Palermo

Students at the University of Palermo, Sicily, are pressing their rector to explain why a multimillion-pound building contract was awarded to a company controlled by the imprisoned Mafia "boss of bosses", Salvatore Riina. They have written to the higher education ministry denouncing the increased infiltration of Mafia members to key university posts. An estimated 95 per cent of all public contract work in Sicily over the past ten years has been assigned to Mafia-run firms.