Deadly prison breakout in Mexico

16 July 2011 Last updated at 02:09 GMT More than 400 inmates have escaped from jails in northern Mexico since January 2010 Seven prisoners have been killed and 59 others have escaped after a riot at a jail in northern Mexico near the US border, officials say.

Five guards are also missing and are believed to have aided the mass prison breakout in Nuevo Laredo town.

Mexican police say the majority of those on the run are drug traffickers and members of armed gangs.

The prison system is struggling to cope with an influx of offenders arrested in a campaign against drugs cartels.

Correspondents say prison breakouts are not uncommon in northern Mexico, where more than 400 inmates have escaped since January 2010.

Nuevo Laredo, in Tamaulipas state, lies just across the border from Laredo, Texas.

The largest jail break so far was last December when more than 140 prisoners escaped from the same prison.

According to a statement from the Tamaulipas state government, the riot began on Friday morning in Nuevo Laredo's Sanctions Enforcement Centre, which houses an estimated 1,200 prisoners.

After the breakout, soldiers surrounded the jail and calm was restored, the authorities said.

The northern border region is the scene of rising lawlessness as the cartels fight the security forces and each other for control of smuggling routes into the US.

The main battle in Tamaulipas is between the Zetas and the Gulf cartels, the AFP news agency reports.

Their capacity for violence and ability to pay huge bribes gives them considerable power to subvert the prison system and get their people out.

President Felipe Calderon came to power in 2006 promising a war on drugs.

More than 35,000 people have died in drug violence since he began his campaign, which has involved launching an army assault on drug gangs.

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Venezuela prison siege continues

21 June 2011 Last updated at 12:35 GMT Families are desperate for any information about the situation inside the jail Venezuelan troops have escorted 36 prisoners out of a jail near Caracas where armed inmates are resisting the army's attempts to retake control.

A National Guard spokesman said the men had been "hostages of violent prisoners".

There have been gunfights since Friday between some 5,000 members of the security forces and inmates holed up in a wing of El Rodeo prison.

Some 2,500 prisoners have been moved from the complex to other jails.

Last Friday, troops took over most of El Rodeo jail in Guatire, after a riot between rival gangs of prisoners on 12 June left some 20 people dead.

But a stand-off continues in one section of prison.

'Weapons of war'

On Monday, troops managed to free 36 men from areas no longer held by rebellious prisoners, Interior Minister Tareck El Aissami told state television.

Mr Aissami has said that one prisoner and two National Guard troops have been killed during the clashes.

An inmate reached by mobile telephone told the Associated Press that there had been 17 deaths.

Troops were using what he called "weapons of war" against them, prisoner Rafael Contreras said.

Hundreds of relatives are outside the jail, anxious for news.

Authorities say a group of what they call "hostile" inmates are using their weapons to control some 1,000 prisoners in one section of the prison.

Venezuela's overcrowded prisons see frequent riots between rival gangs.

The prison system, built to hold about 14,500 inmates, is currently estimated to house some 46,000 prisoners, according to the Venezuelan Prisons Observatory, which monitors prison conditions.

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Khodorkovsky to stay in prison

24 May 2011 Last updated at 13:34 GMT Mikhail Khodorkovsky (right) and Platon Lebedev were convicted together A Moscow court has upheld ex-tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky's second conviction appeal for fraud but cut his 14-year sentence by one year.

Khodorkovsky was convicted in December of embezzling nearly $30bn (?19bn, 21bn euros) worth of his own company's oil and laundering the proceeds.

He had told the court his conviction, which extended his existing jail term by six years, was "absurd".

It appears he will not be eligible for release now until 2016.

The prosecution and imprisonment of Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man as owner of the energy giant Yukos, have been widely criticised outside Russia.

His fate has been seen by some as punishment for seeking to support a liberal opposition in Russian politics, and thereby challenging Vladimir Putin, the former president and current prime minister.

'Spitting on the law'

Questions over his conviction gathered new force in February, when the sentencing judge was accused of having changed his verdict, under external pressure.

Judge Viktor Danilkin denied the accusation, levelled by his court aide, Natalya Vasilyeva.

In a speech to the court on Tuesday, Khodorkovsky said "it was clear" the accusations against him and the sentence which had been handed down were "absurd".

He called on the three appeal court judges to throw out the case.

"Either overturn the sentence and put at end to this disgrace or you will join those criminals who spit on the law," Khodorkovsky said.

He was certain, he said, his fate was being decided outside the court and added that he would not seek clemency.

Appealing along with him is his business partner, Platon Lebedev.

Arrested in 2003, the two men were eventually sentenced to nine years' prison in 2005 for fraud and tax evasion, a term also later reduced by one year.

The new prison sentence handed down in December is running concurrently with the first term.

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Prison for Cyprus bodysnatchers

16 May 2011 Last updated at 17:00 GMT Tassos Papadopoulos died of lung cancer in 2008 A Cyprus court has found three men guilty of stealing the body of the former President Tassos Papadopoulos.

Two Greek Cypriot brothers and an Indian national were found guilty of taking the body from the grave in 2009.

They were given prison sentences of up to 20 months for the crimes of exhuming a corpse and trespass.

One of the brothers hoped to use the body to negotiate his release from prison, where he is serving life sentences for murder.

A few months after the theft the police found the body buried at a cemetery in suburban Nicosia three miles (5km) away from where it was originally buried.

They discovered the corpse after the Indian national, Sabrjit Singh, contacted the former president's family asking for money and saying he felt guilty.

Singh received an 18-month sentence while the two brothers - Antonis Prokopiou Kitas and Mamas Kitas - were given a sentence of 20 months each.

Prokopiou Kitas is believed to have masterminded and organised the robbery via his mobile phone from his prison cell at Nicosia Central Prison.

Papadopoulos died of lung cancer at the age of 74 in December 2008.

His body was taken from its coffin one day before a memorial service was due to be held to mark the first anniversary of his death from cancer.

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