Last hostages freed in Nigeria
Militants in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta released their last remaining foreign hostages – two Americans and one Briton – more than five weeks after the oil industry workers were kidnapped, officials said.
Abel Oshevire, spokesman for the Delta state government, said Cody Oswalt and Russell Spell and Briton John Hudspith were released just before dawn and were with the local governor, James Ibori.
“They are here with us now and are all in good health,” he said.
Militants of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta took nine foreign oil workers hostage Feb. 18 from a barge owned by Houston-based oil services company Willbros Group Inc., which was laying pipeline in the delta for Royal Dutch Shell. The group released six of the captives after 12 days in captivity.
MILWAUKEE
Missing children case refocused
Police said Sunday the search for two boys who disappeared a week ago was turned into a criminal investigation.
Milwaukee police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz wouldn’t reveal what prompted the department to treat the case differently, saying it would compromise the investigation.
Quadrevion Henning, 12, and Purvis Virginia Parker, 11, were last seen around 3:30 p.m. March 19, when they asked Henning’s grandfather whether they could play basketball at a nearby park.
Investigators had no reason to believe the boys were outside of Milwaukee, Schwartz said. Family members have said they suspect the boys were taken by someone, and the FBI has brought in child abduction specialists to help.
GENERAL BRAVO, Mexico
Seven found shot near border
The bodies of six men – blindfolded, handcuffed and shot to death – were found Sunday packed inside a pickup on the side of a highway leading to the Texas border.
Police found the men in General Bravo, a town about 55 miles from Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas, said Camerino Ortiz, a police spokesman.
Investigators recovered more than 50 bullet casings near the abandoned pickup. There were no arrests in the case, and why the men were slain remained a mystery.
Also Sunday, police found the corpse of another shooting victim inside a car on the outskirts of Nuevo Laredo, about 100 miles northwest of where the six bodies were found.
Compiled from wire reports