Venezuelan officials say police have rescued Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos two days after he was kidnapped. The country's justice minister said on state television that Ramos was "safe and sound," and that he was rescued by police. He said the circumstances weren't immediately clear.

Venezuela's information minister initially announced the news on Twitter, saying: "The baseball player Ramos found alive by security forces in mountainous zone."

The abduction was the first known kidnapping of a major league baseball player in a country that has dozens of players on big league rosters in the U.S., and it brought a renewed focus on worsening violent crime in Venezuela.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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