Follow-up

A US soldier facing trial in absentia next week in Italy for shooting dead an Italian hostage negotiator and wounding a journalist at a road block in Baghdad has justified the shooting. Mario Lozano of the US Army’s 69th Infantry Regiment told the New York Post in his first major interview since the 2005 incident that when confronted with the vehicle moving at speed towards his checkpoint he did...

The body of slain Afghan journalist Ajmal Naqshbandi was buried Wednesday in Afghan capital Kabul as hundreds of mourners attended his funeral. Naqshbandi, 26, a freelance journalist, was beheaded on April 8 by Taliban extremists as the Afghan government refused to release Taliban prisoners in exchange. Hundreds turned out to pray in the street and see the journalist’s coffin lowered into the sun...

The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on the United States to release Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi photojournalist for The Associated Press, who has been held in a U.S. prison in Iraq for a year without charge. Hussein, a Pulitzer Prize winner, was taken by U.S. forces on April 12 in the western city of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s Anbar province, and held in a U.S. prison in Iraq for...

The fourth anniversary of the still unexplained killing of three journalists by US troops in Baghdad was marked Sunday by a preceding week of shocking attacks on journalists in Iraq. Four journalists were killed during the week. Thursday last saw the brutal murder of Khamaail Mohsin, a mother of three and journalist with Radio Free Iraq, the US-funded Radio station in Arabic, and the bombing of...

Afghan interpreter and freelance journalist Ajmal Naqshbandi kidnapped by the Taliban a month ago has appealed to President Hamid Karzai to release three junior Taliban members to secure his freedom, Reuters has reported. Naqshbandi made the appeal to Karzai 10 days after an Italian journalist who was captured with him was freed following the release of five senior members of the Taliban. “You...

Free expression groups worldwide have joined Afghan journalists in demanding the release of the independent journalist and translator who was kidnapped by the Taliban at the same time as a now-freed Italian journalist. La Repubblica reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo, his driver, Syed Agha, and his translator, Ajmal Naqshbandi, who is also a journalist, were kidnapped on March 5 by the Taliban in...

BBC correspondent Alan Johnston began Monday his third week in captivity in the Gaza Strip wven as efforts were stepped up to secure his release. Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) urged leaders attending an Arab League summit on March 28-29 in Saudi Arabia to issue a joint appeal for his release. BBC Middle East Bureau Editor Simon Wilson, right, listens to BBC Gaza correspondent Fayed Abu Shammala...

Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo was released by the Taliban Monday after two weeks in captivity and days after his driver was executed, news agencies have reported. Sources privy to the deal told local Pajhwok Afghan News that the La Repubblica journalist was handed over to Italian officials in the Hazarjuft district of the southern Helmand province at 5:10pm (local time). "My head is...

The second jury trial of two men in the July 2004 murder of Forbes Russia Editor Paul Klebnikov had to be postponed again Wednesday after one of the defendants went missing. It was the second time that Kazbek Dukuzov, who is 32 or 33, failed to turn up at the Moscow City Court. Dukuzov missed a February hearing. Musa Vakhaev, accused of murdering U.S. journalist Paul Klebnikov, speaks to...

Suspected September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has confessed to the beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl, a central role in 30 other attacks and plots in the US and worldwide that killed thousands of victims, said a revised transcript released Thursday by the US military. Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and killed in Pakistan in 2002, is pictured in...