A Catholic archbishop kidnapped in Iraq has been freed, the Vatican said yesterday.
Pope John Paul II was informed immediately of the release, said papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls.
"He changed his prayer to one of thanks," he said.
A ransom of US$200,000 had been demanded at first but the bishop was released without the payment of any money, the Vatican said.
The prelate kidnapped on Monday was Basile Georges Casmoussa, 66, of the Syrian Catholic Church, one of the branches of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Vatican had branded the kidnapping a "despicable terrorist act" and demanded his immediate release.
A priest in Iraq said on condition of anonymity that the archbishop was walking in front of the al-Bishara church in Mosul's eastern neighborhood of Muhandeseen when the gunmen forced him into a car and drove away.
The reason for the kidnapping was unclear but Christians -- tens of thousands of whom live in and around Mosul -- have been subjected to attacks in the past.
Navarro-Valls said the Vatican didn't view the kidnapping as an anti-Christian act but part of the general climate of violence in Iraq. He said the archbishop was well-loved in the community.
Meanwhile, eight Chinese nationals were kidnapped by militants in Iraq, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday, citing the Chinese embassy in Baghdad.
The al-Jazeera TV channel yesterday aired footage of the alleged prisoners in Iraq, whose abductors are threatening to execute them unless Beijing "clarifies its role" in Iraq within 48 hours.
The kidnappers said that the eight "worked with US forces in Iraq," the Qatar-based station said, showing the group surrounded by two hooded gunmen.
Elsewhere, Iraqi officials said yesterday that they will seal the country's borders, extend a nighttime curfew and restrict movement inside the country to protect voters during the Jan. 30 elections, which insurgents are seeking to ruin with a campaign of violence.
Attacks continued yesterday, with a suicide car bomber detonating explosives outside the offices of a leading Shiite political party, killing himself and three other people as part of an apparent rebel campaign to frighten Shiites from voting.
Also, masked gunmen killed a Shiite Muslim candidate in the Iraqi capital.
Sunni Muslim militants, who make up the bulk of Iraq's insurgency, are increasingly honing in on Shiites in their campaign to ruin the Jan. 30 election that is widely expected to propel their religious rivals to a position of dominance.
Yesterday morning's car bombing gouged a crater in the pavement, left several vehicles in flames and spread shredded debris and flesh on the street outside the offices of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), a main contender in the election.
The party has close ties to Iran and is strongly opposed by Sunni Muslim militants.
The assailant told guards at a checkpoint leading to the party's office that he was part of SCIRI's security staff, but detonated his bomb-laden car at the guard post when he was not allowed to enter.
The US military reported that the bomber and three others were dead and that four people were injured.
Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission announced that the country's international borders would be closed between Jan. 29 and Jan. 31, except for Muslim pilgrims who are returning from the hajj.
Iraqis will also be barred from traveling between provinces and a nighttime curfew will be imposed during the same period, a statement said.
A third US trooper also died in fighting in Iraq's troubled Anbar Province, west of Baghdad, the military said yesterday.
Two other soldiers assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were also killed in action there on Monday.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS