- Discord seen as online home for renegades
- US forecasts severe solar storm starting Thursday
- Ratan Tata: Indian mogul who built a global powerhouse
- One dead as storm Kirk tears through Spain, Portugal, France
- Indian business titan Ratan Tata dead at 86
- Fed minutes highlight divisions over rate cut decision
- Steve McQueen debuts new WWII film at London festival
- Nobel winners hope protein work will spur 'incredible' breakthroughs
- What are proteins again? Nobel-winning chemistry explained
- AI steps into science limelight with Nobel wins
- Overshooting 1.5C risks 'irreversible' climate impact: study
- Demis Hassabis, from chess prodigy to Nobel-winning AI pioneer
- Global stocks diverge as Chinese shares tumble
- Time runs out in Florida to flee Hurricane Milton
- Chad issues warning ahead of more devastating floods
- Creator's death no bar to new 'Dragon Ball' products
- Chinese stocks tumble on lack of fresh stimulus
- Trio wins chemistry Nobel for protein design, prediction
- Braving war: Lebanon's 'badass' airline defies odds
- US weighs Google breakup in landmark trial
- Chinese stocks tumble on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- 7-Eleven owner confirms new takeover offer from Couche-Tard
- A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand
- Can carbon credits help close coal plants?
- Boeing suspends negotiations with striking workers
- 7-Eleven owner's shares spike on report of new buyout offer
- Your 'local everything': what 7-Eleven buyout battle means for Japan
- AI-aided research, new materials eyed for Nobel Chemistry Prize
- The US economy is solid: Why are voters gloomy?
- Scientists sound AI alarm after winning physics Nobel
- Nobel-winning physicist 'unnerved' by AI technology he helped create
- Trump secretly sent Covid tests to Putin: Bob Woodward book
- Neural networks, machine learning? Nobel-winning AI science explained
- Boeing delivers 27 MAX jets in September despite strike
- Stock markets diverge as Hong Kong sinks, oil prices fall
- US trade gap narrowest in five months as imports slip
- Stay and 'you are going to die': Florida braces for next hurricane
- Geoffrey Hinton, soft-spoken godfather of AI
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for 'foundational' AI breakthroughs
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China slaps provisional tariffs on EU brandy imports
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for key breakthroughs in AI
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free soon after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China says to take anti-dumping measures against EU brandy imports
- China stocks rally fizzles on stimulus worries amid Asia retreat
- China stocks rally peters out on stimulus worries amid Asia retreat
- Taiwan's Foxconn says building world's largest 'superchip' plant
- Nobel literature jury may go for non-Western writer
- From Bolivia to Indonesia, deforestation continues apace
- China holds off on fresh stimulus but 'confident' will hit growth target
Cousin of Sicilian mob boss fights 'Mafia mentality'
As the son of a mafioso turned state witness and a cousin of captured Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro, Giuseppe Cimarosa has seen the Sicilian Mafia and its intimidation tactics up close.
But while many in Messina Denaro's hometown of Castelvetrano stayed silent following his arrest last week after 30 years on the run, Cimarosa organised a demonstration against the Mafia in front of the mobster's ancestral home.
"Now the real battle is cultural. Now you have to change people's mentality," the 40-year-old riding instructor told AFP at his stables in the town in western Sicily, where the mob boss was born and reigned with terror.
"Now the enemy is no longer the Mafia but the Mafia-like behaviour or simply a way of thinking that unfortunately is still rampant.
"We must start with teaching in schools, and then the state has to support those who, like me, rebel."
Cimarosa was disappointed that the turnout at last week's small protest was not higher, but he himself breathed a sigh of relief at Messina Denaro's arrest.
"The Mafia is not as unbeatable as it thought it was," he said, adding that he felt "a little safer".
- Wall of omerta -
The Cosa Nostra, immortalised in the Godfather movies, had already changed from the ruthless organisation that three decades ago murdered judges and set off deadly car bombs in Italy's major cities.
Those acts of violence trigged a years-long crackdown by the state, and experts say the Mafia has now been eclipsed by other groups in Italy, notably the 'Ndrangheta in the southern region of Calabria.
But it was strong enough to keep Messina Denaro protected for 30 years on the run.
The culture of 'omerta' -- the protective silence that surrounds the Mafia -- was evident to journalists covering the aftermath of his arrest, which occurred as he visited a health clinic in Palermo.
"The mafia bases all its strength on fear, and so people are scared of exposing themselves.
"They don't want to be mixed up in it, they don't want to risk anything and prefer to turn away -- without realising that this is something that affects everybody," Cimarosa said.
His father Lorenzo had married into the Messina Denaro family, marrying the mob boss's cousin -- Cimarosa's mother -- and "helping" them, including "supporting them financially", Cimarosa said.
But after being arrested, Lorenzo agreed to work with the authorities, and "broke a wall of omerta that until then was very strong".
- Threats -
For Cimarosa, his mother and brother, the betrayal -- as his father's collaboration was seen -- created a "stigma for me, for my family, that has been difficult to shake off".
They declined government protection, with Cimarosa insisting he would not give up his identity "because of a criminal who I neither know or have ever met".
"We never received explicit threats. But some things happened that made me think they could be messages," he said.
"Years ago, I found one of my horses dead... and then shortly after my father's death his tomb was destroyed twice."
He admits to thinking "practically every day" about leaving Sicily.
"However, I stayed because I believe that this is my mission. Because it would have been too easy to say what I said far away," he said.
"My words have more value if I say them from Castelvetrano."
U.Ndiaye--CPN