Mafia plot foiled

ROME - The Mafia has been preparing to assassinate Leoluca Orlando, leader of the successful new anti-Mafia party, La Rete (the Net), Nicola Mancino, the Italian Interior Minister, said yesterday, writes Patricia Clough.

Interior ministry sources said they had had a tip-off that the Mafia was planning to assassinate Mr Orlando at Christmas with a car-bomb built in Germany. The information was passed to the German authorities, who identified three Sicilians named by the Italians' informer but did not arrest them for lack of evidence.