PIRATES

Hijacked Couple's Yacht Found

Gordon Brown convenes emergency meeting.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown summoned an emergency meeting Thursday as the yacht belonging to hijacked British couple Paul and Rachel Chandler was found by the Royal Navy with no sign of the couple on board. There was no indication that the couple had been harmed, according to the British Ministry of Defence, and sources affiliated with the pirates said that the couple had been placed aboard a Singaporean-flagged ship under pirate control. In response, Brown called a Cobra meeting (named after the Cabinet Office Briefing Room where the emergency council meets) involving ministers from his Foreign and Commonwealth offices, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Defence. "The pirates have taken the couple off somewhere, and Cobra is discussing what to do," said a source.