Captured ship, crew released by pirates

MOGADISHU, Somalia, July 18 (UPI) -- Somali pirates Saturday released a German-owned cargo ship and its 11 crew members they commandeered in the Gulf of Aden in two months ago, an official said.

Andrew Mwangura of the Seafarers Assistance Program told the Chinese news agency Xinhua the MV Victoria and its 11 Romanian crew members "are all safe."

The ship, carrying 10,000 tons of rice to Jeddah, had been seized May 5.

Another German ship, the Hansa Stavanger, hijacked in April with a crew of 24, remains in the pirates' hands. Somali pirates have taken dozens of ships and more than 250 hostages in the past year, extorting millions of dollars in ransom, though it wasn't known whether any money exchanged hands in the case of the Victoria.