Free Republic

ROME, Oct. 1 -- For three weeks, Italians across the country marched, held vigils and lit candles, and politicians united to promote freedom for a pair of humanitarian aid workers held captive in Iraq. Only days after the safe return of Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, the country and its politicians are divided. The celebration of the "Two Simonas," as the pair came to be known, has been clouded by a wave of recrimination over Italy's participation in the U.S.-led efforts to pacify Iraq. Detractors called the women ingrates and accused them of being soft on terrorists. Opposition politicians renewed...

ROME (Reuters) - Safely home in Italy, two women aid workers have spoken of returning to Iraq despite a three-week hostage ordeal as their overjoyed nation shrugged off reports that a ransom was paid to free them. Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, both 29, said they were taught about Islam and not harmed. After a hero's welcome in Italy late on Tuesday, they looked to put the kidnap behind them. "I hope to return to Iraq soon. It's a country that I really love," Pari said on Wednesday. "We were always treated with a lot of respect." Torretta was quoted...

ROME (Reuters) - The release of two Italian women aid workers in Iraq was greeted with joy and relief on Tuesday following three weeks of anguish in Italy over their abduction. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced the news to cheers in parliament, television stations broke into normal programing with special bulletins and out on the streets, ordinary Italians finally found something to smile at. "It's like being reborn. Out of the darkness and into the light," said Annamaria Torretta, the mother of one of the two freed hostages, as she welcomed hundreds of wellwishers besieging her Rome apartment. Simona Pari...

Concern was mounting last night over the fate of two Italian aid workers kidnapped in Baghdad a fortnight ago, after two separate statements appeared on the internet claiming that the women had been killed. Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, both 29, were seized with two of their Iraqi colleagues in daylight from their office in central Baghdad on September 7. They had been working in Iraq for several months for the aid agency Bridge to Baghdad. Statements from two separate groups appeared on different websites yesterday, each claiming the murders. Some statements, supposedly from militant groups in Iraq, have proven...

DUBAI: A second group yesterday claimed to have beheaded two women Italian aid workers held hostage in Iraq, in a statement on the Internet, following a similar unconfirmed claim from another group.The authenticity of the claims could not be verified."The heads of the two Italian criminals, Italian intelligence agents Simona Terretta and Simona Pari, were mercilessly cut off with a knife," said the latest statement attributed to a group calling itself Ansar Al Zawahiri.The group, whose name was taken from Ayman Al Zawahiri, the Egyptian number two in the Al Qaeda terror network, said a video would be released...