Dubai TV seeks answer from Iran on missing reporter

BOSTON, Mass. — Unidentified gunmen kidnapped a US journalist on Thanksgiving Day. More than a month later, he remains missing. American James Foley, 39, was last seen on Nov. 22 in Idlib Province. Idlib has been the scene of heavy fighting in recent months between Syrian rebels and government forces.

EARLIER this year Iran’s authorities arrested a score of men who, in separate incidents, claimed to be the Mahdi, a sacred figure of Shia Islam, who was “hidden” by God just over a millennium ago and will return some time to conquer evil on earth.

Twelve Iranian engineers and five of their Afghan colleagues were kidnapped by Taliban gunmen on Monday in a remote region of Afghanistan near its border with Iran, local officials and the Iranian government said.The men, who were working on a road construction project, were snatched at gunpoint in the Post-i-Road district of Farah province, which borders Iran, provincial government spokesman Naqibullah Farahi told AFP.Tehran confirmed the abduction of 12 Iranians, while the Afghan provincial authorities had earlier said the number was ten.

A UN expert on torture has appealed to Tehran to end the solitary confinement of Sarah Shourd, one of the three US hikers detained without trial for more than a year in Iran, her mother said Friday.Nora Shourd told AFP that she was informed two days ago that the urgent appeal from Manfred Nowak, the UN special rapporteur on torture, was forwarded to Iranian authorities through the Geneva-based UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights.

In 2004, Canadian border officials loaded Ashkan Forsat on a plane to Tehran, thinking they had finally rid themselves of the 26-year-old Iranian who had been holding up convenience stores almost from the moment he set foot in Canada.

Supporters of a woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, were still waiting for official confirmation Friday of a report that the Iranian authorities had freed her.A German-based campaign group said late Thurday that Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani had been released, along with her son and lawyer after photographs of her on home leave were released.But there was no official word from the Tehran authorities."We have got news from Iran that they are free," Mina Ahadi, spokeswoman for the Anti-Stoning Committee, told AFP.

Dubai's debt-laden group Dubai World invited creditors to meet on July 22 to agree on terms for restructuring 60 percent of its debts, an official familiar with the matter told AFP on Sunday.Dubai World has invited its creditors who comprise "73 banks in total, to a meeting on July 22" to provide information on its proposals for debt restructuring, an official told AFP on condition of anonymity."There will be no vote or resolution sought at the meeting, this will still take some months," the official added.