Italian police chief arrested in corruption bust

A police chief in the Italian city of Parma was arrested on Friday with 10 others, including local officials, in an investigation over alleged corruption in contracts to design public parks. "Hundreds of thousands of euros in public funds were defrauded... and hundreds of thousands were paid in bribes," the police said in a statement. Officials allegedly created their own companies to bid for public contracts and the police chief sold off secret information to the people involved. There has been a spate of corruption busts in northern Italy in recent weeks, with many linked to operations by the mafia that has managed to infiltrate local administrations outside its stronghold in southern Italy.