Twenty-five Portuguese stone masons returned to their homeland Thursday after Iraqi authorities allowed them to leave Baghdad. The workers finished contracts last week to install marble in a palace for President Saddam Hussein on the banks of the River Tigris in the Iraqi capital. A spokesman for the group, Joao Cacador, said Baghdad authorities granted exit visas to the Portuguese after the Iraqi company supervising work on palace appealed to Saddam's office on their behalf. Prime Minister Anibal Cavaco Silva, on working visit to Spain, said he was overjoyed to hear the Portuguese men had left Iraq. Iraq has held thousands of foreigners in their country in the aftermath of the Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait, including Westerners in strategic sites thought to be the targets of a possible U.S. attack.
