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Albany, NY (AHN) - What health warnings could not accomplish, taxes may. New York residents who could not give up the habit may finally surrender their packs with new state taxes of $1.25 expected to hike the cost to over $8 a pack in New York. The average cost is $5.82 across the states. With the additional tax, the Big Apple residents would be paying $2.75 taxes per pack, the highest in the nation. The new revenue generating measure is expected to add $265 million annually to New York's coffers.Convenience store and smokers are not happy with the price and...

CARACAS [EL COMERCIO/AGENCIAS]. Last week it was the cement industry and now it is the Andean and Caribbean steel giant’s turn. The Venezuelan government ordered the nationalization of the steel company Siderúrgica del Orinoco (owned by Ternium-Sidor, which has majority Argentine ownership) after the collapse of contract talks with the workers, announced the Venezuelan vice-president Ramon Carrizales. "After a long process of negotiations were fruitless in solving the conflict between Sidor and its workers, president Hugo Chavez decided to assume control of Siderúrgica del Orinoco which has been privatized for some 10 years", said Carrizales. The company "took a radical...

By MIKE ROBINSON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CHICAGO (AP) - Fourteen reputed organized crime figures were indicted Monday on charges of plotting at least 18 murders, including the 1986 slaying of the Chicago mob's top man in Las Vegas, Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, who was buried alive in an cornfield. Those indicted include Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, long known as one of the top leaders of organized crime in the Chicago area. U.S attorney spokesman Randall Samborn said authorities were looking for Lombardo. "This unprecedented indictment puts a 'hit' on the mob," U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in a statement....

CALGARY SUN Tue, April 12, 2005 Master crooks Hells Angels expert calls Grits Canada's No. 1 organized gang By Licia Corbella (Editor, Calgary Sun) The following is not a partisan political comment. It is a sorry fact. The Liberal Party of Canada is the largest white-collar crime organization in the country. Yves Lavigne, a Toronto-area journalist and the leading civilian authority on the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, agrees. "AdScam makes the Liberal party the No. 1 organized crime gang in the country," says Lavigne. Lavigne says the Hells Angels make more money in drugs and prostitution than the federal Liberals...

With a lavish apartment on Central Park West, an upstate mansion and garages full of Mercedes and BMWs, the millionaire Pustilnik family — Russian immigrant owners of medical clinics in Brooklyn and Manhattan — seemed to be living the American dream. But the family's fortune was earned by insurance fraud and grand larceny, Manhattan prosecutors charged yesterday, announcing indictments that could put the 57-year-old mother, along with her son and his wife, behind bars for up to seven years. The Pustilniks — who are also being investigated for ties to Russian organized crime — have been using their clinics to...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal witness protection program, immortalized in crime movies, has granted new identities to more than 17,000 people. But as that number grows, the Marshals Service that provides protection is cutting the staff assigned to the program. That is one of several problems that could have a "potential adverse impact on witness security," Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said in a report Monday. In the past eight years, federal personnel responsible for protecting witnesses has dropped by nearly 25 percent, Fine said. At the same time, the number of witnesses and their family members has...

There is powerful evidence that an outright ban on public smoking would save lives, doctors' leaders from across the world say. A report by the British Medical Association's Tobacco Control Resource Centre describes the success of such anti-smoking laws in other countries. Ireland has seen drops in cigarette sales and the US state California has reported fewer lung cancers. But pro-smoking groups called evidence for passive smoking deaths a "myth". In the recent White Paper on Public Health for England, Health Secretary John Reid announced plans for a partial ban smoking in enclosed public places. For example, while pubs that...

MEXICO CITY — Legendary Colombian cocaine king Pablo Escobar is as dead as Pancho Villa. But the way he and other capos unleashed terror, before the government killed them years ago, offers lessons for both forces as Mexican President Vicente Fox vows to wage the "mother of all wars" against this nation's drug cartels. If the cartels feel greatly threatened, they could strike harder at civilians, police and government institutions, and upgrade from guns to bombs. But if the mafias get too bold, the government could unleash all its power, and cartels seldom are a match for armies. It's a...

NEW YORK (AP) - Jailed Mafia boss Joseph Massino secretly recorded his successor plotting the assassination of a federal prosecutor, becoming the first head of a New York Mafia family known to have turned government informant, sources familiar with the case said Thursday. A federal indictment unsealed Thursday alleges that acting Bonanno family head Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano planned the killing of a top mob prosecutor in meetings with someone described as a "high-ranking member" of his crime family. The FBI recorded the conversations with the help of the high-ranking member, the indictment says. Several sources familiar with the investigation...

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 11 (IPS) - Two months after the murder of a prominent Chinese businessman together with his family in South Africa, the small but growing number of Chinese immigrants here remains tight-lipped about the incident. Jia-Bin Li’s body was discovered by a municipal worker in a drainpipe near South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, last month. The bodies of his wife and two daughters, aged 16 and four, were also found near his remains. Repeated requests from IPS for an interview with Chinese community leaders were either politely turned down or not acknowledged. Nonetheless, the abduction and killing of Li and...

NEW YORK (AP) - Federal prosecutors announced charges Friday against 51 alleged members of two Chinese gangs, accusing them of everything from attempted murder to immigrant smuggling and trafficking in counterfeit clothing and purses. U.S. Attorney David N. Kelley said the gangs used violence to protect their territory and profits, and he warned people who buy counterfeit products in New York's Chinatown and elsewhere that their money is going to the underworld. He said that if consumers knew the harm they were contributing to, they would realize it "can't possibly be worth the bargain." Kelley said nearly 30 gang members...

FBI: Albanian mobsters 'new Mafia' From Justice Producer Terry Frieden Wednesday, August 18, 2004 Posted: 10:06 PM EDT (0206 GMT) WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Thousands of Albanians and others who fled the Balkans for the United States in recent years have emerged as a serious organized crime problem, threatening to displace La Cosa Nostra (LCN) families as kingpins of U.S. crime, top FBI officials said Wednesday.The Albanian criminal enterprises, operating largely in New York and other Eastern seaboard cities, represent a major challenge to federal agents because of their propensity for violence and brutality, the officials said.

"Russian organised crime", says Greg " rolled out ,if you like, in the last decade since the implosion of the Soviet Union , and now it's a worldwide threat and phenomenon". "What we have to realise", suggests Greg, is that "the Russians are just experts at operating in a repressive regime. They come to a country like the United States or Australia and its so simple for them". He goes on to expand on Russian pre-eminence in "standover tactics of sheer brutality , with economics and business sense". Apparently they are immensely skilled in banking, finance and I.T., He gives...

In this fawning review of "The New War" by John Kerry, Mark Feldstein has unwittingly documented Kerry's obsession with global crime syndicates as the next big enemy of the US. Kerry does not mention terrorism at all, as evidenced by this review. **********************************************************************************************By Sen. John Kerry Simon & Schuster, $23 FOR YEARS, JOHN KERRY HAS been known as the "other" senator, overshadowed by his more famous Massachusetts colleague Edward Kennedy, or confused with Nebraska's senatorial war hero Bob Kerrey. Even now, as he prepares for a possible presidential bid, John Kerry is perhaps less known for his genuine accomplishments than...