20 - 18 = 2
21 + 40 = 61
50 - 2 = 48
KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 2010 / NEWS
13
INTERNATIONAL
300 arrested in major anti-crime sweep in Italy
BY ALESSANDRA RIZZO
Associated Press
ROME — Italian police launched one of their biggest operations ever against the powerful 'ndrangheta crime syndicate on Tuesday, arresting 300 people including top bosses and seizing millions worth of property in pre-dawn raids.
The man believed to be the 'ndrangheta's top boss, Domenico Oppedisano, was picked up in Rosarno, a small coastal town in Calabria, the southern region where the organization is based, police said.
Also arrested was the man in charge of the gang's businesses in Milan, where the 'ndrangheta has been making major inroads.
The raids Tuesday involved some 3,000 police across the country. Those arrested faced charges including murder, extortion, arms and drug trafficking and criminal association.
Investigators described the operation as one of the biggest blows ever to an organization that is now considered more powerful than the Sicilian Mafia. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said the sweep struck at the heart of the 'ndrangheta in both its organization and its finances.
The biggest operation was in the Milan region of Lombardy, where 160 people were reportedly arrested. They included businessmen and the director of state medical services in the city of Pavia.
The sweep dismantled some of the most powerful families in the organization, Italian news agencies said. It also enabled investigators to shed light on the 'ndrangheta's structure and power hierarchy.
The last big operation against the Calabrian mob came in the 1990s. Since then, it has expanded its power, not only in Italy but in such countries as Germany.
A clan war spread to Germany in 2007, when six Italians were gunned down by a rival gang in retribution for an earlier killing as they left a birthday party in the
western city of Duisburg. Italian officials have said all three people responsible for the shooting have been arrested.
Prosecuters say wiretaps are key to investigating hard-to-infiltrate mafia clans, and have complained bitterly against a proposed new bill that aims to limit the use of electronic eavesdropping. Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who has been stung by embarrassing disclosures in published transcripts of private conversations mostly unrelated to investigations, is pushing the measure through parliament.
Anti-mafia prosecutors say Milan has become the economic center for the organization, which migrated to the north in the 1970s and 1980s. Nearly all of the clans are present in Lombardy.
While terrorism and mafia investigations are exempt from the proposed restrictions, magistrates complain that big probes often stem from low-level criminal cases. Passage of the law, they say, will protect criminals operating in Italy.
The restrictions include a strict time limit on wiretaps, which prosecutors say is insufficient, and a level of proof needed to obtain permission to launch the wiretaps that investigators charge is tantamount to evidence needed for a conviction.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Instant connection changes experience
BY JANENE GIER jgier@kansan.com
At concerts, the once-standard sea of lighters is replaced by a sea of cell phone screens, often lit with text messages and Facebook posts. Wireless devices have changed the way we experience events and the connections we make with people while at those events.
This change is a reflection that we, as a social species, like to be in touch, said Sam Gosling, associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.
"I think it speaks to people's constant need to be known and need to be attached to one another," he said.
"If I'm enjoying an event, I can share that with someone," Lauren Brown, a senior from Hermitage, Mo., said. "Or if I'm frustrated, I can share that, too."
Brown said her phone is always on and she likes to answer text messages and calls immediately.
What once was an escape from the world and a chance to hang out with a group sharing a common interest, is now a reason to update a Facebook status while watching "Eclipse" at the theater, text a friend in the middle of a Lady Gaga concert, or Tweet a reaction after a winning World Cup goal while sitting at the sports bar.
Mobile phones were once used primarily for emergencies. Now they seem to be a necessity, providing
immediate connections at the touch of a button or screen.
Gosling, a Facebook researcher, said online social networking helps us to fulfil the social demands that we have.
"We have a basic need to stay in touch with our group members, but the size of our groups has outstripped our cognitive ability to keep up with them all," Gosling said.
In Stone Age times we lived in
small groups of fewer than 200 people and didn't meet more than 200 more people in a lifetime, Gosling said. He said we replicate that now and actually tend to keep in contact with a relatively select group of people on sites like
going on in our lives, Gosling said.
Joe Garvey, a senior from Valley Center, said everyone wants to have their thoughts and opinions regarded and listened to, and they want to be in a community in which their advice is recognized.
"Social media gives them the forum to share their everyday experiences," said Garvey, who is also an interactive advertising intern at E.W. Scripps.
"I think it speaks to people's constant need to be known and need to be attached to one another."
Facebook, despite the hundreds of "friends" we maintain.
Because it's a somewhat honest representation of ourselves, posting information about where we are and what we're doing is basically a way to let our group of people know what's
SAM GOSLING Associate professor of psychology, University of Texas
Gosling's latest research,published earlier this year and conducted in collaboration with six other psychologists, studied whether people reflect their actual personality on Facebook. The results showed that people are pretty good at portraying themselves as they actually are.
Most people will say they don't immediately care whether their friends checked in at a baseball stadium or a new restaurant, Garvey said, but he thinks that kind of word-of-mouth
advertising is a fun system. He said a friend's suggestion could prompt him to check out a new place.
"It is showing the way we now appreciate events. One person can transmit to dozens, hundreds, thousands of people their thoughts on the concert, the party, the ball game," Garvey said.
When we see those things from our friends and family, Garvey said, we tend to believe it, positive or negative.