The judge who announced the guilty verdicts against Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for murder is facing allegations of impropriety.

Italy is expected to pick apart US conclusions on the shooting by American soldiers of an Italian agent in Baghdad, challenging a report that cleared US troops of any wrongdoing in the incident.

Romano Prodi, the European Union chief who also helps lead Italy’s largest opposition coalition, said in a letter published today that he has no doubt that the Italian left would end the nation’s military role in Iraq if elected to power.

A top Vatican official acknowledged today what many observers have long suspected: that Pope John Paul suffers from Parkinson’s disease. But he said the Pontiff’s prayers had helped him cope with the degenerative neurological disorder.