IRAQ: Insurgents have kidnapped the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, according to a Vatican official. Denouncing what it called an "act of terrorism", the Vatican spokesman Dr Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the Holy See had received news of the kidnapping of Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa in Mosul.
Archbishop Casmoussa was born in Qaraqosh, Iraq. In recent months Iraq's 1.2 million Christian community has been shattered by a deadly campaign instigated by Sunni Arab insurgents. Churches have been bombed, priests threatened and Christian neighbourhoods randomly shot at.
Church leaders say more than half of Mosul's 80,000-strong Christian community has fled. They believe Christians have been targeted because of their perceived links with US occupying forces.