AFP - A Colombian aid worker and two Afghan colleagues who were abducted in Afghanistan earlier this month have been freed unconditionally, their organisation said.

AP - The motive behind the murder of an Italian woman in the Venezuelan islands of Los Roques remains a mystery for authorities investigating the case that has stunned inhabitants of this Caribbean archipelago.

AFP - Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq wanted foreign cash to build thousands of concrete bunkers to bury dead Kurds, an Australian inquiry into abuses of the UN oil-for-food programme has heard.

Reuters - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet foreign ministers of the six conservative Gulf countries and Jordan while in Egypt on Tuesday, an Egyptian official said on Friday.