Court in Italy convicts 90 suspects in probe of crime clans

ROME (AP) — A court in southern Italy has convicted 70 defendants and acquitted 20 others in a trial that probed alleged links between the ’ndrangheta crime syndicate and local business figures, politicians and public officials. The Italian news agency ANSA said that the verdicts were announced in court on Saturday at the end of a fast-track trial that was an offshoot of another, ongoing trial in the Calabria region against more than 320 defendants. The trial took place in Lamezia Terme, a city in the “toe” of the boot-shaped peninsula. In fast-track trials, defendants received a one-third reduction of sentences in case of conviction.