SHOTLIST AP Television File - Kabul, 17 May 2005 1. Wide exterior of Italian embassy 2. Mid of Italian flag AP Television Kabul 15 October 2006 3. Wide of news conference 4. Cutaway of journalists 5. SOUNDBITE (English) Aleem Seddique UN spokesman in Kabul: "We are aware of reports that an Italian photo-journalist has been kidnapped while travelling on a bus from Helmand province to Kandahar province. Coming so soon after the tragic incident involving the two German journalists who were killed in Baghlan province, I think this is a matter of great concern for all the international community and also for the Afghan authorities here in Afghanistan." 6. Cutaway of journalist writing in a notepad 7. SOUNDBITE (English) Aleem Seddique UN spokesman in Kabul: "We hope that the authorities will leave no stone unturned in trying to investigate this matter and ensure the safe return of this photojournalist. We are of course monitoring the situation very closely, and we look forward to hearing some positive news from the Afghan authorities in the near future, but we are monitoring the situation closely." AP Television File - Kabul, 16 February 2006 8. Various of Italian soldiers STORYLINE A United Nations spokesman said on Sunday he hoped investigators would "leave no stone unturned" in trying to find an Italian photojournalist and his translator kidnapped in Afghanistan. Gabriele Torsello, a freelance photographer, and his Afghan translator were abducted by five armed men on Saturday as they were driving from Lashkar Gah, the capital of the southern Helmand province, toward neighbouring Kandahar, an official in Helmand said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. The two were in their car when they were abducted, the official said. Torsello earlier spent time in Musa Qala, another restive area in Helmand province, the official said. A week ago, two German journalists were killed in northern Afghanistan - the first foreign journalists murdered in the country since late 2001. Aleem Seddique, a UN spokesman in Kabul, said on Sunday they were aware of the abduction. "Coming so soon after the tragic incident involving the two German journalists who were killed in Baghlan province, I think this is a matter of great concern for all the international community and also for the Afghan authorities," he said. "We look forward to hearing some positive news from the Afghan authorities in the near future, but we are monitoring the situation closely," he said. Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, denied that militants had abducted the Italian photojournalist. Ahamdi, whose exact ties to the Taliban are not known, told an AP reporter in Kandahar in a phone call from an undisclosed location that Torsello had spent some time with Taliban fighters in Musa Qala who showed him the area. The Italian ambassador in Kabul told Italian state radio on Sunday morning that Italian Foreign Ministry officials were in Afghanistan working on the case. Maso Notarianni, the director of Italian online magazine Peace Reporter, told Italian state TV that Torsello had called a hospital in Lashkar Gah, apparently to let authorities know he was kidnapped. Notarianni said until Thursday Torsello was in the deep south of Afghanistan, in Taliban-controlled territory. The southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar have been the scene of some the most intense fighting between Taliban and NATO troops this year, in the worst upsurge in violence in the country since the US-led invasion in 2001 that ousted the Taliban regime from power. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/860a1a9bbf1201c9ec110409733231fb Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 23 Jul 2015
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