Afghanistan

U.N. hostages freed

Three U.N. workers kidnapped in Afghanistan have been released unharmed after more than three weeks in captivity, officials said today.

“They are out,” U.N. spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said.

Officials said the three were freed overnight and were in the Afghan capital. One Western official said doctors were examining the three at a NATO field hospital in Kabul.

The hostages were released late Monday and are in good condition, three Afghan officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Armed men seized Philippine diplomat Angelito Nayan, British-Irish citizen Annetta Flanigan and Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo in Kabul on Oct. 28, the first such abduction in the Afghan capital since the Taliban fell three years ago.

Afghan officials earlier said they believed a criminal gang carried out the abductions, and that negotiations centered on a ransom demand.

News of the release came hours after U.S. and Afghan forces raided two houses in downtown Kabul on Monday and detained 10 people in connection with the abductions.

Most of the detainees were released after being questioned.

United Nations

Sexual-abuse issues addressed

The United Nations is investigating 150 allegations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers in Congo, a disturbing sign that efforts to rid the so-called “blue helmets” of such misconduct in recent years haven’t worked, officials said Monday.

The allegations include pedophilia, rape and soliciting prostitutes, all claims that have been made against peacekeepers working under the U.N. mandate in the past, said Jane Holl Lute, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations.

The allegations in Congo started coming to light in the spring, and there is enough evidence in many of the cases for formal investigations, Holl Lute said. Investigators are now checking the 15 other U.N. missions around the world to see how widespread the problem is.

London

Reports: British thwart 9-11-style terror attacks

British security services thwarted planned Sept. 11-style terror attacks on Heathrow Airport and skyscrapers in Canary Wharf, a financial district of London, according to two media reports.

But the stories, which cited unidentified sources, did not say when or where the plots were uncovered, or how close they came to being carried out.

The plans to crash planes into the two targets were among four or five attacks planned by terrorists linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network, ITV News said Monday night and the Daily Mail newspaper reported in its today’s editions.

ITV News also said that British authorities had disrupted training programs for suicide pilots.

United Nations

EU to take over peacekeeping in Bosnia

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Monday to transfer peacekeeping duties in Bosnia from the NATO-led force to the European Union next month and called for all war crimes suspects to surrender.

The transfer will mean the withdrawal of more than 1,000 American troops serving in Bosnia as part of the NATO force. They will be replaced by EU personnel, with the biggest contingent coming from Finland.

British Maj. Gen. David Leakey, who will command the new European Union Force, known as EUFOR, said the Europeans would take over on Dec. 2.

More than 60,000 NATO-led troops from more than 40 countries were deployed to Bosnia in late 1995 to enforce the peace agreement signed in Dayton, Ohio, which ended the 3 1/2 year war among the country’s Serbs, Muslims and Croats. The conflict killed 260,000 people and turned 1.8 million into refugees.

Security has improved over the years, allowing the NATO-led Stabilization Force known as SFOR to decrease the number of troops to the current level of 7,000.