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.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
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