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Post that comment about Mohammed along with your real name and address.

If you don't it is simple - you're a chump, hypocrite, and coward


"SheBlewHimDidYouBlowHim" <killgod@killgod.com> wrote in message
news:5ABGh.8472$_73.3011@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/03/04/ethiopia.tourists/index.html

CNN) -- The search is continuing for five British tourists and a number
of
Ethiopians feared kidnapped in a remote area of the country.
The UK and Ethiopian governments were combining their efforts a day after
Ethiopia reportedly accused neighboring Eritrea of snatching the group
and
taking them to a military camp over the border.

The state-run Ethiopian News Agency said late Saturday that five of the
13
Ethiopians in the tour group had been found near the border with Eritrea,
but it was not clear whether they had escaped or were released.

The Eritrean government denied Eritreans were behind the kidnapping, with
spokesman Yemane Gebremeskel branding the reports "crazy." The British
Foreign Office did not confirm the report, and the Ethiopian ambassador
to
the UK refused to "finger point."

The group was touring the remote Afar region when it went missing on
Thursday.

The area is a barren expanse of ancient salt mines and volcanoes 500
miles
north-east of the capital, Addis Ababa.

Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea have been consistently strained
since Eritrea gained independence from the Addis Ababa government in 1993
following a 30-year war.

Communications to Afar are difficult, but the moon-like landscape draws
adventure travelers.

Esmal Ali Sero, head of the Afar administrative region, said about 25
Eritrean "commandoes" kidnapped the British citizens along with their
Ethiopian drivers and translators on Thursday night.

A senior Ethiopian official in the ruling party, who asked not to be
named, told the UK Press Association that Eritreans were behind the
kidnapping.

He said a herder saw the British group at the Ara-ta military camp in
Eritrea and reported it to the Ethiopians. Herders in Afar frequently
travel between the two countries.

Tour operators in the area also said they were being told by police that
Eritreans in military uniforms kidnapped the Britons and burned down the
house where they were staying, along with several vehicles.

A spokeswoman for the British Embassy in Addis Ababa, said she had no
information on the kidnappers: "We do not know where they are or who is
holding them. We are not prepared to speculate."

Meanwhile, the French Foreign Ministry announced on Saturday that a group
of seven French tourists, whose whereabouts had been uncertain for
several
days, were in the northern Ethiopian city of Mekele and met Sunday with a
representative of the French embassy.

No other details were immediately available. Five Britons, who were part
of a tour group, have been missing since Wednesday in northwestern
Ethiopia, a British official said Saturday. All are members or staff or
relatives of members of staff at the British embassy in Addis Ababa.

"They were not kidnapped but they heard there had been some trouble so
they avoided the area. That is why we thought they had been kidnapped,
because we had lost contact altogether," said Samson Teshome, head of the
Origins Ethiopia tour group.