Kidnappers threatening to kill a Filipino and two Bulgarians in Iraq kept the hostages' loved ones on tenterhooks yesterday, as Baghdad said security fears should not scare foreign workers away.
Militants had said they would kill Filipino driver Angelo de la Cruz on Sunday unless Manila vowed to bring its 51-strong contingent home by July 20, a month earlier than scheduled, but a Philippine official said the deadline had been extended.
"I think there are now new signals that the extension of the deadline has been given another 48-hour life," Labor Secretary Patricia Santo Tomas said, without elaborating.
Bulgaria said it was still confident its two nationals were alive despite the passing of an execution deadline on Friday.
"We ... have enough operational data which show that the two are alive and that the captors are receiving our messages through the Arabic satellite TV al Jazeera and the Bulgarian media," Defense Minister Nikolai Svinarov said.
Four days ago kidnappers threatened to kill the Bulgarians within 24 hours unless the US freed Iraqi prisoners.
Iraq said kidnappers should not be allowed to extract ransom or deter foreigners from working in the country.
"We still ask foreign workers to come to Iraq and try to rebuild Iraq, but also to be very careful and cautious," Mowaffaq Abboud, an adviser to Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, told a news conference.
"Still there are safe places for foreigners in Iraq," he said, citing southern and northern provinces.
The hostage crisis is among many challenges for Iraq's new government. President Ghazi al-Yawar was quoted yesterday as saying Baghdad would introduce an amnesty for rebels within "a couple of days."
Also see story:
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
‘BALANCE OF POWER’: Hegseth said that the US did not want to ‘strangle’ China, but to ensure that none of Washington’s allies would be vulnerable to military aggression Washington has no intention of changing the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Saturday, adding that one of the US military’s main priorities is to deter China “through strength, not through confrontation.” Speaking at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Hegseth outlined the US Department of Defense’s priorities under US President Donald Trump. “First, defending the US homeland and our hemisphere. Second, deterring China through strength, not confrontation. Third, increased burden sharing for us, allies and partners. And fourth, supercharging the US defense industrial base,” he said. US-China relations under
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday decided to shelve proposed legislation that would give elected officials full control over their stipends, saying it would wait for a consensus to be reached before acting. KMT Legislator Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍) last week proposed amendments to the Organic Act of the Legislative Yuan (立法院組織法) and the Regulations on Allowances for Elected Representatives and Subsidies for Village Chiefs (地方民意代表費用支給及村里長事務補助費補助條例), which would give legislators and councilors the freedom to use their allowances without providing invoices for reimbursement. The proposal immediately drew criticism, amid reports that several legislators face possible charges of embezzling fees intended to pay
RSS