One of the two freed Italian aid workers said yesterday that their abductors in Iraq taught them about Islam and reassured them they wouldn't die. While the women rested with their families after a joyous reunion, questions were raised about whether a US$1 million ransom had been paid to secure their freedom.
Simona Torretta spoke briefly to a mob of reporters outside the front door of the apartment building where her family lives on the outskirts of Rome before dawn, a few hours after being questioned by Italian investigators.
Torretta and Simona Pari, who was also freed in Baghdad on Tuesday after three weeks in captivity, had flown to Rome late Tuesday night. Two Iraqis abducted with them were also freed.
Asked if she feared she would die during her captivity, Torretta first said "Yes." Then she added that their abductors "reassured us. They understood the work we did" for a volunteer group in Iraq.
She described her kidnappers as "religious. They taught us and wanted to teach us about the principles of Islam," Torretta said. "They never touched us. They treated us with great dignity."
Pari, who like Torretta is 29, returned to her family's home in Rimini, on the Adriatic coast. The former hostages work for the aid group "Un Ponte per ..." (A bridge to ...), which carries out water projects and helps Iraq children.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, who had visited several Middle East capitals as part of efforts to secure the women's release, flatly denied on Italian state radio that ransom had been paid.
But Gustavo Selva, the head of an Italian parliamentary foreign affairs commission, has told reporters that he personally believed the ransom was paid even if the government denies it, said Selva's spokesman, Eugenio Marcucci.
Selva is a member of National Alliance, a partner in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government.
La Stampa, a moderate Turin daily, quoted Berlusconi as brushing off the questions over ransom, saying "About this business, we won't say anything. Even more, we won't talk about it any more."
On a local government building in Rome, the words "Freedom, welcome back" were added to a banner with photos of the two women.
Meanwhile, US and Iraqi forces raided suspected insurgent hideouts in the heart of the capital yesterday, sparking clashes along a main Baghdad thoroughfare as violence continued unabated.
Iraqi security forces backed by US troops arrested a suspected terrorist operating on Baghdad's bloodied Haifa Street, cornering him yesterday in a closet as he tried to conceal his face with his wife's underwear, an Iraqi National Guard commander said.
Outside of Baghdad, at least 13 persons were killed in separate drive-by shootings, ambushes and grenade attacks late Tuesday and yesterday.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not
RSS