The Saudi owner of an Algerian cargo ship whose crew were held by Somali pirates for 10 months admitted paying $2.6 million to free them in November 2011, an Algerian paper reported Tuesday. The MV Blida, carrying 17 Algerians, six Ukrainians, two Filipinos, one Jordanian and one Indonesian, was captured by a gang of heavily armed pirates on January 1, 2011, on its way from Oman to Tanzania. Two of hostages were released for health reasons in October that year, with the rest freed the following month when a bag full of cash was parachuted from a plane.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian authorities released a ship loaded with heavy weapons and its crew three days after they were seized for entering Egyptian territorial waters in the Red Sea, two security sources told Reuters on Sunday. The Togolese-flagged ship named COMR, with a crew of 14, was escorted into the port of Safaga, 569 km (356 miles) south of Cairo, on Wednesday after straying into Egyptian waters off the Sinai Peninsula. Authorities found weapons and ammunition, and detained the crew members for investigation.

A prison guard was killed and a colleague wounded in a gun attack in the port city of Aden, police said on Saturday, as southern Yemen observed a "civil disobedience" campaign called by separatists. The overnight attack came as several district of the main southern city, including Mansura, Sheikh Othman and Crater, were brought to a virtual standstill by the protest action. Police said the shooting took place when a police vehicle from Mansura prison arrived at the local hospital carrying a sick inmate. The assailants fled the scene.

Hardline southern separatists staged a general strike in the port city of Aden on Sunday and called for protests later in the day against a national dialogue that they are boycotting, activists said. A six-hour general strike, mostly in schools and universities across Aden, paralysed the capital of the formerly independent South Yemen.