A German woman held hostage by suspected Algerian Islamic rebels has died of heatstroke after almost five months of captivity in the Sahara desert with 14 other European tourists, German media reported on Tuesday. ARD television said the woman was a mother of two and that the kidnappers had probably buried her body in the southern Algerian Sahara, where daytime temperatures have reached 122 degrees Fahrenheit in recent months. The Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper identified the woman as 45-year-old Michaela Spitzer, who went missing in the desert on March 8. It quoted her ex-husband Karlheinz Spitzer as saying that German police had informed him of her death. A spokesman for the German foreign ministry said: “In the interest of the hostages who are still in a very difficult situation, the government cannot give any information.” Full Story
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