2 Aid Workers Are Freed After 3 Weeks in Captivity (Iraq)

[Eye and Monkey]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/29/international/middleeast/29iraq.html

Published: September 29, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 28 - Two Italian aid workers kidnapped 21 days ago in an audacious daylight raid were freed Tuesday, the prime minister of Italy announced. Two Iraqi aid workers abducted with the women were also freed.

The two Italians, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, both 29, were taken on Sept. 7 by a group of about 20 men carrying AK-47's and pistols with silencers. They stormed the women's home and office in central Baghdad. The release ended three weeks of a national ordeal for Italy, where crowds had held street vigils to plead for the lives of the women.

"The two girls are well and will be able to embrace their loved ones tonight," Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, said at a news conference in Rome, according to ANSA, the government press service. "I have just rung their families to tell them."

Just before Mr. Berlusconi's news conference, Al Jazeera, the Arab satellite news channel, reported that the women had been handed over to an Italian diplomat in Baghdad.

[bloodyjack]

1. Good news

but nonetheless a dupe

[Moderator]

2. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=870350