A US captain seized by Somali pirates and held hostage in the Indian Ocean for five days was freed on Sunday, the US state department said.
"I can confirm that Captain (Richard) Phillips has been safely recovered," said spokeswoman Laura Tischler, without providing additional details on the operation.
CNN television, citing a senior US official, reported that three of the four pirates holding Mr Phillips had been killed, and the fourth pirate was in custody.
Mr Phillips, who was unharmed, had been taken aboard the USS Bainbridge, one of the two US naval warships involved in the tense stand-off near the Somali coast, according to the network.
The breakthrough came shortly after four freed hostages, including the widow and three-year-old son of a French sailor killed in a special forces shootout with Somali pirates, landed back in Paris.
Mr Phillips had been held aboard a lifeboat since Wednesday when his ship's unarmed crew managed to regain control of their Danish-operated container ship from the Somali pirates, the Maersk Alabama.
The fleeing pirates bundled him into the lifeboat as they escaped. They had demanded a ransom and said today they planned to move Mr Phillips to another ship held by their "friends." US navy forces had been steadily pouring into the region over the past few days.
Negotiations to free Mr Phillips had broken down yesterday after US authorities
insisted the pirates be arrested after handing him over, a Somali elder Mohamoud Jama told AFP. However, after talks resumed, a top senator warned that the US approach to the problem was "going to have to be much more aggressive."
"We're not going to give in to blackmail, and we're not going to allow them to continue to do what they're doing," Republican senator Tom Coburn told the Fox News today.
The New York Times had reported that the pirates had fired on a small US navy vessel that tried to approach the lifeboat yesterday. Mr Phillips' former command, the Maersk Alabama, arrived in Mombasa, Kenya yesterday.
Its crew were kept on board while FBI agents debriefed them, but one of them described their captain as a hero, in comments to reporters on the dockside.
Meanwhile in France toda, Chloé Lemacon, her three-year-old son Colin and two friends, touched down at a military airport near Paris after they were freed by French commandos on Friday.
The yacht's owner and father of the child, Florent Lemacon, was killed in the raid along with two pirates. Three others were taken prisoner. French defence minister Herve Morin has said he could not out that Mr Lemacon was killed by French fire. And today he appealed to French citizens to say away from the trouble waters off Somalia.
Francis Lemacon, the skipper's father, issued a statement paying tribute to his son and thanking the French state and the soldiers "who risked their lives" to rescue the hostages.
"We have lost more than a son. We are crushed by grief," he wrote in a statement to AFP. As the US hostage drama drew to a close however, another group of pirates was manoeuvring an Italian vessel and its 16-strong crew toward the Somali coastline after having hijacked it yesterday, pirate sources said today.
The Buccaneer's crew comprises 10 Italians, five Romanians and a Croat, spokesman Claudio Bartolotti told AFP from the headquarters of the boat's owners Micoperi Marine Contractors, in Ravenna, northern Italy.
A pirate told AFP that the Italian boat was being directed toward Las Qorey on the Somali coast of the Gulf of Aden. "There are more than 10 pirates onboard the tugboat," he said from the pirate lair of Eyl.
"There are also three speedboats accompanying it to the area." The seizure yesterday of the Italian ship and its crew was the latest in an sudden flurry of pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
* AFP
Match info
Manchester United 1 (Van de Beek 80') Crystal Palace 3 (Townsend 7', Zaha pen 74' & 85')
Man of the match Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace)
UFC Fight Night 2
1am – Early prelims
2am – Prelims
4am-7am – Main card
7:30am-9am – press cons
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The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
New Zealand squad
Tim Southee (capt), Trent Boult (games 4 and 5), Colin de Grandhomme, Lockie Ferguson (games 1-3), Martin Guptill, Scott Kuggeleijn, Daryl Mitchell, Colin Munro, Jimmy Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi, Ross Taylor, Blair Tickner
Yahya Al Ghassani's bio
Date of birth: April 18, 1998
Playing position: Winger
Clubs: 2015-2017 – Al Ahli Dubai; March-June 2018 – Paris FC; August – Al Wahda
The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E77kWh%202%20motors%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E178bhp%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E410Nm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERange%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E402km%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDh%2C150%2C000%20(estimate)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ETBC%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
Results
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 1,600m; Winner: Rawat Al Reef, Adrie de Vries (jockey), Abdallah Al Hammadi (trainer)
5.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 1,400m; Winner: Noof KB, Richard Mullen, Ernst Oertel
6pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,200m; Winner: AF Seven Skies, Bernardo Pinheiro, Qaiss Aboud
6.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 2,200m; Winner: Jabalini, Szczepan Mazur, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
7pm: UAE Arabian Derby – Prestige (PA) Dh150,000 (T) 2,200m; Winner: Dergham Athbah, Richard Mullen, Mohamed Daggash
7.30pm: Emirates Championship – Group 1 (PA) Dh1,000,000 (T) 2,200m; Winner: Somoud, Richard Mullen, Jean de Roualle
8pm: Abu Dhabi Championship – Group 3 (TB) Dh380,000 (T) 2,200m; Winner: Irish Freedom, Antonio Fresu, Satish Seemar
The biog
Age: 19
Profession: medical student at UAE university
Favourite book: The Ocean at The End of The Lane by Neil Gaiman
Role model: Parents, followed by Fazza (Shiekh Hamdan bin Mohammed)
Favourite poet: Edger Allen Poe
The Energy Research Centre
Founded 50 years ago as a nuclear research institute, scientists at the centre believed nuclear would be the “solution for everything”.
Although they still do, they discovered in 1955 that the Netherlands had a lot of natural gas. “We still had the idea that, by 2000, it would all be nuclear,” said Harm Jeeninga, director of business and programme development at the centre.
"In the 1990s, we found out about global warming so we focused on energy savings and tackling the greenhouse gas effect.”
The energy centre’s research focuses on biomass, energy efficiency, the environment, wind and solar, as well as energy engineering and socio-economic research.
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
UAE jiu-jitsu squad
Men: Hamad Nawad and Khalid Al Balushi (56kg), Omar Al Fadhli and Saeed Al Mazroui (62kg), Taleb Al Kirbi and Humaid Al Kaabi (69kg), Mohammed Al Qubaisi and Saud Al Hammadi (70kg), Khalfan Belhol and Mohammad Haitham Radhi (85kg), Faisal Al Ketbi and Zayed Al Kaabi (94kg)
Women: Wadima Al Yafei and Mahra Al Hanaei (49kg), Bashayer Al Matrooshi and Hessa Al Shamsi (62kg)
