Italy pardons US Air Officer in CIA case

Italy\'s president has pardoned a US Air Force colonel convicted in absentia by Italian courts for the CIA-conducted abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect from a Milan street, ABC News reported on Friday. President Giorgio Napolitano\'s office said Friday he hoped the pardoning of Joseph Romano would ease a \"delicate\" situation between the two allies, which cooperate closely on security. Romano was security chief of northern Italy\'s Aviano air base where the abducted Egyptian cleric Hassan Nassr (Abu Omar) was taken before being flown out of the country and eventually to Egypt. Romano\'s defense said he was never formally notified of charges. Twenty-three Americans were convicted, all in absentia.