1.   After two days of intense battle, Russian forces had freed only a fraction of the captives.

2.   An official statement late Tuesday said security forces freed Moaz Taha Ghanem earlier in the day and arrested several members of the gang that abducted him.

3.   Bosnian Serbs threw stones at their buses, then surrounded the church, trapping the Croats there for hours before NATO forces freed them.

4.   Chechen security forces freed a foreign captive from his kidnappers on Sunday, the Interfax news agency reported.

5.   Last may, the force freed Dutch, British and German hostages held by guerillas in New Guinea.

6.   NATO forces freed two other pilots.

7.   Russian security forces on Tuesday freed six soldiers abducted by kidnappers from the breakaway republic of Chechnya, a news report said.

8.   Russian security forces on Tuesday freed six soldiers abducted earlier this month by kidnappers from the breakaway republic of Chechnya, a news report said.

9.   Sen. Richard Lugar, running for the Republican presidential nomination on his foreign affairs experience, said he would consider using force to free the two Americans.

10.   Thailand said its forces freed one vessel but that the Vietnamese hauled off four others, according to The Nation.