Berlin - A German couple who were taken hostage by tribesmen in western Yemen for five days arrived safely home in Germany Tuesday.

Heinrich Thielebein and his wife Rosemarie flew back from Sana'a to their home in the northern port city of Kiel.

"We're relieved and happy it all turned out well and delighted to be home again," they said.

The couple's daughter Julia, an architect, was kidnapped with them and also released.

Cairo/Gaza/Tel Aviv - Hamas is willing to renew a ceasefire with Israel without adding any new conditions, a senior official of the Islamist organization said in an interview published Tuesday.

"The Palestinians want to give a chance to the Egyptian mediators. Hamas is ready for a truce, if Israel sticks to the terms of the June agreement," Mahmoud al-Zahar told the Egyptian al-Ahram daily.

A one-day ceasefire, called on Monday "would be extended if positive developments were found," he said.

Conakry, Guinea - A section of Guinea's military Tuesday launched an apparent coup just hours after the death of the West African nation's long-term President Lansana Conte was announced.

A statement read out on the radio said that both the government and the constitution were suspended.

Captain Moussa Dadis Camara said that a council of civilian and military leaders would be set up to replace the government as state institutions were "incapable of resolving the crises which have been confronting the country," the BBC reported.

Baghdad - A bomb ripped

Moscow - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned Tuesday that "the era of cheap gas" would soon be over in an address to ministers of gas exporting countries meeting in Moscow.

"The expense necessary for the development of fields is rising sharply, and this means that despite the current financial crisis and the fall of prices on energy commodities, the era of cheap energy resources, of cheap gas, is coming to an end," Putin said in televised comments.

Berlin - In a Christmas message Wednesday, German President Horst Koehler has backed calls for a better world financial system where capitalism "serves everybody and nobody has to feel oppressed by it."

Berlin has been pushing for reforms which would require regulators in every nation to crack down on risky investment schemes.