Aid Worker Freed

An Australian aid worker who was kidnapped in Afghanistan four months ago has been freed and is "safe and well", Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said on Monday.

A female German aid worker who was kidnapped in Afghanistan in August has been released and is in good health, said German development organisation GIZ on Saturday.

A Dutch aid worker who was abducted by unknown gunmen in June in Afghanistan has been freed after being held for 81 days, the Dutch foreign ministry said late Thursday.

A French woman abducted in Yemen in February has been freed, French authorities said on Friday, adding that her captors had been about to kill her.

Alan Gross, a 65-year-old U.S. foreign aid worker freed from a Cuban prison on Wednesday, was arrested in Cuba in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years for importing banned technology and trying to establish clandestine Internet service for Cuban Jews.

A German aid worker who was taken hostage by masked gunmen in Pakistan over two years ago was released in neighbouring Afghanistan this week, Berlin said on Friday.

A car bomb killed dozens of people in rebel-held northwestern Syria on Monday as suspected jihadists freed four out of seven aid workers kidnapped in the increasingly volatile region.

The Navy SEAL operation that freed two Western hostages in Somalia is representative of the Obama administration's pledge to build a smaller, more agile military force that can carry out surgical counterterrorist strikes to cripple an enemy.

An Australian aid worker who was kidnapped in Afghanistan four months ago has been freed and is "safe and well", Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said on Monday.

A female German aid worker who was kidnapped in Afghanistan in August has been released and is in good health, said German development organisation GIZ on Saturday.

A Dutch aid worker who was abducted by unknown gunmen in June in Afghanistan has been freed after being held for 81 days, the Dutch foreign ministry said late Thursday.

A French woman abducted in Yemen in February has been freed, French authorities said on Friday, adding that her captors had been about to kill her.

Alan Gross, a 65-year-old U.S. foreign aid worker freed from a Cuban prison on Wednesday, was arrested in Cuba in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years for importing banned technology and trying to establish clandestine Internet service for Cuban Jews.

A German aid worker who was taken hostage by masked gunmen in Pakistan over two years ago was released in neighbouring Afghanistan this week, Berlin said on Friday.

A car bomb killed dozens of people in rebel-held northwestern Syria on Monday as suspected jihadists freed four out of seven aid workers kidnapped in the increasingly volatile region.

The Navy SEAL operation that freed two Western hostages in Somalia is representative of the Obama administration's pledge to build a smaller, more agile military force that can carry out surgical counterterrorist strikes to cripple an enemy.