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By Compiled From Wire Service Dispatches With Analysis From Monitor Correspondents Around The World; Edited By Laurent Belsie

April 25, 1983

Italy's case linking a Bulgarian with the 1981 shooting of Pope John Paul II was crumbling, two leading Italian newspapers said. The Milan daily Corriere della Sera and Turin's La Stampa said witnesses had shown to be false a key part of the testimony of Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman charged with the shooting. He had said Bulgarian airline official Sergei Antonov had helped him.