Mafia boss arrested

ROME - Bernardo Provenzano, the chief of the Sicilian Mafia who has been on the run for more than four decades and was Italy's most wanted man, was arrested near Corleone in Sicily yesterday, officials say.

It was the state's biggest success against the Mafia in more than 13 years.

Provenzano, known as the "Phantom of Corleone" after the hill town in Sicily made famous by the Godfather films, has been running the Mafia since 1993, when former "boss of bosses" Toto Riina was arrested in the Sicilian capital Palermo.

The news bumped national election results off the top spot of television news bulletins.

Provenzano, 73, has been wanted since 1963 and was known as Italy's "super-fugitive". The last picture police had of him before his arrest was taken in 1959 when he was 25.

He was arrested in a farmhouse in the countryside near Corleone.

- REUTERS