AMSTERDAM—A gunman who held a hostage for hours in the Apple Store in Amsterdam demanded a ransom of 200 million euros (more than $226 million) in cryptocurrencies before he was run over by police as he chased his hostage out of the shop, police and prosecutors said Wednesday. The tense, five-hour standoff paralyzed one of…

PAKISTAN—Pakistani counterterrorism police said Sunday they killed five people involved in the abduction for ransom and subsequent death of a nationalist political party leader. The raid took place overnight in the southwestern city of Pishin, according to the Baluchistan province Counter Terrorism Department. Malik Ubaidullah Kasi, leader of the secular Awami National Party, was abducted…

KADUNA, Nigeria—Kidnappers are demanding a ransom of one million naira each to release around 80 children snatched from a boarding school in northern Nigeria last month, according to a pastor involved in the negotiations for their release. The attack on the Bethel Baptist High School in the state of Kaduna was the 10th mass school…

KADUNA, Nigeria–Six students and two officials who were kidnapped last month from a school in Nigeria’s Kaduna state were released after relatives paid ransom money, a school official and parent said on Friday. Kidnappings by armed men, commonly referred to in Nigeria as “bandits”, have become endemic in northern Nigeria, disrupting the education of hundreds…

KADUNA, Nigeria–Six students and two officials who were kidnapped last month from a school in Nigeria’s Kaduna state were released after relatives paid ransom money, a school official and parent said on Friday. Kidnappings by armed men, commonly referred to in Nigeria as “bandits”, have become endemic in northern Nigeria, disrupting the education of hundreds…

The United States has seized most of the cryptocurrency paid to hackers that took hostage portions of Colonial Pipeline’s system last month, leading to soaring gas prices and station outages. The Department of Justice seized nearly 64 bitcoin, worth approximately $2.3 million. The action was made possible by a search warrant authorized by U.S. Magistrate…

The Colonial pipeline hackers were reportedly paid millions of dollars in ransom to regain control of the systems, a group of Senators say they’re afraid another economic crisis is around the corner if people don’t get back to work, and more than 40 conservative organizations have promised not to accept donations from Big Tech companies.