Here are the key dates in the Afghan kidnapping.

Three UN workers - including Armagh's Annetta Flanigan - who were kidnapped in Afghanistan have been released unharmed after nearly four weeks in captivity, officials said today.

AMERICAN and Afghan forces searching for three kidnapped UN workers, including Annetta Flanigan from Co Armagh, smashed their way into a number of Kabul houses yesterday.

Three UN workers kidnapped in Afghanistan are in the hands of criminals, not the Taliban-linked militants who have threatened to kill them, an Afghan official said today.

Negotiations on the fate of three UN workers, including an Irish woman, kidnapped in Afghanistan have snagged over ransom demands, officials said today.

The purported leader of Taliban-linked militants holding three United Nations hostages, including Armagh woman Annetta Flanigan, said his group was split over whether they should “get rid” of the captives.

Kidnappers threatening to kill a Northern Irish woman in Afghanistan were today awaiting a response to their demand for a prisoner exchange.

Militants threatening to kill three UN hostages - including Armagh woman Annetta Flanigan - said talks were to begin with Afghan and UN officials today, 10 days after the victims were abducted at gunpoint on a street in the capital.

Militants threatening to kill three foreign hostages today - including Annetta Flanigan from Armagh - said negotiations with Afghan and UN officials had been postponed for another day.

Militants threatening to kill three foreign hostages said negotiations with Afghan and UN officials began in southern Afghanistan today.

Efforts to free three foreign hostages threatened with death by a Taliban splinter group have reached a “sensitive” stage, the US military said today, and urged the kidnappers not to harm them.

FRESH hopes emerged last night that Dublin-born hostage Margaret Hassan could be released by her abductors.

Militants claiming to hold three United Nations hostages in Afghanistan, including Northern Irish woman Annetta Flanigan who is said to be “seriously ill”, said they would decide today whether to kill them.

AFGHAN militants claiming to hold three UN hostages, including an Irish woman, said talks on demands including the release of Taliban prisoners had broken down yesterday.

Afghan militants claiming to hold three UN hostages, including Irish woman Annetta Flanigan, said talks on demands including the release of Taliban prisoners had broken down today.

A militant group threatening to kill three United Nations hostages including a Northern Irish woman Annetta Flanigan said today it was talking to the Afghan government about its demand to free Taliban prisoners.

Afghan officials are optimistic that three UN hostages, including Northern ireland's Annetta Flanigan, will be freed unharmed, a government spokesman said.

Afghan militants threatening to kill three foreign hostages, including a woman from the North, today offered to negotiate with a UN envoy, but warned that any rescue attempt would end in bloodshed.

Kidnapped Northern Irish UN worker Annetta Flanigan was today featured in a video released by her captors who are demanding the withdrawal of UK troops from Afghanistan.

A militant group claiming responsibility for kidnapping three foreign UN workers said today it will execute them unless Britain withdraws its troops from Afghanistan and two other governments stop supporting US policy.

International aid workers kept a low profile today after the brazen daylight kidnapping of an Irish woman and two other foreign UN election staff in the Afghan capital, Kabul.