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Reuters

Silvia Romano, an aid worker kidnapped 18 months ago in East Africa, landed in Italy on Sunday a day after being freed.
Gunmen seized Romano, who was working for an Italian charity called Africa Milele, in northern Kenya in November 2018.
She was found in Somalia, about 30km (19 miles) outside the capital of Mogadishu, and was released thanks to efforts by the external intelligence agency, Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said.

Romano touched down at Rome’s Ciampino airport aboard a special flight at about 2pm.
Escorted by masked men from the intelligence service, she temporarily removed her protective mask to wave as descended the steps from the jet before hugging relatives waiting for her at the airport.
She was greeted by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Di Maio.
In her home neighbourhood in Milan, church bells saluted her arrival, with many people on their balconies, SKY TG24 showed.

Romano is expected to meet prosecutors in Rome later on Sunday.
“I was strong, and resisted,” Romano was quoted by Italian newspapers as saying after her release.
Prime Minister Conte said that the task force working to free Romano had been in the final stages “for the last months”, after having proof that she was still alive. He added that details were not revealed so as to not compromise the operation.
“We are so glad to welcome Silvia back in such a delicate moment for the country. The State is always there, and will always be there,” Conte said.

He thanked efforts from the intelligence services, the judiciary and the defence and foreign ministries, all involved in the release the young woman.
Italian newspapers reported that Italy’s intelligence services had worked with their Somali and Turkish counterparts to free Romano.
“I am literally bursting with joy at this moment. But it is hard even only to think, please let me breathe,” Silvia’s father Enzo was quoted as saying by several Italian newspapers on Sunday. “I need to withstand the shock, happiness is so big that it is exploding.”


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Italy

Italian aid worker freed after 18-month kidnapping ordeal in Kenya

Silvia Romano, wearing a green tunic, hugs her family upon her arrival in Rome on May 10, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/Handout

epa08413156 Italian cooperator, Silvia Romano (C-L), wearing a green tunic, is welcomed by her mother Francesca Fumagalli (C-R), her father Enzo and her sister upon her arrival at the Ciampino airport, Rome, Italy, 10 May 2020. Silvia Romano, who was kidnapped by gunmen from an orphanage in Kenya 18 months ago, has been freed, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced. EPA-EFE/FABIO FRUSTACI

epa08413169 Italian cooperator, Silvia Romano, wearing a green tunic, reacts upon her arrivlal at the Ciampino airport, Rome, Italy, 10 May 2020. Silvia Romano, who was kidnapped by gunmen from an orphanage in Kenya 18 months ago, has been freed, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced. EPA-EFE/FABIO FRUSTACI

epa08413163 Italian cooperator, Silvia Romano, wearing a green tunic, reacts upon her arrivlal at the Ciampino airport, Rome, Italy, 10 May 2020. Silvia Romano, who was kidnapped by gunmen from an orphanage in Kenya 18 months ago, has been freed, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced. EPA-EFE/FABIO FRUSTACI

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Philippine police officers. Photo: EPA-EFE

Court gives British spies green light to murder, kidnap and torture

Actor Daniel Craig portraying fictional British spy James Bond in 2012's ‘Skyfall’. Photo: Columbia Pictures/TNS

Bloomberg Best of the Year 2019: Theresa May, U.K. prime minister, reacts whilst delivering a speech announcing her resignation outside number 10 Downing Street in London, U.K., on Friday, May 24, 2019. Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

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How Chinese bandits’ kidnapping of a blond British bride and her pet dogs became a global news story

Japanese-occupied northeast China was a hotbed of warlords, bandits and pirates, with the frequent kidnapping of foreigners having become an integral component of the local economy. So why, then, did the snatching of a 19-year-old blond British newlywed become the news story of 1932?

--Correction, the figure on the left should be Muriel ÒTinkoÓ Pawley--

 "Captives of the Chinese bandits": The English Kenneth Pawley and Charles Corkran held prisoner by Manchu bandits are delivered at the price of a rancon of 13 000 pounds sterling. Engraving on the front page of "The Illustrious Little Newspaper", 1932. Private Collection © Lee / Lemage


"Captifs des bandits chinois" : les anglais Kenneth Pawley et Charles Corkran retenus prisonniers par des bandits mandchous sont delivres au prix d'une rancon de 13 000 livres sterling. Gravure a la Une de "L'illustre du petit journal", 1932. Collection privee ©Lee/Lemage

[06JANUARY2018 FEATURE POST MAGAZINE]

CREDIT:  AFP

General Ma Zhanshan. Picture: Wiki Commons

Handout image shows author a page from he Kingsport Times, dated December 12, 1932, telling the story of newly released kidnap victims Muriel âTinkoâ Pawle, Charlie Corkran and Duncan âMackâ Macintosh.

[06JANUARY2018 FEATURE POST MAGAZINE]

CREDIT:  Kingsport Times

Handout image shows book cover My Bandit Hosts: The Terrifying Experiences of a Young Bride Who Was Kidnapped by Chinese Bandits (as told to Joy Packer) by Muriel ÒTinkoÓ Pawley  and was published in 1935

[06JANUARY2018 FEATURE POST MAGAZINE]

Handout image shows  kidnap victim 19-year-old newly married Muriel ÒTinkoÓ Pawley, in Tianjin, 1932. In "Public Opinion" December 08, 1932.

[06JANUARY2018 FEATURE POST MAGAZINE]


CREDIT: Public Opinion

Handout image shows theatre critic James Agate who recorded the unfolding events in his diary of the kidnapping of 19-year-old newly married Muriel ÒTinkoÓ Pawley, in Tianjin, 1932.

[06JANUARY2018 FEATURE POST MAGAZINE]

Handout image shows author Evelyn Waugh, who wrote a short story based on the kidnapping of 19-year-old newly married Muriel ÒTinkoÓ Pawley and her dogs: two Alsatians, Whisky and Rolf, and a pointer pup called Squiffy, in Tianjin, 1932.

[06JANUARY2018 FEATURE POST MAGAZINE]

Handout image shows a Illustrated London News report with images from before and after kidnapping of 19-year-old newly married Muriel ÒTinkoÓ Pawley, Charlie Corkran and Duncan ÒMackÓ Macintosh, in Tianjin, 1932.

[06JANUARY2018 FEATURE POST MAGAZINE]

CREDIT: Illustrated London News

How rogue officers in the Philippines contract themselves out to Chinese loan sharks for kidnappings

The upsurge of Chinese gamblers in Manila has given rise to a new employment opportunity for rogue police. Photo: AFP

Police capital regional commander Police Major General Guillermo Eleazar (R) listens while chairman of the Presidential anti-corruption commission Dante Jimenez (L) talks to the three (back, orange shirts) of the 277 Chinese nationals caught in the act of conducting illegal online operations, during a press conference in Manila on September 16, 2019. - Philippine police have arrested more than 270 Chinese nationals in a raid on a gang wanted over a vast investment fraud that cost victims in China millions of dollars, authorities said September 13. (Photo by Ted ALJIBE / AFP)

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Kidnap victim Lu Wanzhen (left), and a CCTV image of one of his attackers, wielding what appears to be a stun gun. Photo: York Regional Police

The Markham, Ontario, apartment block from where Lu Wanzhen was kidnapped on Saturday. Photo: York Regional Police

One of the kidnappers of Lu Wanzhen, in an image released by York Regional Police. Photo:  York Regional Police

The black van that police say was used in the kidnapping of Chinese student  Lu Wanzhen speeds away in a Markham, Ontario, garage, on Saturday in this image from CCTV. Photo: York Regional Police

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Gunmen seized Silvia Romano, who was working for an Italian charity called Africa Milele, in northern Kenya in November 2018
Italy’s external intelligence services, the judiciary and the defence and foreign ministries were involved in her release



Italy’s external intelligence services, the judiciary and the defence and foreign ministries were involved in Silvia Romano’s release.


Crime