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Kozhikode district collector and convoy targeted by sand miners on two occasions Thiruvananthapuram : The sheer audacity with which some illegal river sand miners dared the Kozhikode district administration early on Saturday morning, challenging a team led by the district collector, has shocked the state and called for stringent action to crack down against violators of the law . Congress leader V.M. Sudheeran brought the matter into the political limelight on Sunday, citing how different mafia gangs were tightening their grip on the state . Sudheeran said it was unfortunate that a situation prevailed where the land mafia , sand mafia and liquor mafia were had exercised a tight grip on the state . Sudheeran said the administrative mechanisms to control such mafia appeared to be failing and that the attack of the sand mafia against the Kozhikode district collector was an example of the dire situation. Kozhikode district collector...

NOIDA : Even though Noida Authority on Thursday cleared nearly 90 acres of encroached land from three major sectors in Noida , they have failed to take action against land mafia who have encroached upon at least 100 acres of green belt at a prime location near Sector 74 where thousands of housing units are being developed. Authority officials had claimed that they would soon raze the encroachments, but so far no action has been taken. The Noida Authority on Thursday had flattened nearly 90 acres of encroached government land valued at about Rs 10,000 crore from three major sectors in Noida , but it appears officials are less bothered about the green belt in the city. A TOI team had recently visited Sector 74 and found that the green belt was heavily encroached on. Even construction work was being undertaken on some of the plots. When the issue was raised before the Noida Authority OSD Manoj Rai , he had said that a team would be sent to conduct a probe and demolish illegal...

Italy 's highest court on Tuesday ruled that a court in Palermo had wrongly dragged President Giorgio Napolitano into a probe on alleged negotiations between the mafia and the state following deadly gangland bombings two decades ago. The constitutional court said it had accepted Napolitano's argument that wiretaps of him speaking to a former interior minister about the mafia investigation could not be used in the case and should have been destroyed immediately. The ruling takes pressure off Napolitano, seen as the guarantor of Mario Monti's technocrat government , who is likely to play an important role in the formation of a new government after elections expected in March. The 87-year-old president risked being weakened by the case which drew negative coverage of him in some domestic newspapers . A ruling against Napolitano would have marred his mandate, which ends early next year, by linking him with one of the most notorious epis...