Germany has been forced to admit that it paid a cash ransom to secure the release of an aid worker held hostage in Iraq after a series of reports claimed that she pocketed the money and was caught with it when she was freed. Susanne Osthoff, a 43-year-old German archaeologist who became an aid worker, was kidnapped with her Iraqi driver by a mysterious group calling itself Storm Troopers of the Earthquake near Baghdad on 25 November last year. Full Story