Canadian journalist, Australian photographer freed in Somalia

New York - A Canadian journalist and Australian photographer have been freed after 15 months of captivity in Somalia, Canada's CTV News reported Wednesday. In a telephone interview from Mogadishu, journalist Amanda Lindhout told CTV that a ransom was paid "by our families" to the kidnappers to free her and photographer Nigel Brennan.

"It's a long story. It's been sort of going on for the last couple of weeks, and tonight finally everything came together and the men who had kidnapped us turned us over to the federal government in Somalia. They have now taken us to a hotel and it sounds like tomorrow, we'll be in Nairobi," Lindhout said.

Lindhout and Brennan were kidnapped near Mogadishu on August 23, 2008. She said she was researching a story on internally displaced people in Somalia, when her vehicle was ambushed by a group of gunmen.

They "proceeded to take us around the country and keep us in different houses, extremely oppressive conditions," Lindhout said.

"I was kept by myself at all times. I had no one to speak to. I was normally kept in a room with a light, no window, I had nothing to write on or with. There was very little food. I was allowed to use the toilet exactly five times a day," she said.