Somali pirates yesterday freed British couple Paul and Rachel Chandler, ending an ordeal that started when their yacht was hijacked off the idyllic shores of the Seychelles a year ago.
The Chandlers arrived in Adado, a central Somali town near the Ethiopian border, after the pirates handed them over to the forces of the local self-proclaimed administration of Himan and Heeb.
The couple looked tired, but happy as they were given mobile phones to make calls to their relatives as soon as they entered the safety of the compound housing the administration headquarters.
The Chandlers were wearing the same clothes they have worn during most of their 388-day captivity and were invited to take a shower upon arriving at the compound of Himan and Heeb President Mohamed Aden “Tiiceey.”
“No, we were not well treated,” Rachel Chandler said, answering a question as she entered the compound.
She looked thin, but in no worse health than when a reporter visited them in captivity in January.
A deal was struck with the pirates last week and although no official involved in the negotiation spoke of a ransom, local elders in the region said the Chandlers were exchanged for money.
The couple were driven overnight from the central Somali town of Amara, around which they spent most of their captivity, to Adado.
The freed couple from Kent, England, were expected in the coming hours to fly out of Adado.
An elder had said on Saturday that the pirates had agreed to free the Chandlers following the payment of US$320,000 on top of US$400,000 already received during an aborted release attempt earlier this year.
Other elders said the total ransom may have reached close to US$1 million.
The British government has a strict policy of not paying any ransoms.
The money known to have been paid to the pirates, a considerably smaller amount than what their colleagues have been earning from shipowners for cargo, fishing and other vessels, is believed to have been gathered by the Chandler family and members of the Somali diaspora.
The pirates had initially demanded US$7 million.
The Chandlers were kidnapped on Oct. 23 last year, a day after leaving the Seychelles, where they had spent several weeks on holiday.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
RIGHTS FEARS: A protester said Beijing would use the embassy to catch and send Hong Kongers to China, while a lawmaker said Chinese agents had threatened Britons Hundreds of demonstrators on Saturday protested at a site earmarked for Beijing’s controversial new embassy in London over human rights and security concerns. The new embassy — if approved by the British government — would be the “biggest Chinese embassy in Europe,” one lawmaker said earlier. Protester Iona Boswell, a 40-year-old social worker, said there was “no need for a mega embassy here” and that she believed it would be used to facilitate the “harassment of dissidents.” China has for several years been trying to relocate its embassy, currently in the British capital’s upmarket Marylebone district, to the sprawling historic site in the
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
‘IMPOSSIBLE’: The authors of the study, which was published in an environment journal, said that the findings appeared grim, but that honesty is necessary for change Holding long-term global warming to 2°C — the fallback target of the Paris climate accord — is now “impossible,” according to a new analysis published by leading scientists. Led by renowned climatologist James Hansen, the paper appears in the journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development and concludes that Earth’s climate is more sensitive to rising greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought. Compounding the crisis, Hansen and colleagues argued, is a recent decline in sunlight-blocking aerosol pollution from the shipping industry, which had been mitigating some of the warming. An ambitious climate change scenario outlined by the UN’s climate
RSS