A Muslim woman in Italy has been fined 500 euros (£430) for wearing a burka in what is believed to be the first case of its kind.
　　The Tunisian immigrant, Amel Marmouri, 26, was fined by police in the city of Novara, in the northern Piedmont region.
　　The town council is controlled by the right-wing Northern League, which has pushed for much tougher immigration controls and at a national level forms part of Silvio Berlusconi's coalition government.考试大论坛
　　Mrs Marmouri was in a post office when police officers stopped her and issued her with the fine.
　　"As far as I know this is a first in Italy," said police officer Mauro Franzinelli.
　　Her husband, Ben Salah Braim, 36, said the family would struggle to pay the penalty.
　　He said his wife would continue to wear the full-length item of clothing because he did not want her to be seen by other men, but in future she would be forced to stay at home most of the time.
　　Novara introduced an ordinance in January that prohibits the wearing of burkas. The regulation invokes a 1975 anti-terrorism law, which prohibits people from wearing anything that obscures their faces and impedes identification.
　　The mayor of the town, Massimo Giordano, a member of the Northern League, said he had hoped that the new ordinance would have deterred Muslim women from wearing burkas and niqabs.
　　"But unfortunately it is apparently not yet clear to everyone that clothes preventing the wearer's identification can be tolerated at home but not in public places, in schools, on buses or in post offices," he said.
　　He said the new rule was introduced because it is "the only tool at our disposal to stop behaviour that makes the already difficult process of integration even harder".
　　Last week Belgium's lower house of parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of a bill banning clothes or veils that do not allow the wearer to be fully identified, including the niqab and burka.
　　The ban, which will not enter force for weeks, now has to be approved by the Senate.
　　In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy's government is drafting a bill that would make it illegal to wear the burka.