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Spate of Rapes Spark Calls for Patrols, Punishment in Italy

by Associated Press

   ROME --

   Officials are calling for increased police patrols and new laws to
   punish perpetrators after a spate of rapes around Italy.
   After two new cases emerged Tuesday, Rome mayor Virginia Raggi declared
   it has been "a black September for Italy."
   In Rome, a German woman reported being raped, robbed and bound in the
   swank Villa Borghese park overnight.
   And in Catania, police on Tuesday arrested a man who allegedly raped a
   doctor to whom he had gone for medical help.
   The attacks followed a case in Florence where two American students
   said two carabinieri officers raped them after offering them a ride
   home from a disco in their patrol car. And in August, a Polish tourist
   was raped and her partner beaten during a beach attack in Rimini.