VIENNA: Austria's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday there was no new evidence that an Austrian and four US citizens kidnapped over a year ago in southern Iraq had been located and could soon be free. "Reports of a breakthrough in the case and that we know where they are false," ministry spokesman Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal told AFP. Media reports this week quoted the head of Crescent Security Group, the private security firm for which the five men worked in Iraq, as saying the hostages were alive and could soon be freed. "They are alive," CSG director Franco Picco told the daily Oesterreich Wednesday, adding: "We will get the guys back." However, Launsky-Tieffenthal said: "We have always worked with the understanding that the hostages were alive" and "there has been no change." - AFP

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