Soldiers in the Philippines have killed an Islamic militant suspected of involvement in the 2001 kidnapping of three Americans, a military official said Saturday.

Faidar Hadjadi, a member of the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, was shot dead after he was caught at a military checkpoint in the southern island of Jolo late Friday, said local marine commander Colonel Eugenio Clemen.

A Canadian journalist abducted this week in Pakistan`s northern tribal region was working on a documentary film for the Al-Jazeera network, media reported Friday.

Beverly Giesbrecht, 52, also known as Khadija Abdul Qahaar, was seized at gunpoint on Tuesday while traveling in the Bannu district of Pakistan`s Northwest Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan.

A Canadian journalist was abducted this week in Pakistan`s northern tribal region while gathering materials for a documentary, officials said Thursday, days after another was released in Afghanistan.

A Canadian journalist was abducted this week in Pakistan`s northern tribal region while gathering materials for a documentary, officials said Thursday, days after another was released in Afghanistan.

Mexican police on Thursday freed 27 farm workers captured by an armed commando from a property in western Sinaloa state three days ago, a local official said.

`It`s confirmed that the 27 farm workers were freed,` said an official from the state attorney general`s office.

Iran on Thursday condemned what it branded the `terrorist` kidnapping of one of its diplomats in Pakistan and called on the authorities there to do all they can to find and free him.

Hashmatullah Atharzadeh was on his way to the consulate in Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan when gunmen attacked his car, killing his police guard, police said.

Gunmen kidnapped an Iranian diplomat and killed his local guard in northwestern Pakistan Thursday, police said, in the latest of a series of attacks in the region.

Hashmatullah Atharzadeh was on his way to the consulate in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, when unknown assailants attacked his car, police officer Banaras Khan said.

Gunmen kidnapped an Iranian diplomat and killed his local guard in northwestern Pakistan Thursday, police said, in the latest of a series of attacks in the region.

Hashmatullah Atharzadeh was on his way to the consulate in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, when unknown assailants attacked his car, police officer Banaras Khan said.

Unidentified gunmen kidnapped an Iranian diplomat Thursday, killing his Pakistani police guard in the troubled northwestern province bordering Afghanistan, police said.

Hashmatullah Atharzadeh was driving to the consulate in Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province, when unknown assailants attacked his car, police officer Banaras Khan said.

Canadian journalist Mellissa Fung, recently held hostage for four weeks in Afghanistan, said Wednesday she was freed in a prisoner swap arranged by Afghan intelligence for members of a criminal gang.

In an interview with public broadcaster CBC, Fung said her captors were members of a criminal family who made a living kidnapping foreigners and demanding ransoms.

Authorities took control of a field in northwest Mexico where 27 farm workers were kidnapped, claiming the property owner was linked to drug trafficking, an official said Wednesday.

Authorities took control of a field in northwest Mexico where 27 farm workers were kidnapped, claiming the property owner was linked to drug trafficking, an official said Wednesday.

Authorities took control of a field in northwest Mexico where 27 farm workers were kidnapped, claiming the property owner was linked to drug trafficking, an official said Wednesday.

Authorities took control of a field in northwest Mexico where 27 farm workers were kidnapped, claiming the property owner was linked to drug trafficking, an official said Wednesday.

Authorities took control of a field in northwest Mexico where 27 farm workers were kidnapped, claiming the property owner was linked to drug trafficking, an official said Wednesday.

Cameroon released several political prisoners in exchange for 10 hostages, including seven French oil-workers, freed by a rebel group, several sources said Wednesday.

Seven French oil workers and a Tunisian abducted from a ship off the coast of Cameroon returned to France Wednesday after Paris negotiated a peaceful end to their 12-day ordeal.

The eight former hostages were greeted at a Paris airport by human rights minister Rama Yade, their families and the ambassadors of Tunisia and Cameroon, a day after their release.

Armed men kidnapped 27 farm workers on property owned by a suspected member of the Ciudad Juarez drug cartel, local state authorities said late Tuesday.

The men stormed the farm of La Guajira, in the municipality of Culiacan, officials in the north-western state of Sinaloa said in a statement.

The 27 people kidnapped are `agricultural workers,` the statement read.

Ten mainly French oil workers who were kidnapped and threatened with death by rebels in Cameroon were released safe and sound late Tuesday after being held for 12 days.

FARC rebels in Colombia have stepped up kidnapping and bribery operations in neighboring countries including Venezuela due to an acute crisis in their finances, the government in Bogota announced Tuesday.

The Marxist group`s financial woes stem from a loss of control of its cocaine production apparatus to Colombian military offensives, said the government.

Cameroonian authorities have negotiated the safe release of 10 mainly French oil workers who were kidnapped and threatened with death by rebels, French foreign ministry officials said Tuesday.

Rebels in Cameroon who seized 10 mostly French hostages from an oil ship off the west African country`s coast last month have released them, the French foreign minister said Tuesday.

Rome`s public prosecutor said Tuesday he had launched an inquiry into the abduction of two Catholic nuns by suspected Somali bandits in the north of Kenya the day before.

Bedouin tribesmen released a truckload of 25 Egyptian policemen they kidnapped in the northern Sinai on Tuesday in protest at the killing of one of their number, a security official said.

`The Bedouin freed them in a mountainous area near the Israeli border,` the official said.

Bedouin tribesmen on Tuesday kidnapped a truckload of 25 Egyptian policemen in the northern Sinai in apparent protest at the killing of one of their number, a security official said.

The police truck was heading for a crossing point on the Israeli border when `it was stopped by three pick-up trucks with armed Bedouin on board,` the official said, requesting anonymity.

Canada`s prime minister denied Monday reports from Afghanistan and Pakistan that two `dangerous` Taliban leaders were released in exchange for abducted Canadian journalist Mellissa Fung`s freedom.

`There have been continued reports about ransoms being paid. That was not done in this case,` Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters.

A member of the rebel group which seized 10 mostly French hostages from an oil vessel off the coast of the Bakassi region last month told AFP Monday the captives are `healthy and unshackled.`

A Canadian government source denied Monday reports from Afghanistan and Pakistan that two `dangerous` Taliban leaders were released in exchange for abducted Canadian journalist Mellissa Fung`s freedom.

`I can categorically deny that any ransom was paid or that Taliban leaders were exchanged` for Fung`s release, a senior Canadian government official told AFP, on condition of anonymity.

A Canadian government source denied Monday reports from Afghanistan and Pakistan that two `dangerous` Taliban leaders were released in exchange for abducted Canadian journalist Mellissa Fung`s freedom.

`I can categorically deny that any ransom was paid or that Taliban leaders were exchanged` for Fung`s release, a senior Canadian government official told AFP, on condition of anonymity.

Suspected Somali bandits abducted two Roman Catholic nuns from Italy in the north of Kenya on Monday, near the border with war-torn Somalia, officials and residents said.

Two nuns abducted in Kenya by suspected Somali bandits Monday are Italian, Italy`s foreign ministry said.

`The two sisters are Italian,` a foreign ministry spokesman told AFP.

The Catholic news agency MISNA said the two women had been in Kenya for years.

Suspected Somali bandits abducted two Catholic nuns in northern Kenya, near the border with war-torn Somalia, the Kenya Red Cross Society said Monday.

The armed men attacked the town of Elwak in the country`s northern Mandera district early Monday and also stole two vehicles.

A Canadian journalist described in a video released Sunday how kidnappers kept her in a hole in the ground in Afghanistan for four weeks, sometimes chained and blindfolded.

A tired-looking Canadian journalist described in a video released Sunday how kidnappers kept her in a hole in the ground for four weeks, sometimes chained and blindfolded.

A Canadian journalist freed after nearly a month in captivity was kept in a well near Kabul, Afghanistan`s intelligence agency said Sunday, adding three men had been arrested.

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation journalist Mellissa Fung -- who was kidnapped by armed men on October 12 as she visited a refugee camp on the outskirts of the Afghan capital -- was freed late Saturday.

A Canadian journalist from national broadcaster CBC was freed Saturday in Afghanistan four weeks after she was kidnapped in the capital Kabul, her employer said.

Mellissa Fung `was released around noon Toronto time (1700 GMT) and is now safe within the Canadian Embassy in Kabul,` the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said in a statement.

A Canadian journalist with the CBC has been freed in the Afghan capital after she was kidnapped last month in Kabul, her employer said Saturday.

Mellissa Fung `was released around noon Toronto time (1700 GMT) and is now safe within the Canadian Embassy in Kabul,` the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said in a statement.

A Polish engineer kidnapped in Pakistan by suspected Taliban militants is still alive according to new information received by the Polish foreign ministry, a spokesperson said Friday.

`We have new information that confirms nearly 100 percent that the Polish engineer kidnapped in Pakistan is alive,` Foreign Ministry spokesman Piotr Paszkowski said Friday.