Students mocked hostage-taking with rubber duck

A MOCK hostage-taking video showing five US college students in ski masks, speaking in crude Middle Eastern accents and threatening a rubber duck has drawn complaints from local Muslim leaders.

In the video, five figures are seen threatening the duck, which serves as a mascot for a residence hall at the CW Post Campus of Long Island University, Newsday reported yesterday. The video was posted on the websites Google and YouTube but has since been removed, the newspaper said.

It was accompanied by a statement saying it was a joke, but university administrators saw it as insensitive and the five students — all in their final year of college — were dismissed from jobs as residence hall assistants and face campus disciplinary hearings.