7 Americans Freed in Middle East

Seven Americans have recently been freed in separate incidents in Iraq and Bahrain. In Iraq, three Americans who were abducted last month in Baghdad have been freed by the Iraqi intelligence service, three anonymous officials tell the AP. They are now in the custody of the US Embassy in Baghdad. Details are few, but Iraqi authorities had said the three went missing from a "suspicious apartment," and officials both there and in the West suspected a powerful Shiite militia was responsible. In Bahrain, four Americans left the country on a flight Tuesday evening. They had been arrested after entering the country last week, CNN reports.

They were suspected of participating in an "illegal gathering," and the AP reports they were journalists in the country to cover the fifth anniversary of a pro-reform uprising. Officials said they failed to register as members of the media upon entering the country, and said one of the Americans had been accused of taking part in attacks on police. The family of Anna Therese Day identified her as one of those arrested, but the other three were not identified. All four were charged, but ordered released while an investigation is completed, apparently after the US Embassy in Manama intervened. Authorities kept their phones and computers. (More Iraq stories.)