Italian Police

Italian police arrested one of the country's "most dangerous" fugitives in raids early Tuesday that netted at least 70 suspected members of the Naples-based Camorra crime syndicate. The search for dozens more was still underway, police said. Officers in the southern city of Caserta, 12 miles north of Naples, said they arrested Franco Letizia shortly after midnight in a home in a nearby town.

It was an offer that turned out to be pretty easy to refuse. A cache of 6,000 U.S. Treasury bonds — each with a face value of $1 billion — available for a limited time only. And if you acted quickly on the $6-trillion offer, you'd get a signed copy of the Treaty of Versailles, the 1919 document that ended World War I. But there were a couple of problems with the documents seized by Italian police in Switzerland as part of an international fraud investigation. Despite the soaring federal budget deficit, the U.S. government does not sell a $1-billion Treasury bond.

It was an offer that turned out to be pretty easy to refuse. A cache of 6,000 U.S. Treasury bonds — each with a face value of $1 billion — available for a limited time only. And if you acted quickly on the $6-trillion offer, you'd get a signed copy of the Treaty of Versailles, the 1919 document that ended World War I. But there were a couple of problems with the documents seized by Italian police in Switzerland as part of an international fraud investigation. Despite the soaring federal budget deficit, the U.S. government does not sell a $1-billion Treasury bond.

Detective stories are largely a matter of dressing, of seasoning; of putting flesh on the bones of the whodunit, of coloring between the lines. They are as much or more about the who, the where and the when as they are about the how and the why: The English manor house or the American mean street, the dandified Belgian or the medieval monk. There are, after all, only so many reasons people kill one another — murder being the subject of most all mysteries — and only so many ways to do it, and Agatha Christie has already used them all. And so every detective story is a kind of travelogue too. "Zen," which begins Sunday night as a presentation of PBS' "Masterpiece Mystery," takes us to Italy, and not some remote, movie-magical evocation of the place, but the place itself.

Police said Friday that they arrested nine leftist extremists in an important strike against Italian urban guerrillas. They said all nine, whom they did not name, were charged with involvement in the Fighting Communist Party (PCC), considered the most dangerous offshoot of the Red Brigades. The PCC claimed responsibility for the April murder of Roberto Ruffilli, a prominent senator.

An aspiring Italian actor who poses for tourists as a sword-toting gladiator outside Rome's Colosseum could face up to three years in jail for bearing illegal arms, police said. Franco Magni, 29, and a handful of other men in feathered helmets, studded breastplates and Roman sandals charge tourists to take their picture in front of the ruins of the amphitheater where gladiators fought 2,000 years ago.

Italian police said Saturday they had arrested 142 people in a two-day security sweep around Milan prompted by Thursday's bombings in London. Some 2,000 carabinieri fanned out across the Lombardy region, stepping up patrols around train stations, subways, commercial centers and other sensitive sites, said Gen. Antonio Girone, regional commander of the paramilitary police.

Italy's economic tensions exploded violently Friday in central Rome, where riot police firing tear gas battled left-wing militants who had tried to sabotage a huge rally of striking workers. Sirens echoed through cobblestone alleys, and heavily armed police mingled with nonplussed tourists in the ancient heart of the city. It was street theater counterpoint to painful government attempts at balancing its books.

Italian police Saturday arrested 31 suspected Mafiosi on charges ranging from drug trafficking to bombings and murder. The ANSA news agency said agents staged a dawn raid on the suspects at a headquarters in the mountains east of Naples. "The suspects are some of the most dangerous operating in the province of Naples," an investigator said.

Italian police have recovered 10 masterpieces that were stolen in 2004 from an ancient religious complex in Rome, officials said Tuesday. Officers located the paintings in December. The works were wrapped in newspapers and hidden in the trailer of a suspected art smuggler, police said. Investigators believe the man was about to take the works abroad to sell them, Carabinieri paramilitary police art squad chief Gen. Giovanni Nistri said. The suspect is under investigation for receiving stolen goods but is not believed to be behind the theft.

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Tuesday. Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi crashed into a police car in Florence, Italy, sending two officers to the hospital. ( Radar Online ) Two sequels, "The Hangover Part II" and "Kung Fu Panda 2" helped make this the biggest Memorial Day box office weekend ever. Prepare yourself for more sequels. ( Los Angeles Times ) But apparently, "Kung Fu Panda 2" didn't do well enough for DreamWorks Animation investors. ( Hollywood Reporter )

Italian police said they were hunting for burglars who stole $15.5 million in cash and jewelry from the hotel room of a Saudi princess. Police said the princess was not in her room at the Colonna Pevero Hotel in Porto Cervo, a glitzy resort on the island of Sardinia, when the robbers struck last week. The thieves used a master key to gain access, then ripped out the wall safe. Officials did not publicly identify the princess. The area is a magnet for luxury yachts and is dotted with villas owned by the rich and powerful, including Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

Italian police arrested one of the country's "most dangerous" fugitives in raids early Tuesday that netted at least 70 suspected members of the Naples-based Camorra crime syndicate. The search for dozens more was still underway, police said. Officers in the southern city of Caserta, 12 miles north of Naples, said they arrested Franco Letizia shortly after midnight in a home in a nearby town.

Italian police have recovered 10 masterpieces that were stolen in 2004 from an ancient religious complex in Rome, officials said Tuesday. Officers located the paintings in December. The works were wrapped in newspapers and hidden in the trailer of a suspected art smuggler, police said. Investigators believe the man was about to take the works abroad to sell them, Carabinieri paramilitary police art squad chief Gen. Giovanni Nistri said. The suspect is under investigation for receiving stolen goods but is not believed to be behind the theft.

Rivalries being what they are, it's hard to say there are many better than the one involving the University of Oregon and Oregon State. Get serious here. What's worse than something called the "Civil War"? Usually, whatever's going on in Eugene and Corvallis is far from civil. And now, just in time for the college football season, the whole rivalry thing has taken on a new dimension. Literally. So cue the yell leaders. Our board's bigger than yooour board. Our board's bigger than yours . . . Ouch, that hurts.

Police arrested seven people in an investigation connected to a mob shooting in Germany that claimed the lives of six people last year. The suspects were not directly connected with the Aug. 15, 2007, shooting in Duisburg, said Francesco Iacono of the Italian police. But they belong to feuding clans believed to be behind the shooting. Iacono said some of the suspects were picked up in the southern region of Calabria, home to the 'Ndrangheta criminal gang, while others were arrested in cities as far away as Udine and Bologna in northern Italy.

Italian police swooped into a mosque Saturday in central Italy's bucolic Umbria region and arrested an imam and two aides suspected of operating a terrorism training school and preparing fighters for attacks abroad. All three detainees, plus a fourth suspect outside the country, are Moroccan nationals.