World

Terry Anderson, AP reporter held captive for years, has died

Published

2 years ago

April 21, 2024

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Terry Anderson, the globe-trotting Associated Press correspondent who became one of America’s longest-held hostages after he was snatched from a street in war-torn Lebanon in 1985 and held for nearly seven years, has died at 76.

Anderson, who chronicled his abduction and torturous imprisonment by Islamic militants in his best-selling 1993 memoir “Den of Lions,” died on Sunday in at his home in Greenwood Lake, New York, said his daughter, Sulome Anderson.

The cause of death was unknown, though his daughter said Anderson recently had heart surgery.

After returning to the United States in 1991, Anderson led a peripatetic life, giving public speeches, teaching journalism at several prominent universities and, at various times, operating a blues bar, Cajun restaurant, horse ranch and gourmet restaurant.

He also struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder, won millions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets after a federal court concluded that country played a role in his capture, then lost most of it to bad investments. He filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

Upon retiring from the University of Florida in 2015, Anderson settled on a small horse farm in a quiet, rural section of northern Virginia he had discovered while camping with friends. `

“I live in the country and it’s reasonably good weather and quiet out here and a nice place, so I’m doing all right,” he said with a chuckle during a 2018 interview with The Associated Press.

In 1985 he became one of several Westerners abducted by members of the Shiite Muslim group Hebollah during a time of war that had plunged Lebanon into chaos.

After his release, he returned to a hero’s welcome at AP’s New York headquarters.

As the AP’s chief Middle East correspondent, Anderson had been reporting for several years on the rising violence gripping Lebanon as the country fought a war with Israel, while Iran funded militant groups trying to topple its government.

On March 16, 1985, a day off, he had taken a break to play tennis with former AP photographer Don Mell and was dropping Mell off at his home when gun-toting kidnappers dragged him from his car.

He was likely targeted, he said, because he was one of the few Westerners still in Lebanon and because his role as a journalist aroused suspicion among members of Hezbollah.

“Because in their terms, people who go around asking questions in awkward and dangerous places have to be spies,“ he told the Virginia newspaper The Review of Orange County in 2018.

What followed was nearly seven years of brutality during which he was beaten, chained to a wall, threatened with death, often had guns held to his head and often was kept in solitary confinement for long periods of time.

Anderson was the longest held of several Western hostages Hezbollah abducted over the years, including Terry Waite, the former envoy to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had arrived to try to negotiate his release.

By his and other hostages’ accounts, he was also their most hostile prisoner, constantly demanding better food and treatment, arguing religion and politics with his captors, and teaching other hostages sign language and where to hide messages so they could communicate privately.

He managed to retain a quick wit and biting sense of humor during his long ordeal. On his last day in Beirut he called the leader of his kidnappers into his room to tell him he’d just heard an erroneous radio report saying he’d been freed and was in Syria.

“I said, ‘Mahmound, listen to this, I’m not here. I’m gone, babes. I’m on my way to Damascus.’ And we both laughed,” he told Giovanna DellÓrto, author of “AP Foreign Correspondents in Action: World War II to the Present.”

He learned later his release was delayed when a third party who his kidnappers planned to turn him over to left for a tryst with his mistress and they had to find someone else.

Anderson’s humor often hid the PTSD he acknowledged suffering for years afterward.

“The AP got a couple of British experts in hostage decompression, clinical psychiatrists, to counsel my wife and myself and they were very useful,” he said in 2018. “But one of the problems I had was I did not recognize sufficiently the damage that had been done.

“So, when people ask me, you know, ‘Are you over it?’ Well, I don’t know. No, not really. It’s there. I don’t think about it much these days, it’s not central to my life. But it’s there.”

At the time of his abduction, Anderson was engaged to be married and his future wife was six months pregnant with their daughter, Sulome.

The couple married soon after his release but divorced a few years later, and although they remained on friendly terms Anderson and his daughter were estranged for years.

“I love my dad very much. My dad has always loved me. I just didn’t know that because he wasn’t able to show it to me,” Sulome Anderson told the AP in 2017.

Father and daughter reconciled after the publication of her critically acclaimed 2017 book, “The Hostage’s Daughter,” in which she told of traveling to Lebanon to confront and eventually forgive one of her father’s kidnappers.

“I think she did some extraordinary things, went on a very difficult personal journey, but also accomplished a pretty important piece of journalism doing it,” Anderson said. “She’s now a better journalist than I ever was.”

Terry Alan Anderson was born Oct. 27, 1947. He spent his early childhood years in the small Lake Erie town of Vermilion, Ohio, where his father was a police officer.

After graduating from high school, he turned down a scholarship to the University of Michigan in favor of enlisting in the Marines, where he rose to the rank of staff sergeant while seeing combat during the Vietnam War.

After returning home, he enrolled at Iowa State University where he graduated with a double major in journalism and political science and soon after went to work for the AP. He reported from Kentucky, Japan and South Africa before arriving in Lebanon in 1982, just as the country was descending into chaos.

“Actually, it was the most fascinating job I’ve ever had in my life,” he told The Review. “It was intense. War’s going on — it was very dangerous in Beirut. Vicious civil war, and I lasted about three years before I got kidnapped.”

Anderson was married and divorced three times. In addition to his daughter, he is survived by another daughter, Gabrielle Anderson, from his first marriage.

Politics

CARICOM Launches Online Platform for 51st Heads of Government Meeting Gros Islet, Saint Lucia conference set for July 5-8, 2026

Published

4 days ago

June 18, 2026

FNN NEWS

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (FNN NEWS) — The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat has launched a dedicated online platform for the upcoming 51st Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM, scheduled to take place in Gros Islet, Saint Lucia, from July 5-8, 2026.

Central Hub for Meeting Information

The online platform will serve as the primary source of information for media representatives, government officials, stakeholders, and the public leading up to and during the conference.

Available at CARICOM 51st Heads of Government Meeting Platform, the website features:

Information on the Opening Ceremony speakers
A detailed program of events
A profile of the incoming CARICOM Chair
Daily news updates
Photo and video galleries
Livestreams of the Opening Ceremony
Livestreams of the Closing Media Conference

The official Meeting Communiqué, summarizing decisions and outcomes from the conference, will also be published on the platform following the conclusion of the meeting.

Media Encouraged to Bookmark Platform

CARICOM officials are encouraging members of the media and other stakeholders to bookmark the website and visit regularly for updates throughout the conference.

The Secretariat also invited users to follow and engage with CARICOM’s social media channels using the hashtag #51HGC for real-time updates and coverage.

About CARICOM

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) was established on July 4, 1973, with the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas. The treaty was revised in 2001 to facilitate the creation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).

CARICOM comprises 15 Member States and six Associate Members, representing approximately 16 million citizens across the Caribbean region. Nearly 60 percent of the Community’s population is under the age of 30.

The organization’s work is centered on four primary pillars:

Economic integration
Foreign policy coordination
Human and social development
Security cooperation

CARICOM’s vision is to build an integrated, inclusive, and resilient Caribbean Community driven by knowledge, innovation, excellence, and productivity while promoting human rights, social justice, and sustainable economic prosperity.

Headquartered in Georgetown

The principal administrative organ of the Community, the CARICOM Secretariat, is headquartered in Georgetown and coordinates the implementation of regional policies and initiatives among Member States.

CARICOM remains one of the most successful examples of regional integration in the developing world.

US NATIONAL NEWS

Rubio, Jaishankar Discuss Strait of Hormuz Security During Diplomatic Call

Published

1 week ago

June 13, 2026

FNN NEWS

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar discussed maritime security, commercial shipping and recent developments in the Strait of Hormuz.

WASHINGTON (FNN NEWS) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to discuss recent developments in the Strait of Hormuz, according to a State Department readout released Friday.

According to Principal Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott, the conversation focused on maritime security and commercial shipping in one of the world’s most strategically important waterways.

Focus on Maritime Security

During the call, Rubio stressed that commercial vessels operating in the Strait of Hormuz should immediately comply with instructions issued by U.S. forces as they work to maintain regional peace and security.

The secretary also emphasized U.S. concerns regarding the transportation of Iranian oil and warned that violations of U.S. enforcement measures would not be tolerated.

Critical Global Waterway

The Strait of Hormuz serves as a vital shipping route connecting the Persian Gulf to international markets and is one of the world’s most important energy transit corridors. Any disruption to commercial traffic through the region can have significant implications for global energy supplies and international trade.

The call highlights continued diplomatic coordination between the United States and India on regional security issues and freedom of navigation in key international waterways.

Tech

NASA’s Artemis II Astronauts Begin Historic Journey Around the Moon After Key Orion Engine Burn

Published

3 months ago

April 3, 2026

Willie David

Earth's crescent is seen from a solar array camera on the Orion spacecraft on the first flight day of the Artemis II mission. Credit: NASA

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (FNN) — For the first time in more than 50 years, astronauts on a NASA mission are headed around the Moon after successfully completing a critical burn of the Orion spacecraft’s main engine.

The approximately six-minute firing of Orion’s service module engine Thursday — known as the translunar injection burn — accelerated the spacecraft and its crew beyond Earth’s orbit, placing them on a trajectory toward the Moon.

Aboard the spacecraft are NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

“Today, for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972, humans have departed Earth orbit,” said Dr. Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. “Reid, Victor, Christina and Jeremy now are on a precise trajectory toward the Moon. Orion is operating with crew for the first time in space, and we are gathering critical data and learning from each step.”

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft lifted off from Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center at 6:35 p.m. EDT on April 1, beginning a planned 10-day test mission around the Moon and back.

Successful Launch and Spacecraft Activation

Shortly after reaching space, Orion deployed its four solar array wings, allowing the spacecraft to generate power from the Sun. The crew and mission controllers then began transitioning the spacecraft from launch to normal flight operations while checking critical onboard systems.

About 49 minutes into the flight, the rocket’s upper stage fired to place Orion into an elliptical orbit around Earth. A second burn propelled the spacecraft — named “Integrity” by the crew — into a high Earth orbit extending roughly 46,000 miles above the planet for nearly 24 hours of system testing.

Following the maneuver, Orion separated from the upper stage and began flying independently.

System Tests and Crew Operations in Space

During the early phase of the mission, the astronauts conducted a manual piloting demonstration to evaluate Orion’s handling capabilities using the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage as a docking target.

After the test, Orion executed an automated departure burn to safely move away from the stage. The propulsion stage later performed a disposal burn before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere over a remote area of the Pacific Ocean.

Before its re-entry, four small CubeSats were deployed from the rocket’s Orion stage adapter to conduct separate scientific missions.

Mission teams also transitioned communications to NASA’s Deep Space Network while the crew adjusted to the space environment. Astronauts completed their first rest periods, performed onboard exercise routines, restored the spacecraft’s toilet to normal operations and prepared the spacecraft for the translunar injection burn.

Lunar Flyby and Artemis Program Goals

The crew is scheduled to conduct a lunar flyby Monday, April 6, when astronauts will capture high-resolution images and make observations of the Moon’s surface — including portions of the lunar far side rarely seen directly by humans.

Although the far side will only be partially illuminated during the flyby, the lighting conditions are expected to cast long shadows across the terrain, highlighting ridges, slopes and crater rims that are difficult to observe under full sunlight.

After completing the flyby, the astronauts will return to Earth and splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.

The mission marks a major milestone for NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to send astronauts on increasingly ambitious missions to explore the Moon, advance scientific discovery, stimulate economic growth and prepare for the first crewed missions to Mars.