Some 500 Afghan women have gathered in a rare demonstration in southern Kandahar province, demanding the release of a female American aid worker kidnapped Saturday.

A French court has sentenced six aid workers to eight years in prison, after they were found guilty in Chad of the attempted kidnapping of more than 100 children. Chad agreed to extradite them so they could serve their jail time in France. Jade Heilmann has more from our West and Central Africa bureau in Dakar.

A plane carrying French president Nicolas Sarkozy and three French journalists whose release he won in Chad has arrived back in Paris.

Afghan authorities say four International Red Cross employees have been abducted in central Wardak province. Officials say the Red Cross workers were kidnapped on Wednesday while they were traveling back to Kabul.

A foreigner suspected to be a Dutch man and three Nigerians were recently killed at different locations in the violent oil rich Rivers state of Nigeria.

A South Korean report says Taliban militants holding 21 South Korean aid workers in Afghanistan have proposed exchanging some female hostages for imprisoned female supporters of the insurgents.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai says he is doing everything possible to free 21 South Koreans, many of them ailing, who have been held hostage by the Taleban for more than two weeks.

Asari Dokubo, leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF) has denounced kidnapping of foreign oil workers in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. He said that such violence "was not part of the struggle for the development of the oil producing areas but mere criminal act."

A missing 15-year-old girl who disappeared nearly one-year ago was found locked in a small hidden room situated under a staircase on Wednesday in the home of Adam Gault and Ann Murphy. Update: Missing 15-Year-Old Girl Is Danielle Erica Cramer; Family Knew Abductor.

A video has been posted on an Islamist website showing the first pictures of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston since he went missing in Gaza City on March 12. The video was reportedly released by the Army of Islam, which has claimed responsibility for Johnston's kidnapping.

Gunmen in Nigeria have kidnapped Friday at least eight more foreign oil workers in the country's Niger Delta region. Kari Barber reports for VOA from Abuja.

Dare-devil Niger Delta militants invaded a police station on election day in Port Harcourt and killed seven police officers and razed the police station before escaping.