UPDATE 6/09: Clementina Cantoni has been freed!!! Click here for 6/09 update announcing the CARE International aid worker's release.

Clementina Cantoni was abducted from her car in Kabul on May 16th. The 32 year old Cantoni works for CARE International, the same organization that executed hostage Margaret Hassan worked for. Unlike Hassan, though, Cantoni was working in a country who's occupation and invasion was approved by the UN. So much for the international cooperation theory of terrorism......

Photo right: A still image from the Clementina Cantoni hostage video.

On the streets of Kabul today, hundreds of Afghan women took to the streets to protest Cantoni's plight. CARE International has helped countless women receive food aid in that nation's capital.

Canoe:

A video of a kidnapped Italian aid worker was broadcast yesterday on Afghan television, showing her wrapped in a brown blanket and flanked by two men aiming rifles at her head -- a tactic reminiscent of Iraqi abductions....

In the video, Clementina Cantoni, 32, a CARE International worker, responded to prompts from a man not shown on the video, identifying herself and naming her father, mother and an uncle.

The tape, broadcast by independent Tolo TV, then zoomed in on her face. She had a blue scarf on her head, spoke quietly and looked nervous.

It was not clear when the recording was made. But near the end, the man speaking off-camera asked Cantoni the date.

"Today is May 28, Sunday," she said. The date referred to Saturday and the discrepancy was not explained.

Cantoni was abducted May 16, dragged from a car by four armed men on the way to her Kabul home. She has been in Afghanistan since 2002 and was working on a project to help Afghan widows and their families.

Italy's foreign ministry confirmed the woman on the video was Cantoni.

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