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03/03/2006:

"Pope's Shooting Laid to Soviets by Italian Panel"

ROME, March 2 — Citing new photographic analysis, an Italian parliamentary commission has concluded that top Soviet leaders were behind the failed plot to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981.

"This commission holds, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the leadership of the Soviet Union took the initiative to eliminate Pope Karol Wojtyla," the commission wrote, using John Paul's given name, in a preliminary report released to news organizations this week. The report needs approval by Parliament.

The report has no legal bearing, but reopens a central unanswered question from the cold war era: Whether Bulgarian secret agents, working on behalf of the Soviets, played a role in the shooting in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981, which gravely wounded John Paul.

The report claims that the Soviet leadership saw John Paul as a threat because of his support for the Solidarity trade union, which worked to undermine Soviet control in his native Poland.
nytimes.com

oh. okay.


Hamas Heads to Moscow in Search for Legitimacy
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Hamas embarks on a quest for international legitimacy on Friday with an official visit to Russia, marking the Islamic militant group's first talks with a major power involved in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

Although it deals a blow to U.S.-led efforts to isolate Hamas since it swept Palestinian elections in January, Russia's mediation is seen by some in the West as a chance to talk the faction into renouncing violence and recognizing Israel.