Sana'a, Yemen - Somali pirates on Wednesday freed a Yemeni cargo ship after negotiations with Somali tribal leaders, Yemen's Ambassador in Somalia Ahmed Hamid Omar said.

"All the 10 pirates have left the ship, and we expect it to leave the Eyl port today," Omar told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by telephone from Eyl port in the semi-autonomous Puntland region in northern Somalia.

Eyl is the stronghold of the Somali pirates.

Sana'a, Yemen - Eight Somali pirates have abandoned a Yemeni cargo ship after negotiations with Somali tribal leaders, but two other pirates were still on board the ship Monday, the ship's owner said.

"Eight pirates have already left the ship after tribal dignitaries convinced them to do so," Attas Salim Aboud told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

He said the two other pirates who were still holding the ship's crew hostage and would likely leave the vessel within the next few hours.

Eight crew members - three Yemenis, three Somalis and two Tanzanians - were taken hostage by the pirates.

Sana'a, Yemen - At least 18 Somalis and Ethiopians drowned off Yemen on Monday, and 73 were still missing after smugglers forced them to jump overboard from two boats, rescuers said.

They told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa the smugglers ordered 236 migrants to swim ashore when the boats approached the end of their trip off the southern Yemeni town of Ahwar, around 220 kilometres east of the southern port city of Aden.

Thirteen bodies were recovered and buried by teams of a local humanitarian organization, and five bodies were buried by fishermen, they said.

Sana'a, Yemen  - At least ten people were injured as police fired in the air to disperse thousands of opposition supporters who gathered for an anti-election rally in the Yemeni capital Sana'a Thursday, witnesses said.

Clashes erupted in several areas of the city as police closed roads leading to the city centre, where the opposition was due to hold a rally to call for a boycott of the legislative elections due for April 2009.

Dozens of protesters were arrested, opposition sources said.

Interior Ministry officials said two policemen were also injured in the clashes.

Sana'a, Yemen - Yemen will receive Osama bin Laden's former driver Salim Hamdan from the US military prison in Guantanamo on the island of Cuba, the Arab country's Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.

"US authorities will hand over the Yemeni citizen Salim Hamdan to Yemen," the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

The statement said the extradition would be carried out "within the next few days," without elaborating.

Sana'a, Yemen - Somali pirates have hijacked a Yemeni cargo ship in the Arabian Sea and demanded 2 million dollars as ransom for its release, maritime sources said on Tuesday.

The sources in the south-eastern Yemeni port of Mukalla told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the vessel, Erina, was attacked as it sailed from Mukalla to the Indian Ocean island of Socotra on November 19.

Armed pirates took the ship to the port of Eyl in the semi- autonomous Puntland region in northern Somalia, they said.