■ Italy
Pope intervenes in EU row
Pope John Paul intervened on Thursday in the EU's institutional impasse caused by the opposition of mem-bers of the European Parliament (MEPs) to his close friend and confidant Rocco Buttiglione, an out-spoken critic of gay and women's rights, becoming the EU's justice commis-sioner. The Pope called for a resolution of the crisis by "reciprocal respect in a spirit of goodwill." His intervention came at an audience with outgoing EU commission president Romano Prodi. The Pope told Prodi that the EU was wrong to leave Europe's centuries-old Christian heri-tage out of its Constitution.
■ Italy
German faces charges
A prominent left-wing German politician faces charges of mass murder for his alleged role in one of Italy's most gruesome wartime atrocities. Military prosecutors in La Spezia, have sent a formal caution to 89-year-old Klaus Konrad, a former Social Democrat member of the German parliament. Prosecutors accuse him of taking part in a string of massacres in 1944 near Arezzo in which some of the victims were buried alive and others were blown apart with explo-sives. Many were tortured before they were killed. In an interview by the German public broadcast system ARD on Thursday, Konrad admitted to having been present when the civilians were tortured. He expressed regret for the killings but said he had done so "only since the Italians have got me by the scruff of the neck."
■ South Africa
Crime barriers approved
Wealthy Johannesburg suburbs won the right to seal themselves off against crime on Thursday, despite claims that this marks a return to the no-go areas of the apartheid era. The city council approved requests from dozens of commun-ities to close their roads with barriers staffed by private guards to monitor and control access. Advo-cates defended the measure by pointing out that many residents of gated commun-ities are black.
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