Soviet assassinations

This isn't exactly new, but it hasn't received nearly as much attention as it should have. An Italian commission has confirmed has confirmed that the Soviet Union was behind the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II.

Note: normally I wouldn't link to CBS news, since they have a history of making things up, but I have seen this information in several other sources, so I think it's safe.

What I find interesting about this is that a few years later, the Soviet Union shot down flight KAL 007, whose most famous passenger was Congressman Larry McDonald (D-GA), perhaps the staunchest anti-communist in Congress. The shoot-down was written up as an accident. It is worth noting that the General Secretary of the USSR at the time was Yuri Andropov, a hard-liner who ran the KGB at the time of the attempt on the Pope's life.