Algeria: 115 terror kidnappings in 2007
Xamar Radio
Last year, 115 people were kidnapped in Algeria under terrorism-related circumstances, the country's interior minister says.

Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni told a question and answer session in Algeria's parliament that 115 incidents of kidnapping 'relating to terrorism' and involving demands for ransom were reported in 2007.

In addition, 260 kidnappings involving family disputes were reported.

Zerhouni did not give a breakdown of the kidnapping victims' nationalities.

He acknowledged that the actual kidnapping figures could be higher, since many families are ashamed to report kidnappings to the authorities, especially those of children thought to have been abducted by pedophiles.

The interior minister said new police teams were being put in place to warn children and adolescents about pedophiles and to provide counseling to kidnapping victims.