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MANILA, Philippines – A jailed tribal leader has been temporarily freed to help urge gunmen, including his relatives, to safely release 16 mostly grade school teachers in the latest high-profile hostage crisis to hit the Philippines in recent months, officials said Sunday.

Germany had facilitated the clearance of India’s outstanding oil bill with Iran in February this year in return for the release of two German journalists held in custody by Tehran, a German news magazine has reported. The online edition of Der Spiegel today reported that India’s payment of about $ 1.5 billion to Iran through a bank in Germany, the European-Iranian Trading Bank (EITB), was “facilitated” by the German government as part of a deal to get its journalists released. Germany’s central bank, Bundesbank, cleared the transaction, the magazine quoted sources as saying. India was wary of making a direct...

ROME -- Italian officials said Sunday they would do whatever it takes to free the crew of an Italian tugboat apparently seized by Libyan officials at Tripoli's port as U.S. and European airstrikes enforced a no-fly zone over Libya. The "Asso 22" tug of the Naples-based shipping company Augusta Offshore SrL has eight Italian, two Indian and one Ukrainian crew members aboard, state-run RAI television said. Armed men, including one believed to be the Tripoli port commander, detained the crew as Libyan workers aboard were disembarking Saturday and prevented the vessel from leaving port, the report said. Defense Minister Ignazio...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Armed forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi captured three Dutch marines and their helicopter during a botched evacuation mission near a stronghold of the Libyan leader, the Defense Ministry said Thursday. Libyan authorities are still holding the marines five days after they were seized Sunday by armed men after landing near Sirte in a Lynx helicopter from the navy ship HMS Tromp. The ship was anchored off the Libyan coast to help evacuations from the conflict-torn country, spokesman Otte Beeksma told The Associated Press. Two Europeans, one Dutch and one whose nationality was not released, were also...

The Times of London reports in tomorrow's edition that the Italians have agreed to stop paying ransoms to kidnapers in Iraq, a policy change that brings Rome into line with other Western nations. In further developments, an Italian parliamentarian indicated that despite earlier assertions that the Americans had been alerted to Sgrena's release and Calipari's itinerary, the Italians never got clearance for their vehicle: [THE Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has promised President George W Bush that he will not pay more ransoms to free hostages in Iraq. The Italian government has denied newspaper reports that $6m (£3.1m) was paid...

The United States says it has not been able to move some of its non-essential diplomats from Libya, as governments send airplanes and ships to pick up their citizens stranded by Libya's bloody unrest. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Tuesday the United States was looking at various ways to move the diplomats, their families, and other Americans out of Libya. He did not elaborate on why the U.S. was unable to do so on Tuesday. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the safety and wellbeing of Americans there is the highest U.S. priority. Meanwhile, Britain's foreign secretary says his...

AWOL Wisconsin Democrat calls CNN with list of demandsBy Mary Katharine Ham - The Daily Caller Updated: 4:31 PM 02/17/2011 State Senator Mark Miller, a member of the missing band of Wisconsin Democratic lawmakers who fled Madison Thursday to avoid a vote on a budget bill, called into CNN with the group’s list of demands for Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Miller, a state senator since 2004, would not disclose where he and his colleagues were hiding out, saying only “we are in what we consider a secure location outside the capital. We are not all in one place at this...

Chase Bank On North Main Street In Pearland Robbed Friday PEARLAND, Texas -- Two armed men are holding people hostage in a bank robbery, police said. Pearland police said the men held up the Chase Bank in the 1900 block of Main Street on Friday morning. Investigators said the bank's manager was injured, but have not released the extent of his injuries. An unknown number of hostages are being held inside the bank, police said. Residents in the area said parts of state Highway 35 were being blocked off. For more information on this breaking story, stay tuned to KPRC...

Nearly 76,000 Iranian Jews moved to Israel since 1948 and Immigration Ministry officials and the Knesset committee for immigration are trying to find ways to encourage the remaining 25,000 to move to the Jewish State. One major obstacle is the comfortable position of many Iranian Jews, despite their children starting school every day with the chant “Death to Israel, Death to America.” Marking International Human Rights Day, the Knesset Committee on Immigration discussed the situation with Israelis from the Turkish and Iranian Jewish communities in Israel. “I ask Jews in Iran why they stay there, and they tell me they...

A Wisconsin teen who held 23 students and a teacher hostage at Marinette High School died on Tuesday morning as authorities try to piece together what made the teen snap. Fifteen-year-old Samuel Hengel burst into the school at around 2:30 p.m. EST Monday and held the hostages for about five hours. He fired shots into a wall, desk and projector equipment in the room, but never aimed at students. Zach Campbell, a student who was in the room during the hostage situation, said Hengel pulled out a gun and shot the projector as they were watching a movie. "We just...

An irate former employee has taken hostages at a the headquarters of BMW in France, in Montigny-Le-Bretonneux.

MOGADISHU, Nov 7 (Reuters) - A man was shot dead on Sunday after he refused to disembark from a yacht in the Indian Ocean that was hijacked by Somali pirates last week, pirates and residents said on Sunday. The man was killed in Barawe town on the southern Somali coastline by pirates who had taken him hostage and wanted him to go onshore from his yacht in which he was sailing with others, including a woman and a boy. His nationality was not immediately clear. "He was shot and killed after he refused to disembark from his yacht and move...

BAGHDAD - Assailants attacked a prominent Baghdad church Sunday evening during mass, and were holding parishioners hostage as Iraqi troops ringed the area, security officials said......

At least 37 people have been killed after Iraqi security forces stormed a Catholic church in central Baghdad to free dozens of hostages being held by gunmen there, security sources say. Twenty-five hostages were among the dead, along with seven members of the Iraqi security forces and at least five of the attackers, they told the BBC. About 100 people had been inside Our Lady of Salvation for an evening Mass. The gunmen had reportedly demanded the release of jailed al-Qaeda militants. Continue reading the main story Struggle for IraqEnd to Iraq's epic journey in sight? US troops in Iraq...

IRAQIS STORM CHURCH-FREE HOSTAGES

Fox News just reported that 50 Catholics are being held hostage in a church in Iraq by Al Quida. More to follow,.

Discovery hostages knew gunman was ready to dieSeptember 18, 2010 - 6:12am By BEN NUCKOLS Associated Press Writer BETHESDA, Md. (AP) - As they lay on the floor of the Discovery Communications' lobby, listening to a gunman James Jae Lee rant about overpopulation, religion and the channel's programming and watching him strap a bomb to himself, two hostages came to the same conclusion: The gunman had no intention of leaving the building alive. Jim McNulty and Christopher Wood tried to placate gunman James Jae Lee the best they could during the Sept. 1 standoff. They lied about their jobs at...

On Wednesday, September 1 James Jay Lee stormed into the Discovery Channel’s office and took several hostages. He had a long list of grievances, most related to the human population and the environment. His rhetoric made him sound more like a real-life Kodos the Executioner than an environmental activist. To put it mildly, Lee was a man with an ax to grind. People will argue for months as to whether the guy was a leftist or a rightey, and it's a good bet that neither side will be willing to say, "Yeah, he was one of us." Who'd want to?

Population Control Advocate Killed After Holding Hostages at Discovery Channel Silver Spring, MD -- Maryland police shot and killed a population control activist who held several people hostage Wednesday afternoon at the offices of the Discovery Channel, a cable channel staple. James J. Lee has been protesting the channel for years because he said it was not doing enough to promote population control. http://LifeNews.com/int1632.html