FRANCE: France's foreign minister made a new plea to Islamic militants to free two journalists held in Iraq yesterday and Pope John Paul echoed Muslim leaders by demanding their release.
"I still have hope. I hope logic will prevail," Foreign Minister Mr Michel Barnier told Al Jazeera television after talks with Qatar's foreign minister on the fourth leg of a mission to save reporters Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot.
There was no fresh word from the kidnappers, a militant group called the Islamic Army in Iraq, and confusion mounted over when their deadline was due to pass. Arab League officials said they believed it would expire late yesterday.
The Pope issued his own appeal to the kidnappers following similar pleas by movements such as the Palestinian Islamic group Hamas, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and aides to anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
"I issue a pressing appeal for an end to violence . . . and (appeal) that the two journalists are treated with humanity and released to their loved ones soon," the Pope said in a statement read for him during his weekly audience at the Vatican.
Paris has rejected the kidnappers' demands to revoke a law banning conspicuous religious symbols in state schools such as the Muslim headscarf and Christian crosses, but still hopes to save the hostages. The ban comes into effect today.
President Jacques Chirac told a cabinet meeting "all possible initiatives" would be undertaken to save the men and that the French people were united in solidarity with them, a government spokesman said.
The kidnappings have stunned France, which led opposition to the US-led war, objected to pre-war sanctions against Iraq and has no troops there. They were also a shock to a country which prides itself on its relations with the Arab world.
After talks with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, Barnier urged the kidnappers to "listen to the appeals that were made from all over the Arab world and from respected individuals from different political and religious spectra". He has also visited Egypt and Jordan on his mission to save the journalists, who disappeared between Baghdad and Najaf on August 20th.
Many officials initially thought the kidnappers' deadline would expire on Tuesday but several Arab League officials said they believed it had been extended until yesterday evening.
"That gives us some hope," Lhaj Thami Breze, president of the Union of French Islamic Organisations, said.
But the killing of 12 Nepali hostages by a separate group of militants highlighted the gravity of the situation. Pictures of those killings appeared on an Islamist website on Tuesday.
A Kuwaiti transport company said it had paid a ransom of more than $500,000 to an Iraqi militant group for the release of seven drivers freed yesterday after 43 days captivity. The three Kenyans, three Indians and an Egyptian landed at Kuwait International Airport where they were met by diplomats and officials from the Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company. - (Reuters)