Italian inmates on hunger strike

SPOLETO, Italy, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- More than 700 life sentence inmates in Spoleto, Italy, refused to eat for the third day Monday, demanding the reinstatement of the death penalty.

The initiative has spread to at least 50 other penitentiaries since its conception, ANSA reported Monday.

An outside group calling itself "99/99/9999" briefly occupied ANSA's offices in Paris Monday, delivering a statement.

"Out of 1,295 people serving life sentences 755 have decided to take part in this strike along with 8,400 other inmates, relatives and friends," the group said.

The protest "follows the collective request of 310 lifers last June asking for the reinstatement of the death penalty for themselves" because they were "tired of dying a little bit every day" and preferred "to die once and for all," the statement said.