News In Brief

No US comment on report about '81 shooting of Pope

The State Department refused comment Monday on reports that the Italian state prosecutor had concluded that the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II was part of a plot in which the Bulgarian secret service played a key role.

The secret 78-page report concluded the attempt was an effort to fragment Poland's independent labor movement, journalist Claire Sterling reported in Sunday's New York Times.

The report by Italian state prosecutor Antonio Albano, which seeks the indictments of three Bulgarians and six Turks, concludes that the assassination attempt was arranged by members of Turkish mob and neo-Nazi groups as well as by Bulgarian agents, the newspaper reported.