WORLD BRIEFS

FRANCE: Hostage freed in Mali in exchange

A French hostage held captive in Mali for three months by al-Qaida's North Africa offshoot was freed Tuesday following a contested court decision ordering a jail release for four suspected members of the militant group that abducted him. Pierre Camatte, who ran a small organization fighting malaria in Mali, was en route to Bamako, the capital, from where he planned to head to France, the Foreign Ministry said in Paris. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, the militant group that captured Camatte in November, had posted a message on militant Web sites agreeing to hand him over if Mali released four of its members from jail.

IRAN: Leader of outlaw Sunnis captured

Contradictory accounts clouded Iran's announcement Tuesday that it had captured the leader of a Sunni Muslim militant group it has been fighting for years. Iran declared that it had caught Abdulmalek Rigi, leader of the outlawed Jundallah following a months-long operation, claiming it had evidence he and his group were backed by the United States. The rebel group, which claims to fight for the rights of the nation's ethnic Baluch minority, insisted its leader was captured by U.S., Pakistani and Afghan intelligence and handed over to the Islamic Republic as part of a backroom deal.

INDONESIA: 5 dead, 60 still buried in landslide

A rain-triggered landslide at a tea plantation on Indonesia's main island of Java buried scores of workers Tuesday, officials said. At least five people were confirmed dead. Police Chief Lt. Col. Imron Yunus said more than 60 people remained under the mud and debris, which covered at least 50 houses near the Perkebunan Teh Dewata tea plantation. No heavy earth-moving equipment was available in the area, so villagers were digging through tons of dislodged mud with farm tools and their bare hands to search for survivors, Yunus said. The landslide occurred at a tea plantation near the mountainous village of Tenjoljaya in the Ciwidey district after days of heavy rain, he said.

TURKEY: 17 miners killed in methane blast

A methane gas explosion caused an underground chamber in a coal mine to collapse Tuesday, killing 17 workers, the governor said, the second deadly explosion at the mine in four years. The blast near the northwestern town of Dursunbey in Balikesir province buried the miners 820 feet below the surface, said Erhan Ortakoylu, the mine's owner. Rescue work was called off after 29 workers were evacuated, said Gov. Yilmaz Arslan of Bursa province.