Aden/Sanaa  - Traffic is busy in the Gulf of Aden these days. The waterway, between the Arabian Peninsula and Horn of Africa, is used by merchant ships having to pass through the Suez Canal.

It is also infested by Somali pirates - who typically strike in small, highly manoeuvrable speedboats - and patrolled by formidable, anti-piracy warships from many nations.

But hardly anyone takes note of the overloaded little boats of smugglers who, night after night, take Africans fleeing civil strife and poverty across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen.

Sana'a, Yemen  - Yemeni authorities have no intention of yielding to demands made by tribesmen holding a Dutch couple hostage east of the capital Sana'a since last week, the government spokesman on Tuesday.

"The government firmly rejects yielding to any conditions or dictations," Hassan al-Lawzi, the information minister and government spokesman, told reporters after the Cabinet weekly meeting.

"What is sought is the handover of the hostages unhurt," al-Lawzi said.

Sana'a, Yemen - Twelve Shiite insurgents appeared before a state security court in Sana'a on Monday accused of battling government forces near the Yemeni capital last year in support of Shiite rebellion in north-western the Arab country.

The men, aged between 19 and 34, faced the charges of "forming an armed gang to carry out sabotage, murder and bombing acts," according to the charge sheet.

Sana'a, Yemen  - A villager opened fire indiscriminately during his daughter's wedding party in southern Yemen on Friday, killing two young women and injuring four others including the bride, police sources said.

The gunman, identified as Hamoud Ahmed Obaid, rampaged with an AK- 47 rifle during the ceremony in the Ga'afaria village of the southern Dalea province, the sources told the German Press Agency dpa.

The two victims, aged 15 and 20, were killed on spot, and four others were rushed to hospitals in a nearby town.

Police arrested the assailant, and he was being interrogated, they said. His motives were not immediately clear.

Sana'a, Yemen - A Dutch man kidnapped along with his wife by armed tribesmen in Yemen earlier this week appealed to the Yemeni government Thursday to explore all peaceful means to secure the release of him and his wife.

"Our only concern is that the (Yemeni) government could use force to get us freed. I hope that the government will not use force," Jan Hogendoorn, 54, told the German Press Agency in Sana'a by telephone in a conversation arranged by the kidnappers.

Sana'a, Yemen  - Yemeni tribesmen holding a Dutch couple hostage said on Wednesday they would release them if two provincial police chiefs are put on trial over a shootout last year in which four fellow clansmen were hurt, a municipal official said.

Jamil Shuraih, the secretary-general of the Bani-Dhabian district, where the Dutch hostages are being held, said the abductors also demanded financial compensation for injuries suffered by their relatives during the gunfight.