ITALY: ITALY'S HIGHEST court has ruled that the nation's paramilitary police, the Carabinieri, must avoid having extra-marital affairs in order to avoid sullying the force's name.
The ruling stemmed from one carabiniere's appeal against a lower court ruling sentencing him to four months imprisonment for insulting and threatening to throw a desk at his boss, who had asked the policeman to break off an affair with a married woman.
Italy's court of cassation agreed that any affair is a private matter, but noted that the military police were called to "exemplary conduct and could not bring discredit to the armed forces with extra-marital relationships".
The Carabinieri, Italy's gendarmerie, are the most prominent of several national police forces. Their motto is "Faithful through the centuries". - (Reuters)
