An Iranian man held by Somali pirates for more than four years was flown to Ethiopia's capital Saturday after his captors released him because he needed urgent medical care.

A Japanese journalist held hostage by militants after being captured in Syria three years ago has been released and would be brought home as soon as possible, Japan's foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Leah Sharibu, 15, was among more than 100 schoolgirls abducted from their hostel in the town of Dapchi in the restive northeast on February 19.

Suspected militants stormed a government building in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on Tuesday, taking dozens of people hostage after a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance gate, officials and witnesses said.

Police rescued two hostages and arrested a man at a small business in central Paris on Tuesday after he demanded to be put in touch with the Iranian Embassy to deliver a message to the French government, authorities said.

Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, 44, was shot and stabbed after taking the place of a woman whom Radouane Lakdim had been using as a human shield during his attack at a supermarket in the town of Trebes.

At least one person was killed when a man took hostages in a supermarket in the southwestern French town of Trebes on Friday, the mayor told BFM TV.

The Rapid Action Battalion police unit said Sabbir Emam plotted with senior extremists from Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh to crash a plane into the homes of politicians or to take passengers hostage.

Joshua Boyle and his American wife and three children were freed on Wednesday in Pakistan after five years of captivity at the hands of the Haqqani network.

The US leader identified the kidnapped couple as Caitlan Coleman and Joshua Boyle, and said their release was a "positive moment" for US relations with Pakistan.

Dutch police arrested a man on Thursday in the country's central broadcasting centre of Hilversum, after he took a woman hostage following a spat in a parking lot, a spokeswoman said.

Australian police on Monday shot dead a gunman in the city of Melbourne who had been holding a woman hostage, police said, adding that they were investigating if the incident was linked to militant activity.