KABUL, Sept 29, 2007 (AFP) - Afghanistan's Taliban Saturday released four Red Cross workers, including two foreign nationals, captured near the capital four days ago, officials said.

The four -- one from Myanmar, one from Macedonia and two Afghans -- were seized in the province of Wardak on Wednesday while returning from a mission to release a German engineer and five Afghans captured by Taliban mid-July.

KABUL, Sept 29, 2007 (AFP) - The Red Cross confirmed Saturday that four of its staff, including two foreign nationals, were freed after being captured four days ago.

The four -- two Afghans, one from Myanmar and one from Macedonia -- were back in Kabul, said an AFP photographer at the International Committee of Red Cross offices in the capital.

They were freed 'after being seized by an armed group in Wardak province,' the ICRC said in a statement that made no reference to the Taliban.

GENEVA, Sept 29, 2007 (AFP) - The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed Saturday the release of four workers captured by Taliban insurgents, in a statement from its Geneva headquarters.

'The unconditional release of our four colleagues is a great relief to us and their families,' it quoted Franz Rauchenstein, deputy head of the ICRC delegation in Kabul, as saying.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed earlier told AFP that the two Afghans, one Macedonian and a man from Myanmar were freed after they had been 'mistakenly' kidnapped on Wednesday in Wardak.

KABUL, Sept 29, 2007 (AFP) - Taliban rebels have freed four Red Cross workers captured four days ago, two of them foreign nationals, a provincial government spokesman told AFP.

'I can confirm that they have been freed. They were handed to an Afghan ICRC worker,' said Abdul Udood Pashtunzar, a spokesman for the Wardak provincial government where the men were released.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed told AFP earlier that the men were freed after they had been 'mistakenly' kidnapped on Wednesday in Wardak.

KABUL, Sept 29, 2007 (AFP) - Taliban rebels have freed four International Committee of the Red Cross workers, two of them foreign nationals, captured four days ago, a provincial government spokesman told AFP.

'I can confirm that they have been freed. They were handed to an Afghan ICRC worker,' said Abdul Udood Pashtunzar, a spokesman for Wardak provincial government where the men were released.

GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Sept 29, 2007 (AFP) - Afghanistan's insurgent Taliban movement said four Red Cross workers, including two foreigners, would be freed Saturday after they were 'mistakenly' kidnapped four days ago.

Taliban spokesmen initially denied the movement was involved in the abductions but one of them, Zabihullah Mujahed, told AFP Saturday: 'I found out that they were mistakenly kidnapped by our men.'

GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - Afghan negotiators worked Friday to secure the release of four Red Cross workers, two of them foreigners, who were captured during a mission to free a German kidnapped by Taliban.

Contact had been made with the group that seized the men on Wednesday in the province of Wardak, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Kabul, said the governor of Sayed Abad district where they were taken.

'We are in contact with the kidnappers via tribal elders and influentials,' said the district governor, Anayatullah Mangal.

GENEVA, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - The International Committee of the Red Cross on Thursday said that four staff seized by an armed group in Afghanistan were on their way back from a mission to help release hostages held there.

ICRC spokeswoman Carla Haddad said the agency was in touch with the group to try to secure the release of its employees, one from Myanmar, another from the Federal Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and two Afghans.

GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - Four Red Cross staffers, two of them foreigners, were headed for a second night in captivity in Afghanistan Thursday after being seized during a mission to free a German hostage.

Afghan officials said the group was kidnapped in the central province of Wardak on Wednesday by unknown gunmen but the International Committee of the Red Cross insisted they were only detained and were expected to be freed soon.

GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - Security forces on Thursday surrounded the abductors of four Red Cross employees, two of them foreigners, and the hostages were expected to be freed soon, an Afghan official said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross employees were captured Wednesday about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Kabul while on a mission to secure the release of a German man captured nine weeks ago, officials said.

GENEVA, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday that four staff who went missing in Afghanistan were returning from a mission to facilitate the release of hostages held there.

'They were on a mission to facilitate the release of the German hostage and the five Afghans,' ICRC spokeswoman Carla Haddad told AFP, adding that the staff were returning to Kabul when they went missing on Wednesday.

GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - Unknown gunmen abducted two international and two Afghan employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross near Kabul, Afghan officials said Thursday.

The ICRC would however not confirm the group had been kidnapped, saying only they had not returned from a humanitarian mission Wednesday.

'The problem is being resolved,' ICRC delegate Greg Muller told AFP.

KABUL, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - The International Committee of the Red Cross in Afghanistan said Thursday it was optimistic the reported kidnapped of four of its staff members would be resolved soon.

Without confirming the two international and two Afghan staffers had been abducted as claimed by Afghan officials, ICRC delegate Greg Muller told AFP the 'problem is being resolved.'

The team had been on a humanitarian mission in the province of Wardak south of Kabul and had not returned as scheduled Wednesday, he said.

GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - Two international employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross have been abducted in southern Afghanistan, a provincial police chief said Thursday.

The ICRC confirmed that four of its staff, two foreigners and two Afghans, were missing after a trip late Wednesday but could not say if they had been abducted.

The police chief of Wardak province near Kabul only referred to two foreigners whom he said were kidnapped by unknown gunmen as they were travelling on a main road back to the capital late Wednesday.

GENEVA, Sept 19, 2007 (AFP) - The International Committee of the Red Cross has opened a blog hosted by the website of French daily Le Monde to focus on humanitarian issues that receive little coverage in the local media.

The French language blog run by the ICRC's office in France is aimed at highlighting broader concerns about armed conflicts and will draw in other relief agencies and actors, the Geneva-based agency said on Wednesday.

'I just think existing, mainstream media have limitations in what they can cover,' said chief ICRC spokesman Florian Westphal.

GENEVA, Sept 13, 2007 (AFP) - Afghanistan is sliding ever further into conflict with more than half of the country affected and several regions out of reach of humanitarian aid, a senior international Red Cross official warned on Thursday.

'The conflict is clearly spreading and in certain areas also intensifying,' said Reto Stocker, head of the Afghan delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

'Today, more than half of Afghanistan is mildly to very strongly affected by the conflict,' he added.

BELGRADE, Aug 29, 2007 (AFP) - At least 17,000 people are still missing from the wars that tore apart the former Yugoslavia, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Wednesday.

More than 13,400 of those missing were from Bosnia's war, some 2,300 from Croatia's conflict and 2,047 from strife in Kosovo, the ICRC said in a statement.

The figures showing a total of 17,882 open missing persons cases were released the ahead of the International Day of the Disappeared on Thursday.

GENEVA, Aug 29, 2007 (AFP) - The Red Cross on Wednesday called on the international community to increase efforts to help the hundreds of thousands of people missing worldwide as a result of armed conflicts and other violence.

'Not enough is being done,' said Pierre Kraehenbuehl, director of operations at the International Committee of the Red Cross.

'It is imperative to deal with this tragedy and help the tens of thousands of families of missing persons discover what happened to their loved ones,' he said ahead of the International Day of the Disappeared on August 30.

GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Aug 29, 2007 (AFP) - Three South Korean women released by their Taliban kidnappers were handed over Wednesday to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Afghanistan, the ICRC said.

'We can confirm that we were handed over three female hostages. We are driving them towards Ghazni,' ICRC representative Craig Muller told AFP.

An AFP reporter said the women were wearing traditional Islamic scarves and appeared to be weeping.

GENEVA, Aug 13, 2007 (AFP) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Monday it had handed over two South Korean women hostages held by the Taliban to a South Korean delegation in Afghanistan.

The ICRC said in a statement that it had played a key role as a neutral intermediary in the women's release and in helping recent talks between the two sides.

'The ICRC is relieved that two hostages have been released and that they can now rejoin their families back home,' said Reto Stocker, head of the agency's delegation in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Aug 13, 2007 (AFP) - The Red Cross has handed two South Korean hostages freed by the Taliban in Afghanistan to officials from the South Korean embassy, a Red Cross official told AFP Monday.

'We brought them to here to the Afghan Red Crescent compound where they were handed to Korean authorities,' International Committee of the Red Cross deputy head of delegation Franz Rauchenstein told AFP.

GENEVA, Aug 6, 2007 (AFP) - The International Committee of the Red Cross said Monday that it remained concerned about the fate of terror suspects allegedly held in secret detention centres run by the United States.

ICRC spokesman Vincent Lusser told AFP that the issue was still relevant, despite statements by US officials last year indicating that detainees held secretly in CIA prisons were returned to home countries or open detention.