Ministers seized - then released

Tbilisi - Gunmen took hostage some 30 officials and journalists from Georgia and the separatist Abkhazia region yesterday, but later set them free, a Georgian presidential spokesman said. The hostages included two ministers from both countries and a Abkhazian judge. "As a result of negotiations all of the hostages have been freed," said an aide to Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze. "There were no injuries."