Finns Risto Vahanen and Seppo Franti arrived in Helsinki late on Tuesday from Libya.
Published:
13 September 2000 y., Wednesday
Finns Risto Vahanen and Seppo Franti arrived in Helsinki late on Tuesday from Libya, almost five months after they were kidnapped by Muslim rebels while holidaying at a resort in Malaysia.
Vahanen kissed the ground as he had promised to do after stepping off the government-leased plane at Helsinki international airport at around 9:30 p.m. The two were accompanied by Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja and other officials.
The Finns, laughing and looking relieved to be home, were greeted with flowers by relatives at the airport tarmac.
Vahanen and Franti were released in the Philippines on Saturday with two other Europeans and arrived in Libya on Monday.
They were among 21 people kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas from a resort on the east Malaysian island of Sipadan on April 23 and taken to the southern Philippines island of Jolo.
The rebels handed over the Finns to government emissaries on Saturday along with German Marc Wallert and Frenchman Stephane Loisy. The four arrived in Tripoli on Monday.
Šaltinis:
dailynews.yahoo.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
Hundreds of New Yorkers enjoy a dip in rubbish dumpsters that have been converted into swimming pools as part of the city's summer initiative.
more »
On 19 July, a school, which had been reconstructed with the funding from Lithuania’s Special Mission in Afghanistan, was opened in the village of Suri, the Zabul Province in the South of Afghanistan.
more »
Self-employed workers and their partners will enjoy better social protection – including the right to maternity leave for the first time – under new EU legislation that enters into force today.
more »
A 45 U.S. dollar garage sale purchase turns out to be long lost Ansel Adams negatives worth 200 million dollars.
more »
A Turkish toddler survives a three-floor fall from a balcony when he lands on a stack of plastic pipes.
more »
Around 200 Magellan penguins, most of them dead, wash up on Uruguay's beaches.
more »
Europeans are calling on Member States to boost their efforts to improve road safety, according to a survey published by the European Commission today.
more »
With an increase in life expectancy in China has come an accompanying rise in dementia cases, which may leave the younger generation struggling to cope with treatment and care.
more »
These baby sea turtles should be swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, but instead they are recovering at the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Mississippi.
more »
Reviving the Latin American tradition of the afternoon siesta, a hotel in Argentina brings siesta to the corporate workforce.
more »