AL-QIRBI MEETS GERMAN ENVOY

SANA'A, Dec. 14 (Saba) – Foreign minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi met on
Monday with German chancellor's envoy Juergen Chrobog.

The meeting dealt with the bilateral relationship and issues of
mutual interest at the regional and international levels.

The topic of the Germans who were kidnapped while on a picnic in
Saada in the far north in June, their condition and the efforts
exerted by the two countries to find and release them, was raised as
well.

On June 14, the Houthi rebels were accused of kidnapping a group of
nine foreigners including Germans, Britons and a South Korean.

Two days after the kidnapping, three bodies were found and
identified as two German nurses and a South Korean.

They were terribly slain, with German officials then saying the
slaying bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda.

Since then, the fate of the others, four Germans, a family of two
parents and their kids and a Briton couple, remained unclear.

Chrobog arrived in Yemen on Sunday, as special envoy of Angela
Merkel, Germany's chancellor, carrying letter for President Ali
Abdullah Saleh.

The letter mainly focused on the bilateral relationship and means to
forge cooperation between Yemen and the European state.

FR