Paul and Rachel Chandler Updates

While Paul and Rachel Chandler have been hostages in Africa for over 100 days, no ransom has been paid for their release. They were separated, then reunited, and under constant death threats that have been reiterated to the international community by their captors, hoping to move a ransom along.

Rachel Chandler recently interviewed by news sources and had said that they were going to be "killed within days". Their captors have also said that they would rather die than release the British couple without recompense.

A doctor was allowed to visit each Chandler separately and his found the pair to be fairing as well as they might be, considering:

The doctor's verdict on 60-year-old Mr Chandler was that he was in slightly better health but with a bad cough and a mild fever.

The health of the Chandlers could well be the key issue in this process.

Dr Helmi said the pirates did not seem to be beating their captives, but equally they did not seem to care about making them comfortable.

"They are being held under trees, in very hot conditions - 39C.

"You cannot imagine the food they are eating and the water they are drinking - very bad."

Even so, there are no reported cases of pirates killing captives - either deliberately or through neglect.

The pirates say that negotiations are under way, but like any complex business deal, these things take time.

Somali sources close to the pirates say negotiations "are under way", although they refused to say what exactly was being discussed.

But the experience of other shipping companies suggests the longer the process continues, the more expensive it becomes.

There are reports of pirates delivering itemised invoices, detailing costs such as fuel for their boats, food for the captives and gunmen, ammunition, satellite telephone calls and so on.

The gunmen holding the Chandlers will be running up similar expenses, and security analysts say they will expect to turn a profit.

The Chandlers video statements - and the visit by the doctor - are almost certainly a part of the captors' strategy to put pressure on their family to find the money.

The gunmen are in total control, and nobody gets in to see the hostages, or no message gets out, that they do not think will help their cause.

There seems little doubt the Chandlers are suffering, but just as doubtless is the fact it suits the pirates for the world to know it.

British Couple... still captured by pirates

Despite earlier reports that the pirates holding British Couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, their captors have lately threatened their lives if their demands are not met.On October 30:

A British woman who is being held by Somali pirates with her husband after their yacht was hijacked said in a phone call broadcast Friday that the couple were "bearing up" and she described her captors as "very hospitable."

Rachel Chandler told her brother, Stephen Collett, in a telephone call broadcast by ITV News that she is fine.

"They tell us that we're safe and we shouldn't worry and that if we want anything they will provide it in terms of food and water and everything like that," she said, according to a transcript. "They are very hospitable people so don't worry ... Physically we're fine, physically we're healthy."

The BBC says the pirates have called the broadcaster to demand $7 million in return for releasing the couple.

By November 8:

The pirates appeared to have been angered by a lack of communication from either the Foreign Office or the Chandlers’ family. “I’m waiting for a response from the family, but no one is making any calls to us,” Omer said.

The threats against the Chandlers indicated mounting anger among the pirates, who have generally treated their hostages well. However, the majority of their targets have been well- insured commercial vessels.

The hostages are generally kept aboard their ships for months until a ransom is paid, often running into millions of dollars.

According to Somali sources, the Chandlers have fallen foul of an internecine feud.

They are being held by an inexperienced gang who did not realise how difficult it would be to defend a small yacht and so abandoned it.

The pirates have spoken to many news outlets, including the BBC and Fox News. Most recently the event has been in the news because a British Ship may have allowed the couple to be captured by their inaction.

A Royal Navy ship withheld fire as it watched Somali pirates kidnap a British couple on the high seas, British authorities said Friday.

Previously the British Defense Ministry said it could not rescue Paul and Rachel Chandler on Oct. 23 because the couple was already on the pirates' ship and their yacht abandoned when the Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker Wave Knight arrived at the scene, The Times of London reported.

But a ministry spokesman confirmed Friday the Wave Knight arrived as the couple was being transferred from their yacht to the pirate's ship 50 feet away. The crew was ordered not to intervene because the pirates were carrying AK-47 assault rifles and there was fear a gun battle would result in the hostages being killed.

Pirates in the News: October 29, 2009

Pirates are all over the place again, especially since it's Halloween in America and Monsoon Season is well over in the Horn of Africa.
Once again, Pirates take the top spots in desired Halloween costumes for children this year according to the National Retail Federation.

In Modern Pirate news, the top story this week is that a British Couple was captured from their yacht in the Indian Ocean and being held by Somali Pirates. Here's an interview with the sister of one of the pair:

Paul and Rachel Chandler were sailing from the Seychelles Islands to Tanzania on Friday when eight swashbucklers boarded their yacht, the Lynn Rival.

"The British couple are in our hands now. We captured them as they were touring in the Indian Ocean," a pirate who called himself Hassan told Reuters.

Hassan said the couple is healthy and ransom demands will come soon.

Also captured are a number of cargo ships and hostages from non-European countries are in the hands of pirates. Among those:

"The MV Al Khaliq, a Panamanian-flagged bulk carrier, has been hijacked early this morning off Somalia."

"There were 26 crew on board, 24 of whom are Indian and two Burmese."

Nato's closest ship to the Al Khaliq was eight hours away when the ship was seized.

NATO has been patrolling the waters around Somalia extensively, American Drones are being employed to protect shipping, and negotiators have been brought in from all sectors trying to negotiate peaceful exchanges of crews and cargo.

On the legal end of all this, trials continue in Europe and America of Somali pirates captured by the NATO navies. One such man on trial illustrates a key legal issue in the trial of pirates from Somalia, they are often teenagers and whether or not they are legal adults according to the countries prosecuting them is a consistent issue at trial.

A suspected Somali pirate captured after the hijacking of a Spanish fishing boat will face trial in the high court because a second medical test has confirmed he is older than 18, court sources said on Wednesday.

The Spanish navy captured the two Somalis in the Indian Ocean shortly after pirates overran the tuna boat Alakrana on October 2 and took hostage its multinational crew of 36.

The pirates are still in control of the boat from the Basque Country in northern Spain, and have said they will not discuss the crew's release until their two comrades are freed.

A Spanish court had decided to hand the younger suspect over to a juvenile court on Tuesday after an initial test based on samples taken from his wrist suggested he may be less than 18.

This story caught my eye from the Business Daily, the International Maritime Bureau released its yearly reports on pirate attacks and suggested strongly that removing captured pirates from their countries of origin for trial may not be the most effective deterrent.

An international maritime organisation has proposed that suspected pirates arrested off the Somali coast and the Gulf of Aden be investigated and prosecuted in their home turf to boost the war against piracy.

“It is vital that regions in Somalia such as Puntland continue to take firm action in investigating and prosecuting the pirates. This will be a far better deterrent against Somali pirates than prosecution and punishment in a foreign country,” Mr Pottengal Mukundan, the director of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said in a statement on Wednesday.

Several countries including Kenya host judicial procedures on suspected pirates arrested in the Horn of Africa nation as part of an international pact under the UN security council.

The IMB, however, observed that such foreign trials had failed to contain the piracy menace even as statistics showed the number of attacks reported this year had surpassed those registered in 2008.

It emerged on Wednesday the number of attacks involving the use of guns had shot up over the nine months to September by more than 200 per cent in the corresponding period of 2009, triggering fresh debate on whether ship owners should deploy armed guards to counter pirates whenever they attacked vessels.

There's always more news out there, but that's an idea of what's been going on this month in pirate news.