IRAQ: A German archaeologist kidnapped by gunmen in Iraq three weeks ago is free and her driver should shortly be released, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told a news conference yesterday.
Susanne Osthoff (43), who had spent more than a decade working on excavations in Iraq, disappeared heading north from Baghdad with her driver on November 25th.
"I'm pleased to announce today, also on behalf of the German chancellor, that Mrs Susanne Osthoff is no longer in the hands of the kidnappers. She is in the safe care of the German embassy in Baghdad," Mr Steinmeier said, adding she was in good health.
He said the kidnappers had also announced that they would release the driver.
He declined to comment on how or under what conditions Mrs Osthoff, the first German to be kidnapped in Iraq, had been freed.
Meanwhile, as US vice president Dick Cheney visited the country, a string of bomb attacks and shootings left nearly two dozen people dead, including two suicide bombers, shattering three days of relative calm that followed Iraq's first election for a full-term parliament.
Those killed included two relatives of a Kurdish politician in northern Iraq, several police officers, a tea seller and an Interior Ministry driver.
The attacks came after authorities eased stringent security measures put in place for the election.
Traffic returned to normal on the first full working day since the vote. A ban on vehicles was lifted and the country's borders reopened yesterday, although the frontier with Syria remained closed.