AMERICAN reporter Jill Carroll, who was kidnapped three months ago in an ambush that killed her translator, was released from captivity yesterday and said she had not been harmed.

American reporter Jill Carroll, who was kidnapped three months ago in a bloody ambush that killed her translator, was released from captivity today and said she had not been harmed.

Iraq police and the leader of the Islamic Party today reported that kidnapped US reporter Jill Carroll has been released after nearly three months in captivity.

US and British troops yesterday freed three Christian peace activists in rural Iraq without firing a shot.

While the Christian Peacemakers Teams expressed joy at their colleagues’ sudden rescue from captivity in Iraq today, the peace activists took the opportunity to also call for an end to the US-led occupation of Iraq.

Sunni Arabs are ready to end their boycott of talks to form a new government if rival Shiites return mosques seized in last week’s sectarian attacks and meet other unspecified demands, a Sunni official said today.

The family of American journalist Jill Carroll issued another public appeal for her release today, a week before a deadline set by her Iraqi kidnappers for their demands to be met or they will kill her.

Explosions caused by a bomb left in a bag near labourers waiting for day's work in Baghdad and a suicide bomber in a restaurant in northern Iraq killed at least eight people today and wounded 19 more.

Iraq’s state television has begun broadcasting appeals for the release of kidnapped American journalist Jill Carroll including footage of her mother and a major Sunni Arab politician describing the 28-year-old freelancer as a friend of Iraq.

US journalist Jill Carroll, kidnapped in Iraq a month ago, pleaded with authorities to meet her captors’ demands quickly in a video aired on Kuwaiti television, saying “there is a very short time”.

Iraqi authorities have set up new checkpoints and warned innkeepers to watch for suspicious people – all part of security measures to protect Shiites marking the holiest day of their calendar this week.

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair last night vowed to see through the job in Iraq after the British armed forces death toll reached 100.

Al-Jazeera aired a new video today of what appears to be kidnapped US journalist Jill Carroll wearing a veil and weeping.

Kidnappers of four kidnapped Christian peace activists threatened to kill them unless all Iraqi prisoners are released from Iraqi and US prisons, according to a tape broadcast today.

US ARMY documents released yesterday revealed that troops have seized and jailed the wives of suspected Iraqi insurgents in the hope of “leveraging their husbands to surrender”.

Aljazeera television broadcast a videotape today showing two German engineers abducted this week in northern Iraq.

SADDAM HUSSEIN’S chief lawyer yesterday said that the deposed Iraqi president wanted British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W Bush tried on allegations of committing war crimes.

The US military handed over five Iraqi women to their families today, a demand sought by militants holding a kidnapped American journalist.

The US military today said it would release five female Iraqi detainees, a move demanded by the kidnappers of an American reporter to spare her life.

Gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms today seized two German engineers working at a detergent plant near the northern Iraqi town of Beiji, police said.

INSURGENTS fired rocket-propelled grenades at the home of an Iraqi police officer yesterday, killing his four children and his brother and wounding his wife.

AN ALLIANCE of Shi’ite religious parties won the most seats in Iraq’s new parliament, results showed yesterday, but not enough to rule without coalition partners as Sunni Arabs gained seats over previous ballots.

TWO near-simultaneous bombings targeted a crowded downtown Baghdad coffee shop and nearby restaurant, killing at least 23 people and wounding 26, according to police and hospital officials.

A suicide attacker detonated an explosive vest inside a crowded Baghdad coffee shop today and seconds later another bomb exploded under a nearby car, killing at least 23 people and wounding 26, police and hospital officials said.

Iraq has asked US authorities to release six of the eight Iraqi women in military custody, but not as part of a bid to free a kidnapped American female journalist, a government official said today.

Iraqi insurgents carried out two dramatic ambushes yesterday, killing 11 people including two American civilians in a roadside bombing in Basra and an attack on an Iraqi convoy in Baghdad.

THE family of an American reporter abducted in Baghdad appealed for mercy after her captors threatened to kill her if US authorities don’t release all Iraqi women in military custody by tomorrow.

Kidnapped American reporter Jill Carroll appeared in a silent 20-second video aired in Iraq yesterday by Al-Jazeera television, which said her abductors gave the US 72 hours to free female prisoners or she would be killed.