WEB BUZZ MAFIA

The evaluation process of the UP Board — one of biggest examination bodies of the world in terms of examinees — is set to kick off at 253 evaluation centres from April 27. The Uttar Pradesh Board of Secondary Education has decided to randomly summon answer sheets from districts infamous for mass copying and get it checked by experts in Allahabad. The step will help in the assessment of students of these districts and also detect foul play by copying mafia. It will also help the Board officials to get a benchmark of average marks for certain districts and minimize the possibility of over marking or biased evaluation by examiners. After deciding to get the copies of students scoring over 90 per cent in Board examinations re-evaluated by senior examiners, this is another attempt by the Board to rein in copying mafia. Many schools also try to illegally secure higher marks for some of its students to ensure their names on the merit list as the overall good result attract more stu...

ROPAR : Akali Dal ( Amritsar ) president Simranjit Singh Mann today alleged that the Muslim properties in the state were being grabbed by the land mafia and builders at the behest of Akali Dal and BJP leaders . While talking to media persons after visiting the graveyard of Muslim community at village Kotla Nihang   near Ropar to see the ‘ encroachment ’ made on it, Mann alleged that Waqf Board was hand in glove with land mafia in allowing grabbing of its properties. Mann said that he had come to Kotla Nihang to assure his support to the members of Muslim community ,who were fighting against grabbing of their graveyard by the land mafia and builders. He asked the members of Muslim community to give an application to him so that their grievance could be sent to National Human Rights Commission and Minorities Commission . Mann also criticised the state government over ‘ deteriorating ’ law and order situation in the state and alleged that...

THE Argentines were regarded by a senior Irish diplomat as "morbidly estranged from reality" and a people governed by a Mafia class. In a withering dissection of " Latin psyche ", the embassy in Buenos Aires sent a 17-page advisory to Dublin : a character assassination teed up with an assertion that the locals are psychologically dangerous. The cable, titled " Understanding Argentina " and dated November 24, 1982, was sent to the secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs , Iveagh House , Dublin . It was contained in a file marked " travel costs ". It was intended to be an overview of Argentine affairs following a year of turmoil and the country 's defeat over the Falklands . Thirty years later, it reads like an offensive catalogue of stereotypes. The cable states : "As a nation – if they are a nation , and that is part of the pathology – they are morbidly estranged from reality. "To attempt an exhaustive c...

ROME — Italy ’s confused election campaign took another twist Friday with the country ’s respected national anti-Mafia prosecutor joining ranks with the center-left Democratic Party , a big-name boost for a party that is already leading in the polls ahead of the February vote . A day earlier, Premier Mario Monti got an even bigger endorsement for his potential candidacy from the Vatican newspaper after winning a not-so-subtle thumbs up from the pope himself on Christmas Day . Almost left behind in the jockeying was Italy ’s most colorful politician , Silvio Berlusconi , who was on the front pages of Italy ’s leading daily Friday for an entirely other reason. Corriere della Sera revealed details of his divorce settlement with his second wife Veronica Lario , showing that he must pay her €3 million ($4 million) a month. He gets to keep the house, however. Italians vote Feb. 24-25 in general elections after a yearlong experiment with Monti ’s technocratic governmen...

Wind energy company held in Valletta fiduciary company targeted by Palermo investigators hunting Mafia boss of bosses. Matteo Massimo Denaro identikit . Sicilian anti-mafia judges have issued a freezing order on assets and money registered under a Valletta-based company which investigations have revealed to be connected to one of the world 's most wanted mafia bosses , Matteo Messina Denaro . Known to be the current ' boss of bosses' to Sicily 's notorious ' Cosa Nostra ', Denaro was always considered to be the Mafia 's most prolific financial brain , who invested and laundered billions of drug and extortion money all over the world, including Malta on various occasions. On the run for the past 25 years, Denaro has this week hit the headlines in Italy for his connections to the highly lucrative sector of renewable energy . Months of investigations in Palermo have yielded Denaro 's links to Sicily 's wind farm energy...

  An old Italian Mafia Don is dying and he called his grandson to his bed and said, " Grandson I wanta you to listen to me. I wanta you to take mya 45 automatic pistol , so you will always remember me." Grandson replied, "But grandpa I really don't like  guns , how about you leaving me your Rolex watch  instead." The old man replied: "You lisina to me, some day you goina run da bussiness , you goina have a beautiful wife , lotsa money , a biga home and maybe a couple of bambino, some day you goina come home and maybe finda you wife in bed with another man . Whata you gonna do then? Pointa to you watch and say, " Times Up "?

A file picture taken 14 September 2004 shows Russian ex-spy and fierce Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko , after a press conference in London . The British government has evidence that the Russian state was involved in the radioactive poisoning of Litvinenko , a hearing into his death was told yesterday. Russia ’s thousand-year history is littered with conspiracies and conspiracy theories. Claims by Alexander Litvinenko ’s supporters that he was a Russian spy and, last week, by his widow’s lawyers that he was an important agent for MI6 , belong in all probability among the latter. Litvinenko was actually a middle-ranking KGB (and later, FSB ) enforcer who fell out with the Kremlin and with his former colleagues. He threw in his lot with the Kremlin ’s public enemy number one, Boris Berezovsky , and when Berezovsky fled to England in 2000, he fled with him. From the imagined safety of London , Litvinenko poured out his bile on Vladimir Putin , hurling ever more i...