KANDAHAR — Four Afghan employees of a French development agency who had been abducted by gunmen were released unharmed Tuesday afternoon, according to the country director of the organization. The four men, who worked for the aid group ACTED, spent a day in the custody of a local militant commander in northwestern Faryab province before a delegation of elders from the area negotiated their release, said Ziggy Garewal, ACTED’s top official in Afghanistan. Afghan officials said they believed the kidnappers were Taliban fighters, but Garewal said their affiliation remained unclear. Read full article > >

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Abducted aid workers freed in Afghanistan

QUERETARO, Mexico — Of all the strange circumstances surrounding the violent abduction last year of Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, the Mexican power broker and former presidential candidate known here as “Boss Diego,” perhaps nothing was weirder than the mysterious tracking chip the kidnappers allegedly cut from his body. Lurid Mexican media accounts reported that an armed gang invaded Fernandez’s home, then sliced open his arm with a pair of scissors and extracted a satellite-enabled tracking device, leaving the chip and a streak of blood behind. Read full article > >

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Scared Mexicans try under-the-skin tracking devices

Mexican former presidential candidate Diego Fernandez de Cevallos is freed by his kidnappers after being held hostage for seven months.

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Kidnapped Mexican politician free

Elizabeth Smart testified Tuesday that she complied with her kidnappers because she was afraid for her life and her family’s safety, in her second day on the stand in the trial of alleged kidnapper Brian David Mitchell. Smart, kidnapped at knifepoint…

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Elizabeth Smart: I Was Almost Saved