New ransom demand for sailors: 'Too expensive to keep alive'

4:31 AM Sat 9 Jan 2010 GMT

'Lynn Rival’s crew as they used to be - on the winning podium after a yacht race in India' .

As their time in captivity passes the 80 day mark, the UK's Daily Mail has reported two threatening telephone calls from Somali pirates who are keeping kidnapped cruising sailors Paul and Rachel Chandler hostage, with one caller revealing that Rachel Chandler had been beaten.

The Mail has reported receiving calls, handled by an interpreter, from 'Hussein' and 'Noor', both of whom maintained that it is getting too expensive to keep the couple alive. They have demanded a new, lower ransom of UKP1.9 million (down from UKP7million), but assured the interpreter that unless they receive the payment by March, the Chandlers will be shot.

'We can't wait more than this because it is becoming too expensive to hold these people. By March, they(the pirates) have to decide or we will be done with them,' he was quoted as saying.

The chilling calls came from one of the secret hideouts of the Somali gang, who have reportedly be

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New ransom demand for sailors: 'Too expensive to keep alive'

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