Bosten Marathon Bombings

It has been some very intense days here in Boston which I have covered for VG . Four people have been killed and over 170 has been wounded. In a dramatic chase last night, Dsjokhar Tsarnajev where captured alive. His brother where killed in the chase with the police. As Dsjokhar where carried away, the crowd cheered. Earlier in the day, 9000 police officers had searched around in Watertown for Dsjokhar. Around the house where he was captured, people gathered on Sunday to watch as the FBI searched the crime scene.

Snaps from New York

Some snapshots from New York I have taken the last couple of days with my mobile:(PS! you can also follow me on Instagram. @kyrrelien_ )

 (PS! you can also follow me on Instagram. @kyrrelien_ )

Kidnapping in Egypt

I just returned after a few days in Egypt on assignment for VG. I was covering the story where Ingvild Selvik Ask and here friend Ameer Hassan was kidnapped on the road in Sinai, Egypt. She was released by the kidnappers on Tuesday. Here is how the days where and what we did:Day 1: I was called on Friday and asked to get on a plane leaving from Oslo to Sharm El Sheik in three hours.Day 2: I met up with the journalist who arrived from Paris. We had a interpreter and a driver that met us at the airport in Sharm El Sheik. Then we drove on the road Ingvild was on when she was kidnapped.The video and pictures where transmitted. Later that day we met the driver in Dahab who was also kidnapped, but released. We just managed to transmit the pictures and video before deadline. After this we met up with the local police chief. He took us into the desert at 1 AM and showed us the landscape where the Bedouins rule.Day 3: We drove from Dahab to Al-Arish. A 10-hour drive which the local police thought was unsafe for us. Therefore they insisted on giving us armored protection on parts of the journey. At some point we had four police cars with around 15 armored police officers with bullet proof vests and machine guns escorting us through the dessert. We arrived in Al-Arish at night meeting up with a journalist with good contacts with the kidnappers. We just made the deadline this day as well.Day 4: We continued working on the story. As the day went, the police became ever more intense. At the afternoon we had so many police officers around us that it became difficult to work. They "grounded" us and denied us from traveling around in the city. They thought it was very unsafe for us to stay in Al-Arish since we where the only tourists in the city. They told us there where both bad Bedouins, extremists and other people that could have a interest of kidnapping western journalists. There where several armored police officers guarding our hotel as well as outside our room.Day 5: We got a call of that Ingvild was released at 2 AM in the night. We "fought" with the police outside the hotel to get permission to leave before we raced to the police station she was scheduled to arrive at. We met her as the only western journalists and got the story out with both pictures and video. Later in the day we drove to Cairo, also now with police escort,  before we returned home. 

Jesus in Siberia

In January I spent a couple of days deep in Siberia with Mongolia, Kazakhstan and China as some of the closest neighbours. We sold the story to VG Helg and it was printed last Saturday.Here, east for Abakan, 4000 people have moved to follow their spiritual leader, Sergey. They call them self Vissarion and they believe that Sergey Torop is the new Jesus. Sergey was previously a traffic police before he decided to become Jesus. They grow their own food, have no electricity and don't eat meat. To say at least, it was very fascinating to live with them for four days. You can read more about the religion here.You can also read the story here if you have a subscription at VG+.

Jesus in Siberia from Kyrre Lien on Vimeo.