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A Bosnian woman, there's a new twist:

AUST MAN DETAINED OVER TERROR

May 19, 2004

AT least one Australian has been detained in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on suspicion of terrorism.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade today declined to comment on the nature of the charges but confirmed the arrest of a 43-year-old Brisbane man and another person of unknown nationality.

She told AAP the Australian High Commission was providing consular assistance.

"Kenyan authorities say they may be released in the very near future," the spokeswoman said.

Nairobi police spokesman Jaspher Ombati said a Kenyan man, a Somali man with a Australian passport and a Bosnian woman also with an Australian passport, were detained on Sunday while trying to make a booking at a hotel near the Israeli embassy.

"The police believed their movements were suspicious and this prompted officers to interview them and try and ascertain what was going on," Mr Ombati told Reuters.

"The three people are now in police custody and are currently being interviewed."

Security sources told Agence France-Presse it was feared the three could have been planning an attack on the embassy.

Nairobi's Kilimani police chief Richard Ngatia said the trio tried to book rooms at the Fairview hotel without any identifying documents.

When they failed to identify themselves to hotel staff they were reported to anti-terrorism officers from General Service Unit (GSU), a paramilitary wing of the Kenyan police, who were guarding the embassy.

The man and woman, believed to be a couple, later presented Australian passports to police, but the third person, who claimed to be a Kenyan-Somali student, failed to produce identity documents.

Terrorists have twice attacked embassies and hotels in Kenya in 1998 and 2002.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,9606775%5E1702,00.html