Kidnapped workers in Somalia rescued

HAVANA, Cuba — A Florida couple accused of kidnapping their two young sons and fleeing by boat to Havana will be handed over to the United States, Cuban officials said after taking them into custody at a marina in the capital. U.S. diplomats in Havana said in a statement early Wednesday that the two children had left Cuba and “are safely on their way home.” The statement did not mention whether the parents had left for the U.S.

Four members of an aid group kidnapped last month in a remote area of northeastern Afghanistan were rescued Saturday morning, the International Security Assistance Force said.

Two European women aid workers were kidnapped in Haiti last week but freed on Thursday, their organization, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) told AFP."We are immensely relieved," spokesman Michel Peremans said, adding that both women -- whose nationalities he would not give -- were "safe and sound."Peremans said the two were grabbed Friday in what was the first kidnapping of foreign aid staff since the January 12 earthquake in Haiti that killed more than 220,000 people and left 1.3 million people homeless.

The first kidnappings of aid workers in Haiti jolted the thousands-strong foreign relief operation in the quake-torn nation, adding to the staggering challenges it faces two months after the country's disaster.Two European women workers with the French-based aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) were released early Thursday, unharmed, MSF told AFP.They had been held for nearly a week, but their abduction had been kept secret so as not to "complicate" negotiations to free them, MSF spokesman Michel Peremans said.

Canada has cut direct foreign aid to China as part of an overhaul of international assistance spending. It’s one of 14 countries that will see their aid either reduced or eliminated by the end of next year as the Canadian International Development Agency slashes $377 million in aid spending by 2014-2015. The cuts are part of an overhaul of bilateral aid programming, with CIDA aiming to target funds more precisely and work more with the private sector.

Unknown gunmen overnight swooped on the offices of German aid group THW in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region and abducted a German and a Dutch national, a United Nations official said on Wednesday.The raid late Tuesday took place in Nyala, capital of South Darfur state, the official of the joint UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) told AFP."They were kidnapped on Tuesday evening from their office in Nyala by armed men in civilian clothes," said UNAMID communication chief Kemal Saiki.

I think David Brooks’ column on combatting global poverty is in some respects too pessimistic* but fundamentally I’m in agreement with him about this:

At least 23 Colombian employees of a subcontractor for Canada's Talisman Energy were kidnapped 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, adding that the abductions took place in a town called Guerima."We are monitoring the information closely."