Libya conflict: Kidnapped Italian journalists freed Skip to main content

Libya conflict: Kidnapped Italian journalists freed

From left: Elisabetta Rosaspina, Giuseppe Sarcina, Domenico Quirico and Claudio Monici The four were kidnapped in Tripoli on Wednesday

Libya Crisis

Four Italian journalists kidnapped and held by suspected loyalists of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi have been freed.
The journalists were reportedly released during a raid on the house in Tripoli in which they were being held. They were unharmed.
They had been abducted and their driver was killed in the capital on Wednesday.
One of them, Domenico Quirico, told his Turin-based newspaper La Stampa: "Now I'm fine. Until about an hour ago I thought I'd be dead."
The others were Elisabetta Rosaspina and Giuseppe Sarcina, from Milan daily Corriere della Sera, and Claudio Monici, from Avvenire, the daily of the Italian Catholic Bishops Conference.
"They are now in a hotel with other Italian journalists. They are well," an Italian foreign ministry spokesman told AFP news agency.
Possessions stolen Mr Monici told reporters they had been stopped by fighting close to Col Gaddafi's former headquarters after an assignment in Tripoli's Green Square.
The armed kidnappers killed their driver in front of them, locked the journalists inside a house and stole possessions including a camera, cash and passports, he said.
"There were a lot of people with guns - very angry, saying 'you are Italian, you are bombing'," Mr Monici said.
Italy has been part of Nato's bombing campaign against Col Gaddafi's forces.
"I'm thinking of the family of the driver. He was a good friend," Mr Monici added.
Mr Sarcina said the captors had treated the hostages well and that they eventually received help to escape.
However, it remained unclear who had freed them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14662780
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chronology of the Press in Burma

1836 – 1846 * During this period the first English-language newspaper was launched under British-ruled Tenasserim, southern  Burma . The first ethnic Karen-language and Burmese-language newspapers also appear in this period.     March 3, 1836 —The first English-language newspaper,  The Maulmain Chronicle , appears in the city of Moulmein in British-ruled Tenasserim. The paper, first published by a British official named E.A. Blundell, continued up until the 1950s. September 1842 —Tavoy’s  Hsa-tu-gaw  (the  Morning Star ), a monthly publication in the Karen-language of  Sgaw ,  is established by the Baptist mission. It is the first ethnic language newspaper. Circulation reached about three hundred until its publication ceased in 1849. January 1843 —The Baptist mission publishes a monthly newspaper, the Christian  Dhamma  Thadinsa  (the  Religious Herald ), in Moulmein. Supposedly the first Burmese-language newspaper, it continued up until the first year of the second Angl
Post a Comment
Read more

ARSA claims ambush on Myanmar security forces

Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Sunday claimed responsibility for an ambush on Myanmar security forces that left several wounded in northern Rakhine state, the first attack in weeks in a region gutted by violence. Rakhine was plunged into turmoil last August, when a series of ARSA raids prompted a military backlash so brutal the UN says it likely amounts to ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya minority. The army campaign sent some 650,000 Rohingya fleeing for Bangladesh, where refugees have given harrowing accounts of rape, murder and arson at the hands of security forces and vigilantes. Myanmar's military, which tightly controls information about Rakhine, denies any abuses and insists the crackdown was a proportionate response to crush the "terrorist" threat. ARSA have launched few attacks in recent months.  But the army reported that "about ten" Rohingya terrorists ambushed a car with hand-made mines and gunfire on Friday morning
Post a Comment
Read more

Thai penis whitening trend raises eyebrows

Image copyright LELUXHOSPITAL Image caption Authorities warn the procedure could be quite painful A supposed trend of penis whitening has captivated Thailand in recent days and left it asking if the country's beauty industry is taking things too far. Skin whitening is nothing new in many Asian countries, where darker skin is often associated with outdoor labour, therefore, being poorer. But even so, when a clip of a clinic's latest intriguing procedure was posted online, it quickly went viral. Thailand's health ministry has since issued a warning over the procedure. The BBC Thai service spoke to one patient who had undergone the treatment, who told them: "I wanted to feel more confident in my swimming briefs". The 30-year-old said his first session of several was two months ago, and he had since seen a definite change in the shade. 'What for?' The original Facebook post from the clinic offering the treatment, which uses lasers to break do
1 comment
Read more