Report: Gadhafi Loyalists Kidnap Four Italian Journalists, Kill Driver

ROME (AP) -- Italy's foreign ministry says four Italian journalists have been kidnapped and their driver killed, apparently by Libyan regime loyalists, as they traveled down the highway to Tripoli.

The ministry said the newspaper journalists included two from the Milan daily Corriere della Sera, one from Turin's La Stampa and one from Avvenire, a national Catholic daily.

It said the abductions occurred Wednesday on a stretch of highway between Zawiah, a town 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Tripoli, and the Libyan capital.

Italian news reports said the Avvenire reporter was able to make a call to Milan saying the four Italians were OK.