World Briefing

Gunmen seized four U.N. workers as they prepared to leave the town of Wajid and released them several hours later, the U.N. said.

The four -- three international staff members and one Somali -- were seized in the southwestern town about 45 miles southeast of the Somali-Ethiopian border, on their way to an airstrip, the U.N. said.

U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq announced that “the four people who were abducted have now all been released safely and are now in the hands of U.N. security.”

The U.N. staff members work for the World Food Program and the U.N. Development Program, the U.N. said.