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Italy's highest court has handed down an astonishing judgment. In the same week that the Vatican has expressed concern that Catholics are abandoning Confession and losing their grip on the concept of "sin", Italy's Court of Cassation has ruled that married Italian women who commit adultery may legally lie about their bit on the side. Apparently, the court considers that being exposed as an adulterer would threaten a woman's honour, so it upholds the "right" of a woman to lie about her affair even in judicial investigations. This means she may lie to the police and lie under oath in a court with impunity. Italian men are, understandably, now asking if they enjoy the same legal protection. This ruling is so bizarre I thought I'd misread news reports, but I assure you that this is an accurate reporting of the Court's decision.

Incidentally, this is the same Court that ruled, previously, that a woman wearing jeans could not -- by definition -- be raped, since the fact that she was wearing jeans means they could only be removed with her permission. That judgment was later overturned after a pubic outcry. I suspect this new ruling may suffer the same fate. I imagine the Governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, wishes he had a court like that in his state. The Governor has now been given two days to resign before facing impeachment proceedings after acknowledging his role in a prostitution ring. Prostitution is currently illegal in the state of New York and the governor earned his reputation as "the Sherriff of Wall Street" through his work as an anti-corruption campaigner. In his previous guise as Attorney General, he also targeted prostitution rings in his state.