Pirates release 12 hostages taken from Swiss shipper's crew

A Swiss shipping company said Monday that 12 crew members of a bulk carrier who were abducted by pirates more than five weeks ago near Nigeria have been released, as Polish authorities confirmed a new hostage-taking off the West African country's coast.

Massoel Shipping said the seven Filipinos, a Slovenian, a Ukrainian, a Romanian, a Croatian and a Bosnian who were abducted in September were freed on Saturday in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and were in Switzerland before returning home.

The Geneva-based company said it would not provide details of the release "as to do so would only encourage further criminal acts of this kind."