Fraud Inquiry into government jobs Scheme

A4e, just awarded £100 million contract and employing David Blunkett, fined for staff making false claims of getting people into work...

Drug Cultivation plummets in Afghanistan as demand falls

Publication of UN World Drug report [http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/2009/June/world-drug-report-2009-released.html ]

Dollar compared to Sean McGowan

The article starts with a story about which I would like to know more. two Japanese arrested on the Italian-Swiss border with $134 billion in US Government bonds. the bonds were forgeries, and the article rambles off into another strange discussion as to whether the dollar is doomed.
But I want to know more about these guys and who they were trying to scam!!!!

The Wahhabi rule Dagestan

our old friend Yulia Latynina arguing that Jihadists have set up a protection racket and are now well-funded and well-armed in Dagestan.

Russia leads Europe in reporter killings

Moscow more unsafe for journalists than Chechnya.Report from the International Union of Journalists.

13 alleged Mafia members arrested in Trapini

From la Reppublica. names, ages, indictments. Allegedly those arrested include the Mafia boss of Trapini, Matteo Messina Denaro. Quite a lot of information, including stuff on the olive oil racket.

There's so little in the British press about organised crime that I'm back to other sources, I'm afraid. anyway, its good for your foreign language skills!

Pakistan orders Manhunt for Taliban Leader Baitullah Mehsud

Army to go into South Waziristan, where al Qaeda leaders are also supposed to be. Mehsud is supposed to be behind suicide bombings in Pakistan.

The Dark Side of Shopping

Piece from the magazine on women and shoplifting. There's a book about to come out by Neal Lawson, author of this piece, which is accompanied by 5 interviews with shoplifters.

A Mexican Cartel's Swift and grisly Climb

La Familia Michoacana, drug cartel and messianic cult, "promises to protect the poor while meting out "divine justice" to its enemies, including rituals in which executioners carve cryptic initials in their victims' foreheads." [Quotation from Washington post article.] the effect of the counter-narcotics strategy has been to change the nature of Mexico's drug cartels, rather than to eliminate them.
la Familia is new, as is Los Zetas, a group of rogue special forces personnel. But the article also hints that there is a political side to the anti-narcotics campaign, with mayors who oppose the governing party being arrested.
La Familia is establishing civil society and support networks. there is, of course, a piec on this in this month's Newsletter.

How a Black Ferrari Snared the £1 bn Drug barons

This is really the story of the investigation, not of the organisation. that will make a nice book for some speed writing journalist in the not too distant future.
The Hanna family and their associates. A very cautious group of operators, allegedly.