A group of 21 Filipino UN peacekeepers captured by rebels in Syria have arrived in Jordan after being released.
Rebels moved the hostages themselves after a UN team hoping to collect them inside Syria was prevented from doing so by government shelling.
Fighters from the Martyrs of Yarmouk group seized the soldiers on the Golan Heights, near Israel, on Wednesday.
UN observers have been stationed in the Golan Heights since 1974 to monitor a ceasefire between Israel and Syria.
According to the UN, the Filipino peacekeepers were on a regular supply mission when they were stopped by armed men near an observation post.
They were held in the village of Jamla, about 1.6km (1 mile) east of the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and 10km north of Jordan.
Some appeared in videos online, saying they were being treated well.
The rebels demanded the withdrawal of Syrian government forces from the area before proceeding with the release.
A UN team had been due to go into Syria on Saturday afternoon to collect the peacekeepers, under a truce between the warring sides.
However, the convoy stopped several kilometres away because of continuing fighting between government and rebel forces.
Instead, the rebels took the hostages to the Jordanian border.
The peacekeepers were later welcomed to Amman by Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.
Mr Judeh said he had spoken to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to reassure him that Jordan would "provide them with all the assistance they need".
Mokhtar Lamani, a UN envoy in Damascus: said: "Thank god, all of them are alive and are safe."
The Free Syrian Army (FSA) - the main rebel fighting force - condemned the seizure of the UN observers.
Correspondents say the incident is a sign that the fighting between rebel groups and government troops of President Bashar al-Assad is spreading, and indicates a lack of central control among the rebels.
Saudi Arabia court jails activists Qahtani and Hamid
A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced two human rights and political activists to lengthy jail terms for setting up an illegal organisation and rebelling against the authority of the king.
Mohammed al-Qahtani was given 10 years, while Mohammed al-Hamid's earlier sentence of six years was upheld and a further five-year term added.
The court also disbanded their organisation, the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA).
An appeal will be heard next month.
Correspondents say the trial in Riyadh has been conducted with a transparency unusual for Saudi Arabia, with fellow activists able to attend and describe court proceedings.
However, security officers had to clear the courtroom after supporters of the men denounced the verdict as politically motivated.
ACPRA has called for greater democracy and has documented allegations of human rights abuses in the country.
The ultra-conservative Saudi kingdom does not allow political protests.
The defendants were accused of spreading "false information" via social media.
After an earlier hearing in September, Qahtani said: "We have been doing our work for several years. The authorities kept quiet for a long time, but now they are coming after us hard. We are not going to be silent. We will continue to do our work."
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith to be tried in New York
A man described as a spokesman for Osama Bin Laden has been arrested and will be tried in New York City, the US has confirmed.
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith was captured within the last week in Jordan, Congressman Peter King said on Thursday.
Mr Abu Ghaith is Bin Laden's son-in-law and played a role in plotting the attacks of 9/11, US officials said.
Bin Laden was killed in a May 2011 raid on his hideout in Pakistan by a team of US commandos.
Mr Abu Ghaith is scheduled to appear in a federal court on Friday on charges of conspiracy to kill United States nationals.
"Sulaiman Abu Ghaith held a key position in al-Qaeda, comparable to the consigliere in a mob family or propaganda minister in a totalitarian regime," said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge George Venizelos in a statement.
"He used his position to threaten the United States and incite its enemies."
'One by one'
US authorities have released little information about Mr Abu Ghaith's capture.
But Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported that he was caught on his way to Kuwait, shortly after leaving Turkey.
According to the paper, Mr Abu Ghaith had already been taken into custody more than a month ago in the Turkish capital Ankara, but police decided to release him because he had not committed any crime.
Reports also indicate that the FBI took the lead role in the operation, as part of a multi-agency body, the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group.
The group was set up after President Barack Obama shut down a controversial CIA programme, which had detained suspects in a network of secret prisons under George W Bush's administration.
A teacher and mosque preacher in Kuwait, Mr Abu Ghaith was stripped of his Kuwaiti citizenship after 9/11.
Justice department officials say Mr Abu Ghaith served alongside Bin Laden from May 2001 to 2002, speaking on behalf of al-Qaeda and warning that attacks similar to 9/11 would continue.
Specifically, on 12 September 2001, he appeared with Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri to warn the US that a "great army is gathering against you" and called upon "the nation of Islam" to do battle against "the Jews, the Christians and the Americans," according to court records.
He was reportedly smuggled to Iran with two other senior al-Qaeda leaders in 2002. Unconfirmed reports said they were held under house arrest by the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
A Jordanian security official told the Associated Press that Mr Abu Ghaith was handed over last week to US officials under both countries' extradition treaties.
Mr King called the arrest a "very significant victory" in the fight against al-Qaeda.
"One by one, we are getting the top echelons of al-Qaeda," the Republican congressman said. "I give the administration credit for this. It's steady and it's unrelenting and it's very successful."
Mr Abu Ghaith's trial will mark one of the first prosecutions of senior al-Qaeda leaders on US soil.
Since 9/11, 67 foreign terror suspects have been convicted in US federal courts, according to data obtained by the group Human Rights First.
Some US lawmakers disagreed with the decision to try Mr Abu Ghaith in New York.
"When we find somebody like this, this close to Bin Laden and the senior al-Qaeda leadership, the last thing in the world we want to do, in my opinion, is put them in a civilian court," said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on Thursday.
"This man should be in Guantanamo Bay," he said.
A senior administration official told the BBC that Mr Obama's national security team "unanimously agreed" that prosecution of Mr Abu Ghaith in federal court was in the US' national security interests.
"The administration is seeking to close Guantanamo, not add to its population," the official said.
Shot Palestinian Mohammed Asfour dies in hospital
A Palestinian shot in the head by Israeli soldiers during a confrontation with stone-throwers has died of his wounds, hospital officials say.
Mohammed Asfour, 22 was hit by a rubber bullet during the protest in the West Bank village of Aboud on 22 February.
He had been protesting against the continued detention of four hunger strikers after the death of a detainee.
Israel says Arafat Jaradat, 30, apparently died from a heart attack. Palestinians say he was tortured.
Initially treated in a Palestinian hospital, Mr Asfour was later transferred to a hospital in Tel Aviv, where a spokesman said he died.
Palestinian prisoners
- Israel holds 4,517 Palestinians in its jails
- 1,031 held until the conclusion of legal proceedings
- 178 in administrative detention (without charge or trial)
- 170 are under the age of 18
- His family said his funeral would be held on Friday in Aboud. Anti-Israeli protests are expected.
The Islamist group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, said Mr Asfour was one of its members.
Israel's military said it was "investigating an alleged incident that took place at a violent and illegal riot".
As of December 2012, Israel held 4,517 Palestinians in its jails.
Of these 1,031 are being held until the conclusion of legal proceedings, 178 are in administrative detention and 170 are under 18 years of age.
Israeli officials say they use administrative detention when they fear an immediate risk to security or to protect informants.
US's $60bn Iraq rebuilding effort 'achieved little'
The US rebuilding effort in Iraq achieved little despite $60bn (£40bn) spent since the 2003 invasion, a US auditor for reconstruction has said.
In his final report, the inspector general for Iraq reconstruction estimated the US wasted at least $8bn.
Stuart Bowen put the "limited positive effects" down to corruption, poor security and insufficient consultation with Iraqi authorities.
The eight-year war in Iraq cost the US about $800bn and nearly 5,000 lives.
In Learning from Iraq, a final report to the US Congress before his office ceases operations, Mr Bowen says the failures in Iraq offer lessons for reconstruction efforts elsewhere.
The US plans to withdraw combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
The report was based on hundreds of audits and inspections across Iraq, as well as dozens of interviews with Iraqi and American officials and politicians.
"The general belief across each group is that the relief and reconstruction programme should have accomplished more, that too much was wasted, and that the lessons derived from the Iraq reconstruction experience should drive improvements to the US approach to stabilisation and reconstruction operations," Mr Bowen
'Not strategic'
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told Mr Bowen there had been "misspending" of US money.
The US-funded rebuilding programme "could have brought great change in Iraq" but fell short, he said.
Osama al-Nujaifi, speaker of the Iraqi parliament and the country's top Sunni Muslim official, said rebuilding projects "had unfavourable outcomes in general".
And Kurdish official Qubad Talabani told auditors: "You think if you throw money at a problem, you can fix it. It was just not strategic thinking."
Senator Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate's foreign relations committee, said the report's findings were "appalling" and that lessons must be learnt to avoid repeating mistakes in Afghanistan.
The US has spent about $90bn on reconstruction in Afghanistan over the course of a 12-year military campaign.