Kidnappers have released two Iraqi guards abducted along with an American and Nepalese from their Baghdad compound.

Kidnappers released a Jordanian businessman today, two weeks after he was taken hostage in Iraq.

Kidnappers released two female Italian aid workers and five other hostages, raising hopes for foreigners still in captivity.

Kidnappers released a senior Egyptian diplomat they had seized outside a mosque as two other militant groups threatened to kill four new foreign hostages amid an increasingly audacious wave of kidnappings in Iraq.

Kidnappers seized 13 foreign hostages and threatened to burn three Japanese captives alive if Tokyo did not withdraw its troops from Iraq as fighting in Fallujah raged today between insurgents and US forces.

Kidnappers in Brazil have accepted post-dated cheques and electrical goods as a ransom.