Italian mafia boss fails to make great escape

Italian police have arrested an alleged mafia boss who lived in an underground bunker equipped with an unusual means of escape – a skateboard to propel himself down a 200 yard secret tunnel.

Italian, Giuseppe Bastone's hideout was a 10ft by 10ft space underneath a house near Naples that was accessed through a hidden trapdoor underneath a stairway.

The bunker was connected to a 200 yard long tunnel which was only waist high – hence the need for the skateboard.

Bastone, 28, was however captured by anti-mafia investigators in a lightning raid on his subterranean hideout.

At the end of the tunnel, a shaft with a metal staircase emerged in a field. Italian police said Bastone had been hiding in the bunker, which had solid steel walls, for nearly a year. He was reportedly unarmed and did not resist arrest when he was captured on Monday.

The bunker was equipped with a fridge, a plasma screen television and a DVD player. It took firemen more than an hour to shift the steel door which led from the house to the steel-walled refuge.

Police suspected the hideout was linked to a tunnel but had no idea where the hidden exit might emerge, so deployed 50 officers and a helicopter during the raid in case Bastone tried to flee.

Bastone was among Italy's 100 most wanted fugitives and is alleged to be a leading member of the Camorra mafia. A copy of the film was among the DVDs that police found, along with "The Godfather" starring Marlon Brando.

Pirate says $4 million ransom paid for Italian tugboat

Somali pirates received a $4 million ransom to free an Italian cargo ship that was seized four months ago with a crew of 16, a member of the gang that held it captive said on Monday.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on Sunday the Buccaneer was freed after "exceptional work" on the part of Somali authorities and the Italian intelligence service.

The owners of the Buccaneer, Ravenna-based Micoperi Marine Contractors, said on Sunday the ship was not freed as a result of military action or ransom payment.

The pirates however claim to be already in posession of the $4 million ransom and freed the Italian tugboat.

The Buccaneer was hijacked on April 11 in the Gulf of Aden along with two barges. It is now on its way to the port of Djibouti escorted by naval vessels. It was crewed by 10 Italians, five Romanians and a Croatian.

A flotilla of foreign naval vessels off Somalia has failed to quell the rampant piracy, which has affected one of the world's busiest shipping lanes that links Europe to Asia.

Ancient Roman shipwrecks found

Underwater archaeologists in Italy have discovered the wrecks of five ancient Roman ships in the Mediterranean, with their cargo still largely intact.

The ships are lying in up to 150 metres (500 feet) of water off the tiny island of Ventotene, between Rome and Naples. They are between 1,600 and 1,900 years old, and were laden with - among other things - jars for carrying wine, olive oil and fish sauce.

Also on board were kitchen tools, and certain metal and glass objects which have not yet been identified. The discovery of wrecked ships is not unusual - there are said to be thousands dotted around the Mediterranean.

But Annalisa Zarattini, from the Italian Culture Ministry, said the latest to be found are much better preserved than usual because they sank in deeper water, which protected them from destructive currents.

The ships also sank without capsizing, she said, allowing examination of the cargo in almost the form it had been loaded.

Officials say the latest finds are the result of a new drive by archaeologists to scan deeper waters, organised by the Italian culture ministry and the Aurora Trust, a maritime research group.