Germany's Foreign Minister said on Tuesday that two hostages kidnapped in Yemen at the weekend must be assumed to be dead. Seoul confirmed that a South Korean woman was dead but uncertainty over the fate of six other foreign hostages remains.
Yemeni security officials said on Monday that they found the corpses of three women believed to be part of a group of nine foreigners kidnapped last week. The group was in Yemen as part of an international relief operation in the northern Saada area.
Yemeni authorities have arrested a Saudi national described as the financier of al Qaeda's operations in Yemen and in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, a security source said on Sunday.
Seven Germans, a Briton and a South Korean have been abducted in the restive region of Saada in north Yemen, where authorities are battling an insurgency. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
Two demonstrators were killed in the southern Yemeni province of Lahij when clashes with police forces broke out during the funeral of six separatist activists, bringing the number of violent deaths in the region to 18 since last April.
A Yemen national held since 2002 at the Guantanamo Bay prison was found dead in an apparent suicide, the US military said on Tuesday. He has been identified as Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah Salih, also known as Al-Hanashi.
One protester died from a gunshot wound in a hospital after police fired on an anti-government protest in southern Yemen. Twelve other Yemenis, including four soldiers, have died in clashes since demonstrations broke out in late April.
A Dutch couple kidnapped at gunpoint by Yemeni tribesmen two weeks ago were released on Monday. Jan Hoogendoorn and his wife Heleen Janszen were heading to the southern city of Taiz, from Sanaa, when they were seized.
A Dutch couple kidnapped by Yemeni tribesmen on March 31 urged their government not to use force to free them in a video broadcast by a local television station on Sunday, saying: "We want to survive".
At least two Europeans have been kidnapped by armed tribesmen in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, according to tribal and security sources. The abductors are reportedly demanding the release of two of their relatives arrested by the authorities.
