Gunmen kidnap 4 Chinese oil workers in Colombia

Three Chinese workers for the British oil company Emerald Energy have been taken hostage in southern Colombia, officials said Thursday, blaming the kidnapping on FARC guerillas.A fourth foreigner, who was working as a translator, was also taken hostage, said Edilberto Ramon Henido, secretary of the local government in southern Caqueta department, but he could not confirm the man's nationality.Citing sources in China's embassy in Bogota, the Xinhua news agency said all four men were Chinese workers for the oil company.

Colombia's main leftist rebel group has released four Chinese oil workers in the same southern jungles where it kidnapped them 17 months ago, authorities said Thursday.

Colombian police say the country's main leftist rebel group has freed four Chinese oil workers it kidnapped more than a year ago.

BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombia’s military chief says the country’s second-largest rebel band has kidnapped five gold mining workers in a northern province. They include a Canadian, two Peruvians and two Colombians. Gen. Alejandro Navas tells The Associated Press that the five were seized Friday morning by two dozen rebels of the leftist National Liberation Army in the Bolivar state municipality of Norosi.

Unidentified gunmen kidnapped at least 23 employees of a subcontractor for Canada's Talisman Energy in eastern Colombia, according to a spokesperson for the oil firm.Tomas Rueda told RCN radio that the oil workers were all local hires."Twenty-three people working for one of our subcontractors have been kidnapped," he said, detailing the first mass kidnapping of civilians since President Juan Manuel Santos took office seven months ago.

Gunmen attacked a camp for a construction company in rural northern Nigeria, killing a guard and kidnapping seven foreign workers from Britain, Greece, Italy, Lebanon and the Philippines, authorities said Sunday, in the biggest kidnapping yet in a region under attack by Islamic extremists. The attack Saturday night happened in Jama’are, a town in Bauchi state. There, the gunmen first attacked a local prison, burning two police trucks, Bauchi state police spokesman Hassan Muhammed told The Associated Press.

Thousands of dead pigs in a Shanghai river have cast a spotlight on China's poorly regulated farm production, with the country's favourite meat joining a long list of food scares. As of Friday, the number of carcasses recovered in recent days from the Huangpu river -- which cuts through the commercial hub and supplies over 20 percent of its drinking water -- had reached more than 7,500.

Colombia today is considered to be one of the world's great emerging economies. Its growing political stability, decrease in violence, young working population and overall positive economic trend make it a country with interesting prospects.