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TWO AUSTRALIANS HAVE been kidnapped in Burkina Faso, officials said, as a Malian Islamist group said the couple were in the hands of Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists.
The Burkina government said the pair were kidnapped in Baraboule, near the west African country’s borders with Niger and Mali.
A Burkinabe intelligence source told AFP the Australians were a couple in their 80s from the western city of Perth who had lived since 1972 in Djibo, near Baraboule.
News of the kidnapping came as a jihadist assault on an upmarket hotel in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou left at least 26 people dead, including many foreigners.
Burkina Faso’s Communications Minister Remi Dandjinou said the couple were Australian nationals, correcting an earlier interior ministry statement identifying them as Austrian.
A spokesman for Malian militant group Ansar Dine, Hamadou Ag Khallini, told AFP in a brief phone message that the couple were being held by jihadists from the Al-Qaeda-linked “Emirate of the Sahara”.
He said they were alive and more details would be released soon.
The Australian department of foreign affairs said it was aware of the reports but declined to comment further when contacted by AFP.
“Our post in Accra, Ghana, is working with local authorities on a suspected kidnapping. We will not comment further on the situation,” it said.
A European diplomatic source confirmed they had received intelligence on Friday that a Western couple had been kidnapped in Burkina Faso, without giving their nationality.
Ansar Dine is one of the jihadist groups that seized control of northern Mali in March and April 2012.
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A CE mark required for piece of weighted plastic and a ball bearing
FFS, where is all of this European crap going to bring us?
@Peter Hargan: it’d be interesting to see what the EU make of the 1970′s equivalent the clackers. Back then the Herald carried stories of kids losing an eye or getting repetitive strain injuries from clacking the nylon balls up and down too much.
@Peter Hargan: as said in the article a child had to have surgery to remove a piece lodged in his gullet- we need some regulations, as we know self regulation is no regulation
@Peter Hargan: Actually what is more interesting is that for items made in China then a CE mark stands for China Export and not a manufacturers declaration that the product complies with EU regulations.
Toys must comply with the Toy Safety Directive which I assume relate to safety and labelling and I would prefer to think that manufacturers of the toys I purchase will at least be declared compliant with the safety directives rather then anyone being allowed to make and sell whatever they like, safe or not, and give them to our children.
Without the CE mark we could be back to toys painted with lead laden paint – so I am in favour of at least some safety declaration.
I don’t understand how there can be such a thing as “Fake” fidget spinners since the patent ran out when the inventor couldn’t afford to pay.
The sub-title is misleading – these aren’t “fakes” they are dangerous ones.
@Ciarán FitzGerald: nope that story is bogus, her invention was nothing like what these spinners are
Where i live shops don’t call them “fidget spinners”……they call them “money spinners”
Meanwhile tonnes of heroin and cocaine enter the country under the noses of customs officials seen fidgeting with faulty fidget spinners
@Brian MacCarthaigh: LOL !
There’s a village near to where I live, there are countless residents there driving large Range Rovers, X-5s etc all with Northern registration plates. Customs staff, concentrate on the bigger picture, not on a few toys, toys which your colleagues if found to possess same while traveling through Dublin airport etc would be given nothing more than a nod and a wink.
Gardai are also reporting this but they’ve said..”2 fidget spinners siezed from children at a roadside checkpoint”
Fad Gadget.
@Blind Faith: ya think?
@Blind Faith: nice early 80s Avant Garde proto industrial electronic pop reference there
What a complete waste of effort – typing up and publishing this article and any associated comments.
Dead right, cause I remember there being ce marks on all the trees I played on growing up and the pebbles on the road always had small parts warnings
Or maybe people weren’t a bunch of overly controlled morons being told their every move by regulations.
nanny state,
I Love them
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