|
Home>News Center>World | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Afghanistan to light 'beacon of hope' for kidnapped Italian
Afghan authorities said they would light a beacon on the hills above the capital to keep the fate of a kidnapped Italian aid worker in the public eye, as her ordeal stretched into its third week. People "will set a big fire on top of one of the mountains outside Kabul, it's the fire of hope for her release," Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said on Monday. United Nations officials Monday put their names to a petition for Clementina Cantoni's release which was also signed by hundreds of the Afghan widows she had worked with. Pope Benedict XVI and Cantoni's mother both appealed Sunday for her release. "I add my appeal to that of the presidents of Italy and Afghanistan, and of the Italian and Afghan people, to release the Italian aid worker Clementina Cantoni," said the pope after giving the traditional Angelus blessing to the faithful gathered in Saint Peter's Square. Cantoni, 32, who works for the aid group CARE International, was snatched on May 16 while driving in the capital's Qala-i-Musa district. She had managed a project which provides food and income-generating activities for 11,000 widows and their children since September 2003. Cantoni's kidnappers, who are thought to be from criminal gangs, released a video last week showing her alive but flanked by two armed men. |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
