U.S. officials face limit on travel

Sudan’s president announced Sunday that visiting American officials would be barred from traveling more than 15 miles from the presidential palace in the capital, Khartoum, without a special permit.

President Omar al-Bashir, just back from the U.N. General Assembly in New York, said the new limits were in response to what he said was unfair scrutiny of Sudanese officials by U.S. Homeland Security during the U.S. visit.

“The measure is effective as of Monday,” al-Bashir said.

Meanwhile, the African Union said Sunday it will send more peacekeeping troops to Sudan’s Darfur region and toughen the soldiers’ role in protecting civilians while the international community pressures the Sudanese government to allow a U.N. military force.

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy

Pope honors slain nun’s ‘pardon’

Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday praised an Italian nun for pardoning her killers as she lay dying from an attack in Somalia that may have been linked to worldwide Muslim anger about his remarks on Islam and violence.

Benedict spoke to pilgrims at his Castel Gandolfo summer palace where he will meet today with ambassadors from predominantly Muslim countries in an effort to defuse tensions arising from a speech he gave Sept. 12 while on a pilgrimage in Germany.

Rosa Sgorbati, an Italian missionary who worked in a pediatrics hospital in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, under her religious name Sister Leonella, was shot by two gunmen on Sept. 17, the day Benedict apologized for offending Muslims. Her bodyguard also was killed.