Manuela to be flown to Italy

Manuela to be flown to Italy

A 5-year-old girl who was taken to Singapore for treatment after
being critically wounded in the Australian Embassy bombing in
Jakarta will be flown home to Italy, authorities said on
Saturday.

The Italian government will send a military plane to pick up
Elisabeth Manuela Banbin Musu on Monday to take her to Verona,
said Laura Siano, an Italian Embassy attache.

Elisabeth, nicknamed Manny, will live with her stepfather,
Manuel Musu, and his family in Verona with the agreement of her
biological father, Australian policeman David Norman, according
to a joint statement released by the fathers.

"We consider each other family," Musu said. "We both dearly
love Manny, and we have come to this agreement mutually."

A custody battle had been brewing between the two men in the
three weeks following emergency surgery to remove several large
pieces of shrapnel from Elisabeth's abdomen and brain.

When the blast occurred, Elisabeth was heading for the embassy
to pick up her new Australian passport after becoming a citizen
on Sept. 1. Her mother, 27-year-old Maria Eva Kumalawati, was
killed.

Manny, who is now both an Italian and Australian citizen, is
too weak to walk but is speaking normally and can move the right
side of her body -- initially feared to be paralyzed due to brain
damage.

Doctors will be waiting to take her to a hospital when she
arrives in Verona. Her medical expenses there will be covered by
the Italian government, Siano said. --AP