The mother of a three-year-old British girl who was snatched in Nigeria said the kidnappers phoned and threatened to kill her daughter.

Six hostages have escaped from an oil facility in Nigeria where they had been held since armed men raided it earlier this week.

Kidnappers in Nigeria today released a Briton and an American seized by gunmen in speedboats last week from a vessel off the country’s oil-rich southern coast, a government official said.

Militants seized two expatriate oil workers – an American and a Briton - during a raid on a ship off Nigeria’s southern coast, an oil industry security official said today.

ChevronTexaco Corp will resume the production of 23,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil this week. suspended last week in the wake of the abduction of 18 workers in southern Nigeria.