Eight members of militant group al Shabaab were arrested for plotting to kidnap U.N. workers and take them to Somalia to demand a ransom, the Ethiopian intelligence agency said, Reuters reported March 25.
The British warplanes recently spotted in the Nigerian capital of Abuja were helping to move soldiers participating in the French intervention in Mali, rather than trying to rescue hostages as Nigerian-based Islamist group Ansaru claimed, the British military said March 10, AP reported.
Men from the western Libyan town of Zintan have been sent to reinforce security on the Algerian border as well as around oil fields in the area, the head of Libya's Petroleum Faculty Guard, Col. Ali Elahrash, said Jan. 23, Reuters reported.
Since the “Stockholm syndrome” hit the media in the early 1970s, following a bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden, kidnappings and hostage situations have become virtually an academic field of study. Situations vary, depending upon the captors and their goals. To avoid (or survive) such ordeals, it helps to know what they look like and how they might unfold.
