Italy

An Italian driver was stopped by astonished police in the southern city of Bari on Saturday when they saw him speaking on two phones with a handset in each hand and no control of the wheel.

Italian police conducted raids Monday throughout the country against suspected anarchists and their sympathizers following riots in Rome that marred a march against Wall Street greed, a top security official said.

Fitch Ratings downgraded Italy and Spain on concern they will struggle to improve their finances as Europe’s debt crisis intensifies, while Moody’s Investors Service put Belgium on review for a possible cut.

Standard and Poor's downgraded its unsolicited ratings on Italy by one notch to A/A-1 and kept its outlook on negative, a major surprise that threatens to add to concerns of contagion in the debt-stressed euro zone.

In a sign of his frustration at the investigations into his alleged crimes and misdemeanours, Silvio Berlusconi vowed in July to leave Italy, which he described as a "shitty country" that "sickened" him.