Demonstrations continued Saturday in Germany in support of Susanne Osthoff, 43, the German aid worker and archaeologist who was abducted more than a week ago in Iraq, DPA reported. But after a deadline that was set by the kidnappers expired, there was no word on Osthoff, a convert to Islam. About 100 Moslem residents of the southwestern German town of Offenbach demonstrated Saturday outside the town hall for her release. They held up "No Terrorism" placards at the protest, organized by the municipal inter-ethnic committee. In Glonn, the southeastern German town where Osthoff lived for four years before moving to Iraq. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, entering a Berlin meeting of the government's crisis team on the kidnapping, said, "Unfortunately we have not been able to make contact with the kidnappers in the first week, either directly or indirectly." The minister added, "I admit we would all like to have made more progress than we have." He said a televised appeal by the mother and a sister of the hostage had been given wide attention in Iraq, as had condemnations of the abduction by Islamic leaders in the country.
