More on the mysterious disappearance of Florence Aubenas and her translator in Iraq. Here's a Jan.6 post on her case which has lots of links to material about working in Iraq as a journo.

The current story story is short, so here's the full text from Yahoo! News:

France is stepping up its local contacts in Iraq over the mysterious disappearance of a French reporter and her translator in the country, the prime minister said.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin said French authorities still have "no confirmed information" on the whereabouts of reporter Florence Aubenas nine days after the two vanished.

"Contacts are multiplying on the ground. Verifications are being made," Raffarin told Liberation newspaper -- Aubenas' employer -- in an interview to be published on Saturday. "The government and its services are completely mobilized," he said without elaborating.

The disappearance "is a preoccupation every instant for me," Raffarin said in the interview, a copy of which was provided to The Associated Press on Friday.

Following a meeting with President Jacques Chirac in Paris on Thursday, Interim Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer referred to the case as one of an "abduction," but did not give any concrete details.

Ever cautious, the French government insisted it is unsure whether the two were abducted -- a scenario that her editors acknowledge appears increasingly likely.