Frenchwoman rescued from pirates

11 September 2011 Last updated at 07:48 GMT The Spanish warship SPS Galicia intercepted the suspects' skiff A French hostage has been rescued from pirates off Yemen and her captors detained but her husband remains missing, EU defence officials say.

Spanish troops operating with the EU's anti-piracy force, Navfor, intercepted a skiff on Saturday, two days after the hostages' catamaran was found.

The hostage was released and seven suspected pirates were detained, officials said.

The freed hostage was named as Evelyne Colombo by French news agency AFP.

She and her husband Christian Colombo, a former French navy crewman, were experienced sailors who wanted to see the world and were aware of the risks of sailing through the Gulf of Aden, AFP reports.

"She was the only hostage on board the skiff," EU naval spokesman Paul Gelly said. "Her husband was not on board."

Unharmed

The Spanish warship SPS Galicia had tracked the pirate skiff after Navfor received a distress call from the catamaran Tribal Kat, which was found abandoned in waters off Yemen.

After the skiff ignored an order to stop, the commander of the Galicia ordered his men to open fire, and a naval warfare team fired on the boat's engine to disable it.

The skiff was subsequently sunk but the hostage and seven pirates were picked up, the Spanish defence ministry was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

Navfor said the freed hostage had not been wounded or injured during the operation, and all the suspected pirates had been detained unharmed.

Somali pirates have targeted shipping, both commercial and pleasure craft, off the Horn of Africa for years.

They currently hold at least 30 vessels and their crews, keeping them moored along the coast of the war-torn country, which has not had a functioning government for two decades.

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Happy Homecoming: Six Poached Baby Gorillas Rescued, Returned to Congo (Time.com)

Six endangered mountain gorillas were returned home to the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday after being rescued from poachers who smuggled them into neighboring Rwanda.

The gorillas, who range in age from 5 to 8 years old, were victims of what's become a widespread issue in Africa: animal trafficking. According to Rwandan and Congolese authorities, poachers are thought to have killed the gorillas' parents in order to steal their babies and smuggle them across the border.

Rwandan officials told Reuters that it's likely the poachers were planning to either sell the gorillas on the illegal wildlife market or slaughter them for their bushmeat, which is considered a delicacy in some areas of the continent. But because of a renewed collaboration between the Rwandan and Congolese governments, these gorillas were among the very few poached animals that are lucky enough to be rescued.

(MORE: Are Gorillas Rwanda's Post-Civil War Hope?)

"Because the countries are working together, we managed to reduce that [poaching]," Rica Rugambwa, Rwanda's director general of tourism and parks, told Reuters. "We are able to minimize that but it is still a challenge."

It's estimated that only 680 mountain gorillas live in the forests of Central Africa. The species has been listed as critically endangered, and many are protected within the confines of a Ugandan national park. Others live in the Virunga Volcano Region, which stands on the borders of Rwanda, Uganda and Congo - a dangerous area that has been overcome by civil war in recent years.

The six rescued orphans stayed in Rwanda briefly before being airlifted back to Congo, with help from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, the conservation groups that sponsored the trip. The gorillas are now being cared for at a rescue center until they are eventually able to be released into the wild.

Erin Skarda is a reporter at TIME. Find her on Twitter at @ErinLeighSkarda. You can also continue the discussion on TIME's Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.

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German tourist rescued teens during island massacre

A German tourist is being hailed as a hero for rescuing at least 20 people from a gunman's rampage on Utoya island in Norway, according to media reports.

Marcel Gleffe, 32, was with his family Friday at a campground across the water from the island when he heard gunshots, Der Spiegel reported. He and his family looked out from the shore, thinking it might be fireworks, but instead they saw a plume of smoke and a girl swimming frantically in the water and screaming.

Story: Doubt cast on Norway gunman's claim of more cells

Gleffe got into the boat he had rented and set off, Der Spiegel said. He was the first person to reach the island where Anders Behring Breivik gunned down dozens of youngsters at a summer camp.

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"I just did it on instinct," Gleffe told The Telegraph newspaper.

"You don't get scared in a situation like that, you just do what it takes. I know the difference between fireworks and gunfire. I knew what it was about, and that it wasn't just nonsense."

He said many of the youths were suspicious and shouted, "Are you police, are you police?" Some of them reportedly shouted, "terrorist, terrorist, terrorist," as others tried to explain that the shooter was dressed in a police uniform.

Video: Girl pretended to be dead, survived Norway attack (on this page)

"They were happy to get help, but they were unsure whom they could trust," he told the local Dagbladet newspaper, according to The Telegraph.

"There were people swimming everywhere in the water. I threw them lifejackets and pulled those into the boat who were having the most trouble. Everyone was screaming, but they were also helping each other," he told Der Spiegel.

Slideshow: Norway in mourning after massacre (on this page)

Gleffe made several trips to the island to rescue around six people each time for about an hour, when police finally arrived, a German English-language news website The Local reported. Other people from Gleffe's campsite also joined him and ferried people back to the mainland with their boats.

"Cooperation with the police and rescue crews afterwards was very good, but it all came too late," he said.

When police arrived, Gleffe stopped to think about himself for the first time, he told The Local.

"I was myself so frozen that I had to first warm myself up. I was turning blue," he said.

Meantime, the alleged killer appeared in court Monday , telling a judge that his bomb attack in Oslo and the camp shooting rampage was aimed at saving Europe from a Muslim takeover.

Police revised the death toll downward to 76 from 93, saying eight people were now known to have died in the bomb blast in central Oslo, and 68 on Utoya.

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