The bomb attack which killed a teenage girl and wounded 10 others in the southern Italian town of Brindisi was probably done by an individual with no links to the mafia, a senior official said on Sunday.

One vanished. Another killed herself by drinking acid. For women who marry into the Mob, there is often no escape – even if they turn to the police for protection

Note about holidays and home-made jam was not so innocent

He was the boss of bosses that no one thought existed. But yesterday, Domenico Oppedisano, 81, was jailed for 10 years for his pivotal role in 'Ndrangheta, Europe's most feared and powerful crime syndicate.

If you're having withdrawal symptoms after Henning Mankell wrote finis to the chronicles of Kurt Wallander, remember that it's possible to take alternative journeys down the mean streets of Swedish cities. If you're hardy enough to tackle crime narratives drenched in vitriol, grit your teeth and tackle Jens Lapidus's lacerating Stockholm Noir trilogy: Easy Money is the first volume. Lapidus paints a more cosmopolitan canvas than other writers – not to mention employing a far grimmer and more nihilistic use of the genre, with nary a comforting Swedish copper in sight.

Oscar Luigi Scalfaro was a Catholic politician whose anachronistic virtues, in particular his complete honesty and his commitment to the constitution, came to Italy's rescue during the gravest political crisis of the post-war era, the corruption scandal which erupted in 1993.

After decades of being portrayed in films as gesticulating Mafiosi, they are finally getting organised – and fighting back

Prosecutors say an Italian judge, politician and police official are among 10 people detained in a crackdown on the 'ndrangheta crime syndicate.

Just before five o'clock on Tuesday evening, to the sound of waves lapping on the nearby beach, nine gunshots rang out by a bar in Via Forni in the down-at-heel Roman suburb of Ostia.

Well, it's been a quiet news week so far, but here's a big story: Shock Apprentice Format Change! In previous series, the penultimate episode of Lord Sugar's talent search has seen the surviving candidates subjected to a kind of mini-cab rendition. They're plucked at dawn from their luxury rental and taken to some anonymous corporate shed in the outer suburbs, where Sugar's trained interrogators are unleashed on them. It's Abu Ghraib in pinstripes – humiliation, psychological torture and helpless curriculum vitae thumbscrewed until the blood runs. It's the episode that you usually think is going to be a bit dull, until the first bead of sweat appears and you realise that it's actually a relief to get a break from the standard format. But not this year. Although the candidates were talking about interview suits as they scrambled for their morning pick-up, the producers had pulled a switch on them. They were going to have to come up with a concept for a new fast-food franchise, serving up crap to others rather than being forced to eat it themselves.

The ringleader of a gangland massacre of six people in Germany was jailed for life by an Italian court yesterday for an attack that highlighted the international reach of the Calabrian Mafia.