■ Israel
Police chase their own car
A police pursuit of suspected car thieves through the streets of an Israeli city ended with officers reporting another stolen vehicle -- their own. After crashing their own car into an electricity pole during the chase in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak, the three suspects abandoned it and tried to escape on foot, a police spokesman said on Sunday. Two policemen bolted from their police cruiser to try to catch them. One of the suspected thieves was arrested, another got away and the third man doubled back, jumped into the police car and sped off, the spokesman said. It was later found abandoned, its radio and computer screen smashed.
■ Brazil
Tunneling thieves arrested
Police on Friday arrested 28 members of a major criminal gang that has terrorized Sao Paulo in recent months. The gangsters were preparing to rob two banks by digging a tunnel. The suspects were all members of the gang called First Command of the Capital, or PCC in its Portuguese acronym, police said. Almost 200 people have died in Sao Paulo since May in three separate waves of attacks by the PCC on police stations, banks and government buildings. The gang is also tied to the country's biggest-ever bank robbery, which happened last year. At the time of the arrests in downtown Porto Alegre, 22 people were digging an 80m-long tunnel into the safes of two banks.
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