Italy Braces for Mafia War After Threats to Prosecutors

In southern Italy, the Mafia wars are heating up. On Monday, Italy will deploy an expected 80 soldiers into the city of Reggio Calabria, on the toe of Italy’s boot, to provide security for anti-Mafia prosecutors who have been repeatedly threatened by the powerful ‘Ndrangheta criminal organization.

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Amid Bombs — and Complaints from Zelaya — Hondurans Prepare to Vote

The homemade bomb exploded outside the church in this sweaty Central American capital as the choir was singing hymns in a lively Evangelical mass. When the parishioners finally paused from their verses, they thanked God that the device had caused no injuries — and had hardly even damaged the BMW car belonging to one of the faithful, under which it was placed.

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Tele2 in a hole over ‘meteor’ publicity stunt

An elaborate publicity stunt by a Swedish mobile phone company involving a faked meteorite strike in a Latvian meadow has provided a new case study on how a marketing campaign can backfire. Metz said Tuesday that IEDs are “much more primitive in Afghanistan” because they use “less military munitions and more homemade explosives.” But he said that although the military has been able to disarm many IEDs, the big challenge going forward is detecting devices using tiny wires.

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George Clooney and Elisabetta Canalis go public

His hand still bandaged from a motoring accident last month, George Clooney was spotted arriving in Venice Monday sporting something that’s all the rage in Italian trends — TV presenter Elisabetta Canalis. The day before the premiere of his movie, “Men Who Stare at Goats,” the couple — who landed at Venice’s Lido Nicelli Airfield Monday evening — made a grand arrival at the Venice Film Festival following a water taxi ride across the city’s lagoon, prompting Italian papers to gush over the pair as the next Brad and Angelina.

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