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Edgardo Greco, Italian mafia killer working as pizza maker, caught after 16 years on run

3Feb

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Edgardo Greco, Italian mafia killer working as pizza maker, caught after 16 years on run

A convicted Italian murderer linked to one of the country's most powerful mafia organisations was arrested in France after 16 years on the run, Interpol has said. Edgardo Greco, 63, was taken into custody in Saint-Etienne, France, on Thursday, where he had at one point been working as a pizza maker, French prosecutors said. He is suspected of belonging to the 'Ndrangheta mafia organisation in Calabria, southern Italy. Greco ran the Italian restaurant under an alias in the French city, where he had lived since 2014. He was wanted for two murders in 2006 and attempted murder in another case. Italian authorities said brothers Stefano and Giuseppe Bartolomeo were beaten to death with a metal bar in a fish shop in Calabria in 2006. Greco is also accused there of the attempted murder...

500 ATMs blown up by migrant gangs in Germany in 2022, setting a new record

28Jan

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Crime & Law, Germany

500 ATMs blown up by migrant gangs in Germany in 2022, setting a new record

Organized demolition crews, mostly made up of Moroccan migrants, are putting German lives at risk with their high-explosive ATM heists. Organized criminal gangs active in the Netherlands and France, mostly made up of Moroccan migrants, are blowing up ATMs in Germany at a record pace in highly professional robbery operations. In 2022, government statistics indicate that they blew up 500 such machines, with statistically more than one machine being blown up every day. Cash remains popular with Germans, and to feed this demand, banks operate nearly 100,000 ATMs located throughout the country, with the machines routinely containing between €50,000 and €100,000. Criminal gangs are taking advantage of this, and they are willing to use extreme methods to gain access to this money. These crimi...

Heinrich XIII: the prince suspected of plotting to overthrow the German government

8Dec

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Crime & Law, Germany, In News, Military News, Terrorism

Heinrich XIII: the prince suspected of plotting to overthrow the German government

Thousands of police officers have carried out raids across much of Germany against suspected far-right extremists who allegedly sought to overthrow the state in an armed coup. Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss is one of the last descendents of a dynasty that once ruled over swathes of eastern Germany. He is suspected of hoping to become the country's new leader in a violent coup to overthrow the democratic order. The 71-year-old was one of 25 members and supporters of a far-right group planning the alleged putsch who were arrested early on Wednesday in nationwide raids, according to the authorities. The real estate developer has for years publicly advocated the theory life was better worldwide under monarchy. He stems from House of Reuss, which for centuries ruled over parts of present-d...

South Africa President Ramaphosa faces threat of impeachment over ‘Farmgate’ scandal

1Dec

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Crime & Law, South Africa

South Africa President Ramaphosa faces threat of impeachment over ‘Farmgate’ scandal

The South African government has announced that it will take action against the country's president, who has been caught up in a scandal, after the publication of a parliamentary report that could lead to his impeachment. President Cyril Ramaphosa "may have committed" violations and misconduct, a parliamentary committee charged with investigating the murky burglary affair that has embarrassed the president ahead of an election crucial to his political future concluded in a report released late Wednesday. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) meets in mid-December to choose its next leader. Whoever emerges victorious will become head of state after the 2024 general elections, if the ANC, wins the election. In the wake of the report, which has clearly stunned the Ramaphosa camp, th...

South Africa court sends former president Jacob Zuma back to jail

21Nov

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Crime & Law

South Africa court sends former president Jacob Zuma back to jail

South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal has ruled the decision to release former president Jacob Zuma on early medical parole was “unlawful” and he should return to prison to finish his sentence for contempt of court. Zuma was last year sentenced to 15 months in jail after ignoring a court order to testify at a government inquiry into widespread corruption during his almost decade as president that ended in 2018 when incumbent Cyril Ramaphosa replaced him. Zuma was released on medical parole in September 2021 after serving a fraction of the sentence. But in December, the high court set aside the parole decision and ordered him to return to jail. Zuma appealed that ruling and judgement was delivered on Monday after the department of correctional services said in October his prison sent...

University of Virginia campus shooting kills three and injures two

14Nov

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Crime & Law

University of Virginia campus shooting kills three and injures two

Manhunt under way after police identify student Christopher Darnell Jones as suspect A shooting on the University of Virginia campus late on Sunday killed three people and wounded two, university police said. Officials identified student Christopher Darnell Jones as the suspect and said a number of agencies were engaged in an active search. He was wearing a "burgundy jacket, blue jeans and red shoes", and may have been driving a black SUV, authorities said. https://twitter.com/UVA_EM/status/1592098614360551425 An email sent to the student body by the university's vice president recommended that all students sought safety and followed further commands as the situation remained active. The shooting is the latest in a wave of gun violence on US college and high school campuses in rece...

Dutch court to deliver long-awaited MH17 verdict

13Nov

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Crime & Law, Aviation

Dutch court to deliver long-awaited MH17 verdict

Dutch judges will give their verdict on Thursday in the trial of four men accused of downing Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, against a backdrop of soaring tensions over Russia's current invasion. All 298 passengers and crew were killed when the Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was hit over separatist-held eastern Ukraine by what prosecutors say was a missile supplied by Moscow. Russians Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov and Ukrainian citizen Leonid Kharchenko face a life sentence if convicted on charges of murder and causing an aircraft to crash. But the four suspects all remain at large and have refused to attend the two-and-a-half-year trial in the Netherlands, which followed an international investigation. Eight years on from the di...