Haiti releases 8 U.S. missionaries

Eight American missionaries were released from a Haitian jail and flew out of Port-au PrinceWednesday on a U.S. air force planebound for Miami,nearly three weeks after being charged with child kidnapping for trying to take a group of children out of the quake-stricken country.

The eight looking bedraggled and sweat-soaked walked out of the Haitian jail escorted by U.S. diplomats just after dusk. They waited until they were safely inside a white van before flashing smiles and giving a thumbs-up to reporters.

Hours earlier, Judge Bernard Saint-Vil told The Associated Press that eight of the 10 missionaries were free to leave without bail or other conditions after parents testified they voluntarily handed their children over to the missionaries.

"The parents of the kids made statements, proving that they can be released," he said, adding that he still wants to question the group's leader and her nanny.

The missionaries, most from two Baptist churches in Idaho, are accused of trying to take 33 Haitian children to the Dominican Republic on Jan. 29 without proper documents. Their detentions came just as aid officials were urging a halt to short-cut adoptions in the wake of the earthquake.

The missionaries say they were on a humanitarian mission to rescue child quake victims by taking them to a hastily prepared orphanage in the Dominican Republic and have denied accusations of trafficking.