Rome - Rome's Cafe de Paris, a symbol of the Dolce Vita as immortalized by filmmaker Federico Fellini, has been bought by a Calabrian mafia crime family, a newspaper reported Wednesday, citing a police report.

The Alvaro-Palamra clan of the 'Ndrangheta gained control of the celebrated watering hole after paying six million euros in cash (7.7 million dollars) Rome-based daily, La Repubblica, reported.

The establishment's purchase is part of the 'Ndrangheta's expansion from its southern Italian heartland into the real estate market of Rome, but also Germany, the Netherlands and Brazil, Repubblica said, quoting the anti-fraud police report.

New Delhi, Nov 26 : A man from the Xiaguan district in the Sichuan province called up the police 16 times for assistance after his wife locked him in their house to stop him from meeting his mistress.

The police had received the first call at 7:40 pm on November 13, and they came over to his house to see what the problem was.

The man told them at the time that he needed to meet a friend but was stopped by his wife, the China Daily reports.

When the cops came to know the wife’s side of the story, they decided that it was a domestic dispute and not a kidnapping and that they were powerless to do anything and left.

But the man did not leave things alone and kept on calling the police, and they came after his 16th call.

Amman - King Abdullah II of Jordan is to pay a state visit to South Korea st

New Delhi, Nov. 26 : The Indian Navy has defended its action in sinking a pirate ship in the Gulf of Aden waters near Somalia.

The pirate ship was originally a Thai fishing boat.

The Ekawat Nava 5 was captured by pirates on November 18 and the crew was tied up, the BBC quoted officials of the International Maritime Bureau, as saying.

The Indian Navy claimed that the ship was a pirate vessel in "description and intent" and it had opened fire first on the INS Tabar .

At least one crewperson was discovered alive after remaining adrift for six days. Fourteen others are still missing.

Bhopal, Nov 26 : Madhya Pradesh is all geared up for elections on Thursday.

Preparations are in full swing to ensure a peaceful and fair poll in 230 State Assembly seats. A record number of 3179 candidates, including 226 women and 1369 independents are in the fray for this year''s election.

Over 260 police and para military companies have been deployed across the state to maintain tight security during the casting of votes.

Stockholm - An upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poland was an important "halfway stage" to review efforts to forge a new climate deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012, Swedish Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren said Wednesday.

Among outcomes of the 12-day conference that opens Monday in Poznan, Sweden hoped to see "clear political guidelines" and "high political ambitions" for the UN Climate Summit to be hosted by neighbouring Denmark in December 2009, he said.