ROME (AP) — National Geographic magazine’s famed green-eyed “Afghan Girl” has arrived in Italy as part of the West’s evacuation of Afghans following the Taliban takeover of the country, the Italian government said Thursday.
The office of Premier Mario Draghi said Italy organized the evacuation of Sharbat Gulla after she asked to be helped to leave the country. The Italian government will now help to get her integrated into life in Italy, the statement said.
Gulla gained international fame in 1984 as an Afghan refugee girl, after war photographer Steve McCurry’s photograph of her, with piercing green eyes, was published on the cover of National Geographic. McCurry found her again in 2002.
In 2014, she surfaced in Pakistan but went into hiding when authorities accused her of buying a fake Pakistani identity card and ordered her deported. She was flown to Kabul where the president hosted a reception for her at the presidential palace and handed her keys to a new apartment.
Italy was one of several Western countries that airlifted hundreds of Afghans out of the country following the departure of U.S. forces and the Taliban takeover in August.
In a statement announcing Gulla’s arrival in Rome, Draghi’s office said her photograph had come to “symbolize the vicissitudes and conflict of the chapter in history that Afghanistan and its people were going through at the time.”
It said it had received requests “by those in civil society, and in particular by non-profit organizations working in Afghanistan” backing Gulla’s plea for help to leave the country.
Italy organized her travel to Italy “as part of the wider evacuation program in place for Afghan citizens and the government’s plan for their reception and integration,” the statement said.
1K offered for President Warren Harding’s stolen dog collar
MARION, Ohio (AP) — A radio station serving U.S. President Warren G. Harding’s Ohio hometown says a reward offered by one of its listeners is providing new hope of finding a long lost dog collar stolen from his historic home.
Scott Spears, host of a morning radio show on WWGH-FM in Marion, near the 29th president’s birthplace, said the donor of the $1,000 reward asked to remain anonymous. Spears told listeners of the offer on “Now With Scott Spears” last week.
The antique collar belonged to Harding’s Airedale terrier. It was the only thing stolen from his home on a Tuesday in 2012.
Made in 1923, the collar has the dog’s name, “Laddie Boy,” engraved on it in raised letters surrounded by hearts.