Kidnapping of French Journalist Is Confirmed by Iraqi Official
Sheik Ghazi al-Yawar, the interim president of Iraq, said Thursday that a veteran French journalist missing for eight days had been kidnapped and that his government was doing all it could to find her. Sheik Yawar, visiting France, did not disclose the source of his information about Florence Aubenas, 43, a foreign correspondent for Libération, and her Iraqi interpreter and driver, Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi. “I have expressed the government’s and the Iraqi people’s sadness over the kidnapping of this innocent journalist,” the sheik told reporters after a meeting over lunch at Élysée Palace with President Jacques Chirac. “This is another demonstration of blind terrorism, which makes no distinction between human beings, religions, gender or nationality.”Full Story