Three employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross kidnapped by Yemeni tribesmen are in good condition, but the demands of their captors remain unknown, an ICRC spokeswoman said on Tuesday. "Our colleagues told us that they are fine," ICRC Middle East spokeswoman Dibeh Fakhr told AFP, confirming the three employees were being held by a group in southern Yemen since Monday.

Two local employees of the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) have been killed in a "shocking" attack in the north of the country, Red Cross and Red Crescent officials said Wednesday. Two other staffers were injured in the shooting Tuesday on a main road in the Khanaqa district of Jawzjan province while their mobile clinic was travelling to the provincial capital Shiberghan, the officials said in a statement. They described the killings as "shocking and unacceptable" but said the identity of the attackers was unknown.

The Red Cross has appealed for an additional $43 million to help hundreds of thousands of people in war-torn Mali, and said it would be stepping up its visits of detainees. "Now that northern Mali has been in the grip of armed violence for almost 16 months, the living conditions of people affected by the conflict are very worrying and humanitarian needs substantial," the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement late Wednesday.

By Jane Sutton MIAMI (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross sent a doctor and another delegate to the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo a week earlier than planned because of concern about a growing hunger strike among detainees, an ICRC spokesman said on Tuesday. About a dozen ICRC representatives were scheduled to make a regular two-week visit to the detention camp on April 1, ICRC spokesman Simon Schorno said.