■ France
PM staunch on euthanasia
Wading into a revived national debate about euthanasia, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin insisted Saturday that France doesn't need changes to its ban on mercy killings. Much of France has been transfixed over the case of Vincent Humbert, a severely disabled man who died Friday after his mother allegedly injected him with barbiturates during a hospital visit. Humbert had repeatedly expressed a desire to die, and the case touched of a new national debate over whether France should legalize mercy killings. Raffarin, said he was "very hesitant" about whether to allow a new debate in parliament.
■ Italy
Vatican refused to oust Hitler
Before Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini formally sealed their wartime alliance, Italy's Fascist dictator privately suggested that the Vatican consider excommunicating the Nazi leader, a historian said Saturday, citing a document recently opened by the Holy See. Experts were surprised by the document, but noted that Mussolini's remark came in April 1938, the year before he and Hitler joined in a formal alliance. Professor Emma Fattorini pointed out that Hitler had invaded Austria shortly before Mussolini's reported remark. The Italian dictator was worried about his own borders, she said.
■ United States
Pot judge suspended
The State of Michigan Supreme Court has suspended a judge who was spotted smoking marijuana at a rock concert after he admitted during a misconduct investigation that he used the drug about twice a year. A woman told court officials last October that she saw District Judge Thomas Gilbert smoke a joint at a concert in Detroit, 402km from Traverse City, where Gilbert works. The woman was from Elk Rapids, a town near Traverse City that lies within Gilbert's district. Gilbert apologized in a written statement and blamed alcoholism for his drug use. He said he did not plan to resign.
■ United Nations
Taylor may face tribunal
Liberia's exiled leader Charles Taylor could one day face trial at home for war crimes, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, where Taylor now enjoys asylum, said on Saturday. Branded a "psychopath" by the top UN official in Liberia, Taylor is largely blamed for a 14-year cycle of violence in his homeland and neighboring Sierra Leone in which more than a quarter of a million people have been killed. Nigeria gave him asylum as a way of ending the carnage in Liberia but has come under growing pressure to bring Taylor to book or hand him over to the UN-backed war crimes court in Sierra Leone.
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