Dawn Patrol

• US, Italy at Odds Over Killing of Italian in Iraq

  CBS news has reported that a U.S. satellite had filmed the shooting and that it had been established the car carrying Calipari was traveling at more than 60 mph per hour as it approached the U.S. checkpoint in Baghdad.

  • U.S., Italy Fail to Agree on Slaying

    The United States and Italy disagreed Friday in the conclusions of a joint investigation into the slaying of an Italian agent by U.S. troops in Iraq, further straining ties between the two allies.

  • Los Angeles Times Editors Edit Reuters Story to Remove Critical Facts Supporting U.S. Position

    This morning?s L.A. Times publishes an article about the March 4 shooting by U.S. soldiers of a car bearing Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena. The shooting killed Italian intelligence officer Nicola Calipari, and created an international controversy, which strained U.S.-Italian relations.

• Iraq To Purge Corrupt Officers

  Iraq's Shiite Muslim leadership, alarmed by a surge in attacks as the new government prepares to take office, plans to crack down on Sunni-led insurgents and purge suspected infiltrators and corrupt officers from the nation's security forces, officials and lawmakers say.

• Insurgents Kill 17 Iraqis, U.S. Soldier

  Insurgents unleashed a series of deadly bombings in Iraq's capital and beyond Saturday, staging a series of carefully coordinated and increasingly sophisticated assaults that killed at least 65 over two days and appeared timed to deflate hopes in Washington and Baghdad that the nation's first democratically elected government would curb spiking violence.

• Wife, Mother Lost, But 'Will Of God' Spares Iraqi's Son

  A tiny cry rose from among corpses as Iraqi soldiers dug through the wreckage of a minibus caught in the rampage of suicide bombings that shook Baghdad on Friday.

  The soldiers followed the wail to two slumped passengers, one headless and the other burned beyond recognition. They gently lifted up the bodies to find 8-month-old Sajjad Hassan, bloodied but alive, spared from the blast by the bodies of his dead mother and grandmother.

• Turkish PM: Iraq Should Not Be Dominated

  Turkey's prime minister said Saturday that no ethnic group should hold sway over the new Iraq or try to carve up the country amid regional concerns that violence in the country could spread across their borders.

• Witness Given Immunity In Marine Hearing

  A military prosecutor pressed the claim Saturday that the shootings of two Iraqis by a Marine officer last year were executions, and said the officer should be court-martialed for premeditated murder and related charges.

  • Marine Tells Of Losing Key Role

    A key prosecution witness in the case of a Marine officer accused of killing two Iraqi detainees acknowledged yesterday that the defendant had stripped him of a unit leadership role days before the shootings

  • Hearing for Marine accused of murder closes after five days

    ...Coburn testified Saturday that he was ordered to return to the stand after he was granted immunity. He spent about seven hours testifying as Gittins relentlessly unveiled inconsistencies within statements Coburn has made to investigators, reporters, his wife and in court.

• Syria Restores Diplomatic Ties With Iraq

  Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa said Saturday that his country was restoring relations with Iraq after a break of more than two-decades in ties between the two neighbors.

  • Israeli spy master: 'Syrian president could be toppled'

    Syrian President Bashar Assad could be ousted from power as his regime fractures under immense political pressure, the head of Israeli military intelligence said in an interview published Friday.

• Germany May Take Bigger Role in Afghanistan: Defense Minister

  Germany is willing to take on a bigger role in Afghanistan if NATO wishes and the German parliament agrees, German Defense Minister Peter Struck said April 26, adding that his country could take over responsibility for all the north.

• Offering R.O.T.C. A Truce

  Every Friday afternoon, four undergraduates from Columbia University put on military uniforms and travel to the Bronx campus of Fordham University. There, the students - cadets in the Army's Reserve Officers Training Corps, a military leadership program that has been banned from Columbia's own campus since 1969 - study topics not listed in the course catalog, including land navigation and marching in formation.

• Troops Grateful For Encouragement

  Troops have written expressions of appreciation to the thousands of e-mails people from around the country have sent via the www.americasupportsyou.mil Web site.

• Mrs. Bush Steals Show at Reporters' Dinner

  First lady Laura Bush stole the show with a surprise comedy routine that ripped President Bush and brought an audience that included much of official Washington and a dash of Hollywood to a standing ovation at a dinner honoring award-winning journalists.