Every electoral period is always difficult, emotional.
The Rome bomb destroyed the entrance of a building housing an Italian-U.S. institute. Another bomb, which was set to have exploded about the same time, was destroyed by police in the northern city of Turin. He added there was a risk of international tension fomenting trouble in Italy, the scene of domestic and Middle East-related violence in the 1970s and early 1980s. The bombs were an attempt by groups to influence the May 13 polls, when Italians will elect a new parliament, said Luciano Violante, speaker of the lower house Chamber of Deputies. A group calling itself The Nucleus of Revolutionary and Proletarian Initiatives sent two long documents by e-mail to a national newspaper claiming responsibility for the Rome bomb.