OVERDOSE

American and Italian authorities arrested dozens of people Thursday in a takedown of what they called a trans-Atlantic drug trafficking operation run by the Mafia.

The operation, code-named "Old Bridge," was centered on New York and the Sicilian capital of Palermo, targeting Mafia figures who were strengthening contacts between mob groups in Italy and the United States.
A federal grand jury in New York also accused 62 people of ties to the Gambino crime family and offenses including murders, drug trafficking, robberies, extortion, and other crimes dating back to the 1970s.
"Today we are able to bring closure to crimes from the past," U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell said in Brooklyn. "Today we seek justice for those men and their families and we make clear that those crimes and those victims are not forgotten."

The sprawling indictment covers gangland killings from the days when the crime family was run by Paul Castellano, who was assassinated in 1985. Some of the charges allege more recent crimes including credit fraud conspiracies and theft of union benefits.
In the 170-page indictment, authorities allege that associates of the crime family extorted people in the construction industry, embezzled from labor unions, engaged in loansharking and bookmaking. The massive investigation also includes charges brought in state court by the Queens district attorney.

"Organized crime still exists in the city and the state of New York," said New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said. "We like to think that it's a vestige of the past. It's not."
As of Thursday morning, the FBI had arrested 54 people in New York City and its northern suburbs, New Jersey and Long Island. Police in Palermo said they hoped to bring in 25 to 30 suspects.

RESET

The way has been cleared for early elections in Italy, after the speaker of the Italian senate was unable to raise enough support to change voting rules blamed for much of Italy's political instability.
The political crisis followed the collapse of Prime Minister Romano Prodi's center-left government last month. It is now up to the president to dissolve parliament and call early elections, likely to be held by mid-April.
While many leaders had expressed support for a change in voting rules, senate speaker Franco Marini said he could not rally "a significant majority on a precise project for an electoral reform," which would have required the forming of an interim government to push through the changes.
After days of talks with parties, conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi and his allies firmly rejected the possibility of any transitional government before a return to the polls.
Berlusconi is hoping for a new stint in power. He last served as Italy's premier from 2001-2006, and polls suggest the center-right would win an early vote.
Berlusconi said he was willing to open talks on reform with the center-left -- but after the elections.
"I think this is a truly irresponsible act, this is not what the country needed," Emma Bonino, EU affairs minister under Prodi, said, citing the risk of paralysis during the electoral campaign.
Italy's current proportional-representation system is blamed for fostering instability by giving small parties what critics say is excessive weight.
Prodi resigned Jan. 24 after a small centrist party yanked support,