| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iran |
| No trace of kidnapped tourists in Iran |
| 2003-12-09 |
| Police have yet to find any trace of three European tourists and an Iranian tour guide kidnapped last week on a bicycle tour in southeast Iran, a government official said Tuesday. The general director of the Sistan-Baluchestan governor’s office, Gholam-Reza Javdan, told the news service Kar that the one Irish and two German tourists and the Iranian guide were abducted by a drug- trafficking ring who demanded a EUR five million ransom. He could give no further details but said police had seized 40 tons of drugs from the bands within the last eight months and the ransom money might be an effort to compensate for that loss. The head of Iranian tourism, Mohammad Abd-Khodaie, told the student news agency ISNA Tuesday that Iran is still a very safe place for tourists, except for the border areas to Afghanistan and Pakistan where the tourists were abducted. "I hate it when that happens." |
| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #3 Riding a bicycle as a tourist in just about the most dangerous area this side of chechnya. Now that's rich. They are not eligible for Darwin Awards until their demise is properly documented. BTW, the author of the Darwin Awards books, Wendy Northcutt, was at Title Wave Books in Anchorage, Alaska last night. Was on a flight so I missed her presentation. damn! |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-12-9 9:24:19 PM |
| #2 I remember reading a Washington Post online chat from 2001 with the guy who was the spokesman for the Northern Alliance at the time. Mazar-i-Sharif had just fallen, and some guy asked the Northern Alliance spokesman if it would be safe for him to visit Afghanistan the next spring. A very polite no was returned. I think that guy would want to be on this trip. Instant Darwin award here folks. Though the dopes who went to Algeria were stupider. |
| Posted by: OminousWhatever 2003-12-9 5:13:50 PM |
| #1 They should keep them. Anyone stupid enough to go on a bicycle tour in an area like that should be removed from the gene pool and not be ransomed at taxpayer's expenses. |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2003-12-9 1:20:07 PM |