| [Maghrebia] On the eve of his threatened execution by al-Qaeda kidnappers, hostage Sergio Cicala was heard pleading for his life in an audio clip aired Sunday (February 28th) on Italian television, international press reported. AQIM, which is reportedly holding Cicala in the northern Mali desert region, set March 1st as the deadline for his life if demands for the release of Salafist prisoners jailed in Mauritania were not met. Cicala and his Burkina Faso-born wife Philomene Kabore, 39, were kidnapped in eastern Mauritania on December 18th. |