3 aid workers released in Mali

Three aid workers kidnapped in Algeria were released after being held for nearly nine months by terrorists in Mali, Italian officials said. Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi said Rossella Urru and her Spanish colleagues, Ainhoa Fernandez Rincon and Enrico Gonyans, were released Wednesday, ANSA reported. They were abducted Oct. 23 from the Rabuni refugee camp in southwestern Algeria by the terrorist group Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa. The aid workers, volunteers with the International Committee for the Development of Peoples based in Rome, were taken to northern Mali where they were held for ransom to force the release of a man being held for his involvement with extremist groups, ThinkSpain reported. ThinkSpain said a plane was sent to return the freed hostages home.