Italian journalist untraced in Syria

Rome, May 9 (IANS/AKI) The Italian government has no information on the 62-year-old war reporter Domenico Quirico, who vanished in Syria in April, Foreign Minister Emma Bonino said Thursday.

"Regrettably, until now we have received no sign, but are following the case extremely closely," Bonino told the media at a European Union conference in Florence.

The family of Quirico, a correspondent for Turin-based La Stampa daily, visited the Italian foreign ministry in Rome Wednesday for briefings with officials, Bonino said.

Earlier this month, on World Press Freedom Day, the European Union expressed "disquiet" over the fate of Quirico.

Prosecutors in Rome have opened a kidnapping and anti-terrorism investigation into the journalist's disappearance in Syria April 9 while travelling to report from the city of Homs.

He entered the war-wracked country April 6 but La Stampa only made Qurico's disappearance public April 29.

Quirico has earlier reported on conflicts in Sudan, Uganda and Libya and on the Arab spring uprising, and was known to disappear for a few days at a time in the past but never for such a long period.

--IANS/AKI

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