Oslo - In development separate from the spectacular freeing of 15 hostages from leftist rebels in Colombia on Wednesday, Norway said Thursday that a Norwegian hostage had also been freed.

The Norwegian Foreign Ministry, without going into specifics, said that the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) late Wednesday set free Olf Anshuus Nino.

Nino, a mathematics lecturer at a Colombian university, had been taken hostage along with five Colombian nationals by FARC last January. (dpa)