Angela Merkel has called on Kurdish rebels to release "immediately and unharmed" three German mountain climbers taken hostage Turkey. - je 13.07.2008 10

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called on Kurdish rebels to release "immediately and unharmed" three German mountain climbers taken hostage earlier this week in eastern Turkey. The three men were part of an expedition hoping to climb Mount Ararat close to the border with Iraq. But the PKK says it won't release the hostages until Germany ends what it calls its hostile policy towards the Kurdish people.