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Global

Saudi consul released after three years as hostage in Yemen


    RIYADH (Reuters) - A Saudi Arabian diplomat returned to Riyadh on Monday after he was released by kidnappers in Yemen where he spent three years as a hostage, the kingdom's Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by state media.

    Abdullah al-Khalidi, Saudi Arabia's consul in Aden, was seized in March 2012 and later appeared as a hostage in videos released by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) calling on the Saudi authorities to do more to free him.

    (Reporting by Angus McDowall, editing by Sami Aboudi/Jeremy Gaunt)