KENYA - Kidnapped Danes reach shores of Somalia

Nairobi (AP):

A Danish family kidnapped by pirates has reached the shores of Somalia, officials and a pirate disclosed yesterday, likely meaning a long hostage ordeal for the couple and their three teenage children who were abducted while yachting around the world.

The family has been moved to a larger ship, and none of the hostages has been harmed, a pirate said.

A Somali pirate previously warned that if any attempt was made to rescue them, they would meet the same fate as the four American yachters slain by their pirate captors last week. Any chance of a quick rescue seemed to disappeared yesterday.

The sailboat which was being piloted by Jan Quist Johansen, his wife and their three children, ages 12 to 16, anchored near the coastal village of Hafun late Tuesday, said Yusuf Abdullahi Sanyare, the commissioner of Hafun, which lies on Somalia's northern tip, in a region known as Puntland.

Abdiaziz Mohamud Yusuf, the spokesman for a community group called the Puntland Peacemakers, told The Associated Press that the family has been taken on land.