ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, MARYLAND // The saga of the American merchant seamen who clashed with Somali pirates on the high seas off Africa ended early today with a big "welcome home" banner and the warm embrace of families.
A charter flight from Kenya brought the crew of the Maersk Alabama to Andrews Air Force Base, where they had a private reunion with their loved ones.
Missing was the Alabama's skipper, who was still aboard the US Navy destroyer that had saved him and which still was chasing pirates off the east coast of Africa. The crewmen were greeted by several dozen family members who crowded onto the wet tarmac near the arriving plane, waving small flags in the unseasonably cool air.
The crewmen did not stop to talk with reporters and quickly entered the terminal with their families, where a reception area was set aside for their privacy.
One week ago, pirates took over the Alabama briefly before Capt Richard Phillips surrendered himself in exchange for the safety of his 19-member crew.
Capt Phillips was freed Sunday after five days of being held hostage in a lifeboat when US Navy SEAL snipers on the destroyer USS Bainbridge killed three of his captors.
The Alabama crew had scuffled with the pirates, wounding one of them with an ice pick, in taking back control of their ship.
The bandits fled the ship with Capt Phillips as their captive, holding him in the lifeboat in a high-stakes standoff until the SEAL sharpshooters took action. The Bainbridge was diverted on Tuesday to chase pirates attacking a second US cargo ship, thereby delaying Capt Phillips' homecoming.
The cargo ship, the Liberty Sun, escaped after sustaining damage from automatic weapons fire and rocket-propelled grenades. Another chartered plane was waiting at the Mombasa airport for Phillips, a Kenyan airport official said.
Capt Phillips' wife, Andrea, and two children were still at home in Vermont and did not know when or where they would meet him, said her mother, Catherine Coggio.
Andrea Phillips, in a statement, celebrated the crew's imminent return and said she understood why her husband could not make it home with them.
"Like Richard, I appreciate that the US Navy is there to help other seafarers as well," she said.
"The most important thing is that Richard is safe, and our family owes that to the Navy. I am immensely proud of Richard, the crew and everything they did to assure each other's safety."
*AP
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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
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Tuesday's fixtures
Kyrgyzstan v Qatar, 5.45pm
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
The biog:
From: Wimbledon, London, UK
Education: Medical doctor
Hobbies: Travelling, meeting new people and cultures
Favourite animals: All of them
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
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE results
Lost to Oman by eight runs
Beat Namibia by three wickets
Lost to Oman by 12 runs
Beat Namibia by 43 runs
UAE fixtures
Free admission. All fixtures broadcast live on icc.tv
Tuesday March 15, v PNG at Sharjah Cricket Stadium
Friday March 18, v Nepal at Dubai International Stadium
Saturday March 19, v PNG at Dubai International Stadium
Monday March 21, v Nepal at Dubai International Stadium
The Saga Continues
Wu-Tang Clan
(36 Chambers / Entertainment One)
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
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Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.