An Italian Red Cross official held hostage by Muslim rebels in the Philippines for nearly six months has been freed.
The head of the Philippine Red Cross says Eugenio Vagni, 61, was brought to an army base on the southern island of Jolo on Sunday by a local politician who had been mediating with the kidnappers, rebels from the Abu Sayyaf group.
Mr Vagni and two other officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross were taken hostage on 15 January when they were inspecting a sanitation project at a prison on Jolo.
The others, Filipina Mary Jean Lacaba and Swiss national Andreas Notter, were freed in April.
Local news websites said Mr Vagni was freed after the military agreed to release two wives and children of a senior Abu Sayyaf leader who was reportedly holding Mr Vagni in the rugged interior of Jolo. The women and children were arrested on Tuesday, the news reports said.
