Ethiopia hostages "safe" with rebels - local leader

ADDIS ABABA, Mar 9 (Reuters) Five Europeans and eight locals kidnapped in remote north Ethiopia are ''unharmed and safe'' in the hands of Afar separatist rebels holding them over the border in Eritrea, an Afar community leader said today.

Ismael Ali Gardo, co-founder of the Afar Pastoralists Development Association (APDA), said news of the captives had been picked up and passed on by nomadic herders close to where they were being held in the Eritrean settlement of Weima.

REUTERS DKA VC1548