NAPLES, Italy — U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, warning that organized crime is a “poison” threatening democracy, urged governments Monday to fight back against the growing

power of the world’s criminal networks. Opening a three-day ministerial conference on cross-border crime, he told delegates from 138 countries that the tentacles of “crime multinationals”

had spread across the globe. The conference is the highest-level meeting called by the United Nations on organized crime. MORE TO READ