Here is an article that I picked up from the N. Y. Times website. It is a
copyrighted story of the N. Y. Times appearing on their web site at
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/colombia-warning.html

<<The State Department issued an advisory Friday cautioning Americans against
traveling to Colombia, where two New York City bird-watchers and two other
Americans were reported to have been kidnapped by rebels.

Radio reports in Colombia have identified Peter Shen and Thomas Fiore, two
avid Central Park bird-watchers, as two of four Americans who were captured
earlier this week by rebels who set up a roadblock on a highway 35 miles south
of Bogota. The four were on a bird-watching trip and their rental car was
found empty near the roadblock in the town of El Calvario. An Italian
businessman was also abducted.

Nine Colombians who also were kidnapped by the rebels on Monday were freed
Friday, according to wire reports out of Colombia.

A State Department spokeswoman, Maria Rudensky, said she could not confirm the
identities of the Americans or reports that they are held by a group called
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

But The Associated Press quoted the leader of the rebel group, a man who calls
himself Comandante Romana, as saying that the group did abduct the Americans
and was "investigating" the foreigners' net worth before deciding how much
ransom to demand.

The travel advisory issued Friday warned Americans against traveling to
Colombia, stating, "Kidnappings have occurred in all major regions of
Colombia."

The news of the kidnappings stunned bird-watchers in New York who know the two
men.

"One doesn't think of birding as one avocation where this sort of thing
happens," said Herbert Shapiro, a Central Park birder who knows Shen and
Fiore. "It's scary."

Among friends, Fiore is known as "the Bird Man of Central Park." On most
mornings Fiore is in the park tutoring novices and testing his knowledge of
the more than 300 species believed to be found in Central Park.

"He is New York's quintessential birder -- he lives for birding," said
Christopher Hayes, a friend and filmmaker who is working on a movie about
birding. "This couldn't have happened to a less deserving person."

Both men are said to be in their early 30s. Shen lives in Manhattan but an
address could not be obtained for Fiore. Last year, the men took a bird-
watching trip to Ecuador, according to acquaintances.

Ms. Rudensky said the rebel group has previously been linked to the
kidnappings of more than a half-dozen Americans. Two missionaries from Florida
were killed in 1995 in a confrontation between the group and Colombian army
troops.

At least 88 Americans have been kidnapped in Colombia since 1980. Twelve of
them were either killed or died in captivity, according to the Colombian
government.>>

Hoping for the best,

John (One of Birders2)

John + Irma = 2, we are birders, too.

John C. LeVine
Birders2 at aol.com
Los Angeles, CA

Please put <To Birders2> in subject line when e-mailing us personally. I do
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