Bush May Offer Kim Official End to Korean War

SEOUL, South Korea — President Bush may offer the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, an official end to the Korean War as an incentive to persuade him to scrap his nuclear weapons program. Mr. Bush said in a meeting with President Hu of China that the American government “can announce an official end to the Korean War,” the White House press secretary, Tony Snow, told reporters on Air Force One, traveling to Ho Chi Minh city from Hanoi on Sunday, according to a transcript of his remarks. “Certainly, President Hu seemed to think that that was a good way to proceed.”

— Bloomberg News

Comedian, Professor Among 21 Killed in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Assassins killed a popular TV comedian and a college professor but failed in attempts to kill two Iraqi government officials as the country’s leader met with Syria’s foreign minister about improving security and reopening diplomatic relations. In all, 21 Iraqis were killed in a series of attacks in Baghdad, Ramadi, Baqouba, and near the Syrian border, and the bodies of 26 Iraqis who had been kidnapped and tortured were found on the streets of the capital; in Dujail, north of Baghdad; and in the Tigris River in southern Iraq, police said.

— Associated Press

Italy’s Secret Services Overhauled Amid CIA Flap

ROME — Prime Minister Prodi’s government overhauled Italy’s secret services, replacing the heads of its three intelligence branches amid allegations of involvement in a Central Intelligence Agency-led kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric. “We have chosen people outside the political circles,” Mr. Prodi told reporters in Rome, after a special Cabinet meeting approved the changes.

— Bloomberg News

Ex-Chinese Bank Head Accused in Sex Scandal

BEIJING — The former head of the Bank of China in Hong Kong has been accused of spending more than $500,000 on plastic surgery for his mistress, in the latest of a series of sex scandals exposed in the state-run press. Liu Jinbao is said to have confessed that he wanted to make his mistress look more like his high school sweetheart, from whose rejection he never recovered. The leaking of court records relating to his conviction for corruption comes as a string of senior figures from the Communist Party and big business fall victim to a nationwide purge, centered on Shanghai.

— The Daily Telegraph