Italian premier disputes US version of shooting

Demanding answers and disputing Washington’s version of events, Italy’s premier said an Italian intelligence agent who was shot to death by US troops in Baghdad had informed the proper authorities he was heading to the airport with a freed hostage.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi also told MPs yesterday that the car carrying agent Nicola Calipari and a just-liberated hostage was travelling slowly and stopped immediately when a light was flashed at a checkpoint, before US troops fired on the car.