The latest episode of Italian xenophobia

"The reaction to the death of these children goes beyond anything that has happened before. The incident has exposed a long-held social realism in our country: that many working-class people think the Roma no better than animals, and the government is using this xenophobia to win votes and popularity. People are ashamed. The deaths of these girls has come to represent something more, perhaps a battle for Italy's soul."
-- Francesca Saudino, a campaigning Naples-based lawyer with Osservazione, a Roma rights organization, quoted in The Observer in an article on the recent (non)reaction in Italy to the deaths of two teenaged Romani girls on a beach in Naples

Tilos az a

Macedonian bear convicted for theft of honey.

"For a while, he kept the animal away by buying a generator, lighting up the area, and playing thumping Serbian turbo-folk music."


. . . In other news, a Czech scientist determines that beer drinking is negatively correlated with academic productivity and the likelihood that your article will be cited by your peers.

Those of you with institutional access (and therefore a vested interest in the results, of course!) can view the Grim news here.