JAYAPURA, Indonesia—Separatist rebels in Indonesia’s Papua Province released more photos and videos Friday appearing to show the New Zealand pilot they took hostage last month alive. In a video distributed Friday by rebel spokesperson Sebby Sambom, a man wearing a blue jacket is identified as Philip Mark Mehrtens of Christchurch, a pilot for Indonesian aviation […]
BOGOTA—A police officer and civilian were killed during violent protests in Colombia’s Caqueta Province on Thursday, and 79 officers and nine oilfield workers were taken hostage by members of rural communities, the government said. The violence erupted in part of the San Vicente del Caguan municipality, where members of rural and Indigenous communities blocked access […]
SYDNEY—A woman hostage, one of four people held captive by an armed group in the remote Papua New Guinea highlands, was released and negotiations are continuing for a “peaceful resolution” to the situation, the Pacific island nation’s police commissioner said. A group of archaeology researchers, including a professor working for an Australian university, two local […]
SYDNEY—An Australian university professor is among a group taken hostage in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, the country’s prime minister said on Monday. Armed criminals had demanded cash in return for releasing the captives, who included more than one foreign citizen, police said. Police said in a statement that the hostages were being held […]
JAKARTA—Separatists in Indonesia’s restive Papua region have released images that they say show a New Zealand pilot taken hostage last week is in good health, but pledged he would not be freed until authorities acknowledge the independence of the area. The pilot, Philip Mehrtens, who flew a plane operated by airline Susi Air, was abducted […]
RICHLAND, Miss.—Police in Mississippi shot and killed a woman who was holding another person hostage in a Walmart store as she said she needed help and demanded to speak to a news anchor. The Mississippi Department of Public Safety said in a news release that the shooting happened Wednesday evening in the Jackson suburb of […]
BERLIN—Police said they had ended a suspected hostage-taking in the eastern German city of Dresden on Saturday, after evacuating a shopping mall in the historic city center and shutting the famous Striezelmarkt Christmas market. “All-clear! The hostage situation in #Dresden is over!” police said on Twitter, adding that two people who appeared to be unharmed […]
TBILISI, Georgia—Police in the country of Georgia said 12 people who were held hostage in a bank by a gunman for hours Tuesday have been freed and hostage-taker has been arrested. Georgian media reported that the gunman at the bank in the city of Kutaisi had demanded $2 million, a helicopter to leave the country […]
MOSCOW—WNBA player Brittney Griner was ordered Monday to stand trial by a court near Moscow on cannabis possession charges, about 4.5 months after her arrest at an airport while returning to play for a Russian team. The Phoenix Mercury center and two-time U.S. Olympic gold medalist also was ordered to remain in custody for the […]
WASHINGTON—A U.S. judge on Friday imposed a lifetime prison sentence on a member of an ISIS militant group nicknamed “The Beatles” that beheaded American hostages, at a hearing where one victim’s mother told the defendant, “I will not hate you.” U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis in Alexandria, Virginia, held an emotionally charged sentencing hearing for […]
