LONDON – Georgian businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili, who feared assassination and faced accusations of plotting a coup in his homeland, has died in Britain and British police are treating his death as suspicious.

ROME – An Italian soldier serving in Afghanistan was killed and another was wounded on Wednesday when gunmen opened fire on them, the Defence Ministry said.

BERLIN – Boosting the number of German troops in Afghanistan and shifting them to the violent south makes no strategic sense and would stretch military equipment to the limit, the main association for German soldiers said.