Rome

Italy may reject findings on agent’s death

Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Thursday that Italy might not endorse U.S. findings on the shooting of an Italian agent by American forces at a checkpoint last month in Iraq, news reports said.

Commenting on the joint investigation by the two nations into the March 4 shooting of Nicola Calipari, Berlusconi said “we certainly will never endorse things that do not convince us,” according to news agencies ANSA and Apcom. “If there are differing positions, they will emerge.”

Italy and the United States have given differing accounts of the shooting, in which U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint mistakenly fired on a vehicle carrying Calipari. The agent was escorting freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena to the Baghdad airport. Sgrena and an intelligence agent driving the car were wounded.

News reports have said U.S. investigators concluded their soldiers bore no blame for the incident.

Mexico City

Moves clear mayor’s presidential bid

President Vicente Fox declared Thursday that the “storm clouds” had cleared in a national political crisis after he took steps Wednesday to allow Mexico City’s mayor, a popular presidential candidate, to remain in the 2006 race despite being charged with a minor federal crime.

Late Wednesday, Fox announced he had accepted the resignation of the federal attorney general who was vigorously pursuing a legal case against the mayor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, amid mounting public consternation and unrest.

Fox said Thursday he made the move to ensure the legitimacy of Mexico’s political system ahead of next year’s election and to restore investor confidence in its economic stability, which has been shaken by the controversy.

Jerusalem

Putin warns Iranians on nuclear weapons

On the first visit by a Kremlin leader to Israel, Russia’s Vladimir Putin soothed his hosts Thursday by aiming sharp words at Iran over its nuclear program.

Making a trip meant to cement relations after decades of Soviet-era discord, the Russian president said his country and Israel were linked by the Holocaust and the deaths of millions of Soviet citizens in World War II. And he noted Israel’s large population of Russian-speaking immigrants.

Putin scored points with Israeli leaders by warning Iran’s government not to seek nuclear weapons.

But Putin, who said in February he was certain Iran was not trying to build nuclear arms, stressed that Russia’s cooperation with Iran was for purely peaceful purposes.

Ethiopia

More peacekeepers approved for Darfur

The African Union agreed Thursday to more than triple the size of its peacekeeping force in Sudan’s western Darfur region, where U.N. officials say two years of fighting have created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

The AU’s Peace and Security Council approved boosting the force from 2,200 to more than 7,700, including nearly 5,500 troops, 1,600 civilian police and some 700 military observers, AU spokesman Assane Ba said.

AU Peace and Security Commissioner Said Djinnit said after the meeting the enhanced force would be in place by the end of September. Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda have pledged to contribute troops, he said.

The Darfur conflict broke out in February 2003 after rebels took up arms, complaining of discrimination by Sudan’s Arab-dominated government. The government is accused of responding by backing a scorched-earth counterinsurgency by Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed.

Jerusalem

Palestinian to enforce truce with ‘iron fist’

In his toughest warning to militants, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday threatened to strike with an “iron fist” anyone who violates a truce with Israel and pledged quiet during Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements this summer.

Meanwhile, about 10,000 Israelis streamed into one of the West Bank settlements slated for evacuation to protest the pullout. The rally was far smaller than organizers had expected.

Abbas has been under pressure from Israel and the United States to crack down on militants, who had a relatively free hand under Abbas’ predecessor, the late Yasser Arafat. Abbas has preferred to negotiate with the militants, who are viewed as resistance heroes by many Palestinians.

Most of the militant groups have agreed to a truce with Israel, declared in February. While violence has dropped sharply, militants have fired rockets and homemade missiles at Jewish settlements in Gaza as part of an effort to prove they are driving Israel out under fire.