-- PARIS -- French commandos stormed a sailboat to free two French tourists who were being held for ransom by heavily-armed Somali pirates, President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Tuesday.Nicolas, my friend... well played.
One pirate was killed and six others taken prisoner in the pre-dawn assault by some 30 troops. The freed hostages and the captured pirates were put on a French navy vessel sailing towards Djibouti, where France has an army base.
“These are not isolated cases but a fully fledged criminal industry. This industry endangers our fundamental rights, freedom of movement and of international trade,” Mr. Sarkozy said. “The world must not remain indifferent or passive."
"I call on other countries to take their responsibilities as France has done twice.”
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RELATED: And Canada... is on deck
-- DUBAI -- Al Jazeera television on Tuesday aired a video showing a Canadian and an Australian journalist kidnapped in Somalia last month, and said the pair were appealing to their governments to work for their release.*
Canadian Amanda Lindhout, 27, Australian Nigel Brennan and Somali reporter Abdifatah Mohammed Elmi, working as their translator, were seized on Aug. 23 by gunmen near Mogadishu.
