World Briefs

PARIS – Police acting on a warning Tuesday found a bundle of dynamite inside a Paris department store at the height of the Christmas season, and a group demanding that France withdraw from Afghanistan claimed responsibility.

Sticks of dynamite tied together but without a detonator were found in the Printemps department store.

Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said the explosives appeared "relatively old." Police said they were found in the third floor restroom of the menswear department.

ATHENS, Greece – Protesters forced their way into Greece's state NET television news studio Tuesday and interrupted a news broadcast featuring the prime minister so they could urge viewers to join mass anti-government demonstrations.

For more than a minute, about 10 youths blocked a broadcast showing a speech by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis. Instead, they displayed banners reading: "Stop watching, get out onto the streets," and "Free everyone who has been arrested." No one was hurt, no arrests were reported.

ROME – Italian police backed by helicopters arrested almost 90 suspected mobsters Tuesday and thwarted a plan by the hobbled Sicilian Mafia to reconstitute itself and form a new ruling commission to set strategy, authorities said.

Carabinieri police in Palermo said the operation there and in other Sicilian cities was one of the largest in recent years and gave investigators a picture of the new highest echelons of the Mafia. It also prevented possible bloodshed as bosses vied to control the commission.

The raids involved 1,200 police officers and helicopters.

Police in Palermo said a total of 89 suspects were arrested, while others remained at large. The arrests followed nine months of wiretapping that shed light on the Mafia's dealings and structure.

The arrests targeted the bosses of local families and lower-level mobsters intent on setting up the commission.

CANBERRA, Australia – You've been "superpoked" — and served. A court in Australia has approved the use of Facebook, a popular social networking Web site, to notify a couple that they lost their home after defaulting on a loan.

The Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court last Friday approved lawyer Mark McCormack's application to use Facebook to serve the legally binding documents after several failed attempts to contact the couple at the house and by e-mail.

Australian courts have given permission in the past for people to be served via e-mail and text messages when it was not possible to serve them in person.

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