Nearly 300 kidnapped Nigerian schoolchildren have been released, more than two weeks after the children were seized from their school in the northwestern state of Kaduna and marched into the forests.

In just a week there have been two mass kidnappings in Nigeria. Hundreds of women and children have been kidnapped in recent days in Africa's most populous country.

Authorities seek the release of the 16 Americans and one Canadian kidnapped in Haiti over the weekend. On Monday, unions and other organizations launched a strike to protest worsening security.

Seventeen missionaries were kidnapped by an armed gang in Haiti on Saturday. It was the latest in what experts are calling a kidnapping crisis in the country — a crisis largely driven by one gang.

The students, who were taken from a school more than a week ago, say they were beaten by the kidnappers. Police are still looking for hundreds of schoolgirls kidnapped Friday.