Former German Minister and Family kidnapped in Yemen's Mountains

The Associated Press
International Herald-
Tribune, France
_____________
Sana (Yemen):
Armed tribesmen kidnapped a German family touring the mountains of eastern Yemen on Wednesday to press the government for the release of jailed members of their tribe, Yemeni government officials said.
Germany identified the family as a former diplomat, his wife and three children. The five - identified by the German Foreign Ministry as former Deputy Foreign Minister Jürgen Chrobog, his wife and three children - were traveling in two cars when a group of gunmen surrounded their cars and forced them into the gunmen's vehicles and sped off, said government officials in Shabwa, the province where the kidnapping took place.
The Germans are in good health and have not been threatened, said Nasser Ba'oum, the deputy governor of Shabwa, citing tribal elders who visited the family. Dignitaries from other tribes are mediating with the kidnappers to win the Germans' release, Ba'oum said.
Dec 29, 2005