Human rights worker kidnapped with parents in Gaza

A BRITISH human rights worker and her visiting parents were kidnapped in the Gaza Strip yesterday and a family of five German tourists was snatched by tribesman in Yemen.

The 25-year-old British woman is understood to have been showing her mother and father around the town of Rafah when they were taken.

It was reported that the woman worked at the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights.

The group were reportedly seized after gunmen approached their car near the border with Egypt.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the kidnapping.

The German family kidnapped in Yemen reportedly includes a former deputy foreign minister.

The motive behind the snatch was to press the government for the release of jailed members of their tribe, Yemeni officials said.

German television cited unnamed German and Yemeni officials as identifying the kidnapped man as Juergen Chrobog, 65, who served as deputy foreign minister in the government of former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, which left office in November.

The family was travelling in a two-car convoy in an area of eastern Yemen called al-Irim, Shabwa province, when a group of gunmen surrounded their vehicles and forced all five Germans into their cars, before speeding off, according to government officials.

Tribesmen frequently kidnap tourists in an attempt to force concessions from the government in Yemen.