November 3, 2006: Italian freed in Afghanistan after three weeks

Italian freed in Afghanistan after three weeks

2006 - Gabriele Torsello (above, left), an Italian photojournalist kidnapped in Afghanistan’s lawless south, was released after being chained in dark rooms for some three weeks. Aid workers in Afghanistan said they had received a call directing them to a road where Torsello could be found, said the PeaceReporter website, which specialises in conflict cover and is close to relief services in Afghanistan. The London-based convert to Islam was found unharmed and healthy, and was being taken to Kabul. In his first comments since being freed, Torsello told the website he was held in dark rooms during his captivity, usually shackled. Meals always consisted of potatoes or wet bread in soup with lard, he said. Initially, he was allowed to read the Quran.

November 3

A flare-up of the opium war occurs when a British frigate sinks Chinese fleet.

The first automobile show in the US opens in Madison Square Garden in New York under the Automobile Club of America.

Panama proclaims its independence from Colombia.

Poland declares its independence from Russia.

Turkey switches from Arabic to Roman alphabet.

Greek plebiscite recalls exiled King George II to throne.

US President Franklin Roosevelt is re-elected in a landslide over Republican Alfred M. Landon.

Power in Japan is transferred from the emperor to elected assembly.

Britain and France agree to accept a Middle East ceasefire in the Suez War if UN forces can keep the peace.

Myanmarese diplomat U Thant is unanimously elected Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Lyndon B. Johnson wins the US Presidential election.

Storms, landslides and floods claim more than 100 lives in northern Italy.

Marxist Salvador Allende becomes President of Chile.

Nasa launches the ‘Mariner 10’ space probe to Venus and Mercury

Libyan troops withdraw from Chad.

Bill Clinton defeats incumbent George H. W. Bush in US presidential elections.

His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan is elected President of the UAE.

The Sun’s editor Rebekah Wade is arrested for allegedly assaulting her husband.

Latin American and Caribbean nations endorse Panama for a seat on the UN Security Council.

A British court hands jail sentences to three Pakistani cricketers — Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir — for spot-fixing.

A boat carrying almost 70 Rohingya Muslim refugees capsizes off Myanmar’s coast.

The resurrected One World Trade Center opens in New York, 13 years after the 9/11 attacks.