-law and a nephew, who are also being interrogated by police.
He had received several life prison terms for a series of crimes, prosecutor Alberto Cisterna told Sky TG24 television.
Italian officials believe the ‘Ndrangheta controls cocaine trafficking in many parts of Europe.
While police have scored recent triumphs against other mafia syndicates in Italy, penetration of the ‘Ndrangheta has been less successful due to its tight family ties.
Membership of the ‘Ndrangheta - which means “Honoured Society” - is believed to number in the tens of thousands.
Last year, rival clans of the ‘Ndrangheta were linked to the murders of six Italian men at a pizza parlour in Germany.
Heathrow baggage problem resolved
February 21, 2008
Passengers planning to travel are advised to contact their airline |
Heathrow airport operator BAA has said the problem with the software used for checking-in baggage at Terminal 4 has been resolved. Problems emerged on Tuesday leading to delays for thousands of passengers who had to travel with just hand luggage.
British Airways (BA) said economy and premium economy customers should not bring luggage to be checked in.
BAA said the system was returning to normal but it advised passengers to check with their airlines.
The computer problem had serious consequences for the BA’s World Traveller (economy), World Traveller Plus (premium economy) and transfer passengers, who were allowed to travel with a maximum of two items of hand luggage.
The airline said that Club World and first class passengers were not affected by the baggage restriction.
Terminal 4 handles baggage for BA’s long-haul customers.
Rocket blast kills Iraqi police
February 21, 2008
At least eight policemen in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, have been killed while defusing rockets that were primed to fire, officials say. More than two dozen other people were wounded in the explosion in a Shia district in the east of the city.
The cache of rockets was found by Iraqi security forces after an attack on nearby Iraqi and US military bases.
A bomb disposal squad was trying to defuse the rockets when they exploded, a military official said.
“Some of the rockets had been fired,” an Iraqi police officer told AFP news agency.
“As they were trying to defuse the others, there was a mishandling and they blew up.”
Militant attacks across Iraq are down 60% since 30,000 additional US troops were posted to the country last year, the US military says.
A fragile sense of security has begun to emerge as the bloodshed in Baghdad has apparently diminished.
However, twin bombings of crowded pet markets in Baghdad on 1 February killed at least 98 people - the deadliest bombings in the capital in months.
US missile hits ‘toxic satellite’
February 21, 2008
The US has successfully struck a disabled spy satellite with a missile fired from a warship in waters west of Hawaii, military officials say. Operatives had only a 10-second window to hit the satellite - USA 193 - which went out of control shortly after it was launched in December 2006.
Officials were worried its hydrazine fuel could do harm, but it is not yet known if the fuel tank was destroyed.
The controversial operation has been criticised by China and Russia.
On Thursday, China called on the US to provide more information about the mission.
Russia suspects the operation was a cover to test anti-satellite technology under the US missile defence programme.
The US denies the operation was a response to an anti-satellite test carried out by China last year, which prompted fears of a space arms race.
Precision needed
The BBC’s Jonathan Beale in Washington says this operation was hugely ambitious.
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BROKEN SATELLITE
Owner: National Reconnaissance Office Mission: Classified Launched: 14 Dec 2006 Weight: 2,300 kg (5,000lbs) 1,134kg (2,500lbs) could survive re-entry Carrying hydrazine thruster fuel |
The operation went ahead hours after the space shuttle Atlantis landed, removing it as a safety issue for the military.
The satellite - believed by some commentators to be a radar imaging reconnaissance satellite - was passing about 130 nautical miles (250km) over the Pacific.
Graphic of how the satellite was hit
Earlier the military said it would use an SM-3 missile fired from the cruiser USS Lake Erie, which is posted on the western side of Hawaii along with the destroyers USS Decatur and USS Russell.
But it is not yet known how successful the operation was - the missile needed to pierce the bus-sized satellite’s fuel tank, containing more than 450kg (1,000lbs) of toxic hydrazine, which would otherwise be expected to survive re-entry.
The Pentagon said confirmation that the fuel tank has been hit should be available within 24 hours.
US officials said without an attempt to destroy the fuel tank, and with the satellite’s thermal control system gone, the fuel would now be frozen solid, allowing the tank to resist the heat of re-entry.
If the tank were to land intact, it could leak toxic gas over a wide area - harming or killing humans if inhaled, officials had warned.
Debris
Officials expect that over 50% of the debris will fall to Earth within the first 15 hours after the strike - or within its first two revolutions of Earth.
USA 193 lost control a few hours after launch on a Delta II rocket |
Left to its own devices, about half of the spacecraft would have been expected to survive the blazing descent through the atmosphere, scattering debris in a defined “corridor” which runs across the Earth’s surface.
Professor Richard Crowther, a space debris expert with the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), said that if struck with the missile, about 25% of USA 193 is likely to survive the fall to Earth.
“The smaller the debris is the more likely you are to get burn-through. So if you fragment something before re-entry, less mass will survive to hit the Earth,” he told BBC News.
Russian suspicion
But Russia’s defence ministry has effectively branded the US operation a cover for testing an anti-satellite weapon.
The Russian defence ministry argued that various countries’ spacecraft had crashed to Earth in the past, with many using toxic fuel on board, but that this had never before merited “extraordinary measures”.
A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry in Beijing, Liu Jianchao, said China was concerned about the “possible damage to security in outer space and to other countries”.
“We demand that the US… swiftly brief the international community with necessary data and information in time, so that relevant countries can take preventative measures,” he said.
Last year, China carried out a test using a ground-based ballistic missile to destroy a satellite in space, prompting international alarm and fears of a space arms race.
On Tuesday, a US State Department spokesman stressed that the action was meant to protect people from the hazardous fuel and was not a weapons test.
The US government has also denied claims that the main aim of the operation was to destroy secret components on USA 193.
Officials say classified parts would be burned up in the atmosphere and, in any case, that would not be a reason for shooting down the satellite.
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SATELLITE DESTRUCTION 1 SM-3 missile launched from a US Navy cruiser in Pacific Ocean |
