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19%  
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Keyword: aubenas

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  • '$45m paid to Iraq kidnappers'

    05/21/2006 10:02:43 PM PDT · by jmc1969 · 24 replies · 1,287+ views
    AFP ^ | May 22 2006
    France, Germany and Italy paid about $45 million to obtain the release of hostages kidnapped in Iraq, despite denying it in public, a British newspaper reports. Britain has not handed out any money to kidnap gangs, the paper said on Monday, basing its report on "documents seen by The Times". The list of payments has also been seen by Western diplomats, who are angered at the behaviour of the three governments. France, Italy and Germany have all publicly denied paying any ransom money. "But according to the documents, held by security officials in Baghdad who have played a crucial role...
  • Didier Julia: French MP with links to Syria, Saddam's regime

    03/02/2005 10:41:42 AM PST · by Shermy · 16 replies · 603+ views
    TurkishPress.com ^ | March 2, 2005
    PARIS - Didier Julia, the French lawmaker a reporter taken hostage in Iraq called for by name in a video released by her abductors, is seen as a maverick member of President Jacques Chirac's ruling party -- and someone with close ties to Syria and the deposed regime of Saddam Hussein. The 71-year-old representative of the Seine-et-Marne region outside Paris first rose to prominence last September, when he headed an unofficial -- and unsuccessful -- mission to free two other French reporters kidnapped in Iraq. The failure of that venture, conducted from a luxury hotel suite in the Syrian capital...