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Newsday: Priest Recounts His 8-Month Taliban Imprisonment

Fr Prem Kumar with the Pope

12/06/2015

Priest Recounts His 8-Month Taliban Imprisonment

BBC World Service - Newsday, Priest Recounts His 8-Month Taliban Imprisonment

Taliban priest meets Pope; Boko Haram task force; Yazidis slaves rescued

Father Prem Kumar was kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan last year and spent the next eight months in captivity - regularly being told he would be killed. The Jesuit priest became well-known for his preaching of tolerance - even to his captors. And even the Pope specifically asked to meet him. He's given his first interview since his release to Newsday - and he happened to be in the Vatican, having just met the Pontiff.

Nigeria and four of its neighbours have agreed to set up a joint military force to take on the Islamist militants of Boko Haram. The force will be based in the Chadian capital, Ndjamena, but will be under Nigerian command. Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin will also commit troops. At a summit in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, they decided the force should be operational by the end of July.

Extraordinary acts of bravery are talking place in northern Iraq, as Yazidi slaves are bought back, for $2000 a head from the group calling itself Islamic State. It is  thanks to funding from the Kurdish Regional Government. The Yazidis, an ancient religious minority, are considered as sub-human according to IS doctrine and thousands have been killed, raped, and enslaved. Freelance journalist Emily Feldman has been to Kurdish Iraq to investigate.

(Picture: Fr Prem Kumar with the Pope; Credit: Jesuit Refugee Service)

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