Two british sailors, Rachel (55) and Paul (59) Chandler, abducted from their yacht by Somali pirates a week ago, are reported to be well and ashore in Somalia. (BBC report).

In a telephone call to the BBC's Somali service Paul said that they were being fed, and "food is okay at the moment".According to the BBC report, Mr Chandler said: "I was off watch. I was asleep and men with guns came aboard. It was on Friday last week at 0230. "He said the couple were being held hostage on a Singapore-registered container ship called the Kota Wajah. He was speaking from the captain's cabin at 1100 GMT (1400 local time). He said their captors had not officially asked for a ransom and that they were currently being held hostage on board a container ship.

Later reports from local fishermen indicated that they had been moved ashore.

However, fears for their safety continue.  The BBC's security correspondent, Frank Gardner said yacht kidnappings had not always ended well because they were not straightforward commercial transactions. He said: "There is no big international shipping company that is going to say, 'We are going to get these people out because they are our employees and we will dip into the insurance for this'." He said the Foreign Office had taken a lead on negotiations and Scotland Yard also had hostage negotiators working on the case, but the pirates also needed to appoint a negotiator.

This latest hijacking and abduction highlights a question being asked by many yachstmen: how is it that, with such a strong military presence in the area, navy warships are unable to prevent the continuing threat to shipping, and why does the British Navy appear so impotent to prevent such action by a rag-tag of sea-faring terrorists?