By Paul Bolding VIENNA, March 15 (Reuters) - The parents of an Austrian woman held hostage with a companion by al Qaeda's North Africa wing appealed for their release in a video sent to broadcaster Al Jazeera, a local report said on Saturday. Andrea Kloiber, 43, and Wolfgang Ebner, 51, went missing last month during a trip to Tunisia. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said it seized the two hostages on Feb. 22. Christine Lenz, Kloiber's mother, said on the tape: "We only have sleepless nights now. We are suffering greatly. Please let our children go," Austrian news agency APA reported. It quoted a spokesman for Christine Lenz as saying the tape was made on Friday and sent to the Qatar-based broadcaster overnight. "We just sit at home and think of Andrea and Wolfgang. It is unimaginable suffering," the 65-year-old mother said. "Wolfgang always had good relationships and friendships with Muslims. Both wanted to build cultural bridges." Al Qaeda's North African wing demanded the release of 10 militants held in Tunisia and Algeria within three days. The ultimatum began at midnight Thursday. In Algiers, a security source said on Friday those named included Amari Saifi, an Algerian guerrilla chief who abducted 32 European tourists for several months in 2003. Five of the militants are in Tunisian jails and the other five, including Saifi, more popularly known as Abderrazak el Para, are in custody in Algeria, the security source said. The demands and a list of the prisoners were sent to Vienna through unidentified mediators, the group said in a Web posting. Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said on Friday efforts were being made to secure the release of the hostages but Vienna would not negotiate. Foreign Ministry spokesman Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal declined comment on the kidnappers' demands. "We ask for understanding that in the interests of the hostages and those working for their release, we cannot go into details," he said. The group, waging a violent campaign against government forces and foreign interests in North Africa, said its members were jailed for confronting "the new crusade against Islam". In its Web statements it warned Western tourists not to visit Tunisia, and later expanded the warning to include other Maghreb states -- Morocco, Mauritania and Algeria. The hostages were shown in an Internet message from the kidnappers dressed in robes and surrounded by militants in a desert area. Their captors were armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. A senior security source in Mali has said it was possible the kidnappers had moved to the northern desert town of Tessalit, where the al Qaeda wing -- formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) -- is believed to have a base. (Reporting by Paul Bolding, editing by Mary Gabriel)
Secondary school students shout slogans during a protest held in front of a local school in the center of Algiers January 20, 2008. Students demonstrated in major cities across Algeria against ...
