An Italian aid worker kidnapped in Afghanistan this week is safe, the Afghan foreign minister said yesterday, but he added he had no further details on the abduction.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah also urged world media to act responsibly after a Newsweek report that US military interrogators had desecrated the Koran sparked violent demonstrations in Afghanistan and other Muslim countries.
Newsweek issued a retraction on the report on Monday.
Afghan authorities are searching for 32-year-old Clementina Cantoni, a worker for the CARE International aid agency, who was kidnapped in central Kabul on Monday.
"I can only say that some government officials in security sector of the government are in contact and they are aware of the safety of the kidnapped, but I have no further information," Abdullah told a news conference in Tokyo. The abduction raised fresh fears among Kabul's 2,000-strong foreign community of Iraq-style kidnappings by anti-government insurgents, but President Hamid Karzai's spokesman said on Tuesday that robbers could be behind the incident.
Concerns over security in Afghanistan have also been fuelled by anti-US protests that killed 16 and injured more than 100 last week, set off by the Newsweek report that US interrogators had flushed the Muslim holy book down a toilet.
"The news it turned was not true. But it is very unfortunate that due to the spread of that news we had too many casualties and a lot of disturbances in Afghanistan," Abdullah said.
"That shows how important, how sensitive is what media is doing. A very credible magazine like Newsweek in just one line of news, what could be the impact," Abdullah said.
The White House called on Newsweek on Tuesday to help repair damage to the US' image in the Muslim world caused by the report.
"So in this world, they call it a global village, it shows how sensitive we should be, how we should deal with these issues with care and attention and a sense of responsibility in order to avoid these sort of damages," Abdullah said.
Abdullah said on Wednesday that Afghanistan's security situation was under control, and that there was no widespread anti-US feeling among ordinary Afghans.
Asked whether Karzai would request a permanent US military presence in Afghanistan at his May 23 meeting with US President George W. Bush, Abdullah said only that troops would be one of the main topics of discussion.
Abdullah, in Tokyo for talks on aid and reconstruction with Japanese officials, was due to leave for Dubai later on Thursday.
In related news, six civilians were killed by suspected Taliban in an ambush early yesterday near Qalat in Afghanistan's restive southern Zabul province, the provincial police chief said.
"Six people who were carrying a body in a vehicle were ambushed by Taliban on Aman bridge near Qalat city and they were all killed," said provincial police chief Amir Mohamed. "The attackers [might have] thought it was a government vehicle because it was around 2am and it was dark." The victims were driving the body to Kabul, he said.
A day earlier suspected Taliban insurgents ambushed a vehicle in neighboring Helmand province and killed five Afghan reconstruction workers. The five -- three engineers, their driver and a police guard -- were killed in Grishk district in the troubled southeastern province of Helmand, provincial spokesman Mohammad Wali said.
Also on Wednesday, Afghan security forces acting on a tip-off raided a Taliban hideout and captured six members of the ousted regime in Kandahar province, an intelligence official said.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
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