One of our Observers for Italy recently alerted us to the news that as part of a major clampdown on "gypsy" communities the government plans to compile a fingerprint database of the country's entire Roma population, including children. Read more...

Italian comedian Beppe Grillo called on the Italian electorate to boycott yesterday's parliamentary elections. On his blog, considered by Technorati as one of the world's top ten most popular, he slates the corruption of Italian politicians and the dependency of the media. Here, he comments on the elections for the Observers. Read more...