Swiss hostage freed in Sahara

A Swiss man kidnapped by al Qaeda’s North African wing has been freed. Werner Greiner was captured in the Sahara in late January. Three other Westerners were with him: two women were later freed, but a Briton, Edwin Dyer, was murdered in May. The four were picked up near the town of Gao, in northeastern Mali, near the border with Niger.
They had been attending a music festival. Greiner is said to be tired, but well. Negotiations to free him had been going on since the killing of Dyer, but were hampered by clashes between Malian security forces and Islamist rebels.