In Iraq, seven hostages including the Italians Simona Toretta and Simona Pari were released yesterday along with their two Iraq colleagues. The four of them were kidnapped on Sept. 7 by unknown captors. The two 29-year-old women who worked with A Bridge to Baghdad have returned home to Italy to mass celebrations. The country’s leading daily newspaper writes “It has been a long time since Italy enjoyed a true and spontaneous feeling of joy, capable of uniting the entire nation.” Toretta and Pari have worked in Iraq for years with A Bridge to Baghdad, a humanitarian group that opposed much of U.S. foreign policy in Iraq including the sanctions, invasion and occupation. Torretta said she planned to return to Baghdad. She said “I would do it all over again with all the consequences that carries even though I’m sorry for all the suffering my mother went through and didn’t deserve.” While seven hostages were released yesterday, the BBC estimates some 30 foreign nationals are still being held captive in Iraq as well as an unknown number of Iraqis.