April 23, 2000 -- The rebel group Abu Sayyaf kidnaps 21 tourists, including a German family, in Malaysia and takes them to the Philippine Island of Jolo. The mother, Renate Wallert, is ill and freed almost immediately. Her son, Marc, has to wait until September for his release.

July 18, 2001 -- Colombia's FARC rebel group kidnap Germans Ulrich and Thomas Künzel and Reiner Bruchmann, who worked for the German emergency relief agency GTZ. Thomas Künzel manages to flee his kidnappers in September. His brother and Bruchmann are released in October.

July 27, 2001 -- Rainer Berns, trade representative at the Germany Embassy in Yemen, is kidnapped. He is released in September.

February 2003 -- Islamic militants kidnap 32 European tourists in the Sahara, including 16 Germans. Algerian forces manage to free 17 of the tourists in May, the rest are released in August following negotiations. One German tourist dies while in captivity.

Sept. 12, 2003 -- Eight tourists, including German citizen Reinhilt Weigel, are kidnapped by Colombian guerrillas. She's evacuated by helicopter after 74 days in captivity.

Nov. 25, 2005 -- Archaeologist Susanne Osthoff is kidnapped together with her driver. A still from a video in which her captors threaten to kill her shocks Germany. She is released in December.

Dec. 28, 2005 -- Former foreign ministry official Jürgen Chroborg and his family are kidnapped in east Yemen. They are released after three days.

January 24, 2006 -- Rene Bräunlich and Thomas Nitzschke, engineers from Leipzig, are kidnapped shortly after arriving in Baiji in northern Iraq. After a few months of negotiation, the two are released in May.

Feb. 6, 2007 -- Hannelore Krause, who is married to an Iraqi man, and her son, Sinan, are kidnapped from their Baghdad home. Krause was released on July 10, but her son remains in captivity.