Hostage alive, says Italian foreign minister

Italy’s foreign minister said today that an Italian hostage in Afghanistan is all right, and that contact had been initiated by her kidnappers.

“We know that she is well because the kidnappers have initiated a channel of contacts with the Afghan authorities,” Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini told reporters about efforts to win the freedom of humanitarian aid worker Clementina Cantoni, who was abducted in Kabul yesterday.

When reporters asked Fini if the kidnappers had asked for ransom in exchange for the woman’s release, he replied: ”It’s a question on which utmost reserve, discretion and prudence are obligatory to reach the objective.”

Earlier, a top aide to Fini, Ministry Undersecretary Margherita Boniver, told Sky TG24 that “the most accredited hypothesis about the kidnappers is that of common criminals”.