Afghan kidnapper says he killed Italian hostage
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-05-20T163810Z_01_MCC052028_RTRUKOC_0_AFGHAN-KIDNAP.xml
Lake disappears, baffling villagers (Russia)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050519/od_nm/odd_russia_lake_dc
...and it's OUR fault? ROFL!
"Officials in Nizhegorodskaya region, on the Volga river east of Moscow, said water in the lake might have been sucked down into an underground water-course or cave system, but some villagers had more sinister explanations.
"I am thinking, well, America has finally got to us," said one old woman, as she sat on the ground outside her house."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1407289/posts
"Afghanistan - Kidnapper says hostage killed (Italian aid worker Clementina Cantoni)"
Reuters | May 21, 2005 | Sayed Salahuddin
Posted on 05/20/2005 1:47:12 PM PDT by HAL9000
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "A man claiming to have kidnapped an Italian aid worker in Afghanistan told media overnight he had killed her, but a government spokesman said she was still alive.
Clementina Cantoni, 32, who works for the CARE International aid agency, was snatched this week when four gunmen stopped her vehicle on a central Kabul street and bundled her into a white Toyota car.
Timoor Shah, who has claimed in several conversations with media to be holding Ms Cantoni, said he killed her after President Hamid Karzai's government refused to accept his demands.
"We strangled her with a rope at nine o'clock last night," said Shah, who was contacted on Ms Cantoni's mobile phone number.
"I will not give her body to anyone," he said.
Mr Karzai's spokesman, Jawed Ludin, dismissed the man's claim and said Ms Cantoni was still alive."