1.   But some analysts believe that Colombians simply stopped reporting the crime in order to negotiate ransoms without government interference.

2.   Victims may spend months in remote Colombian mountain camps before negotiating ransoms.

3.   Families of kidnap victims say they have come to negotiate ransoms.

4.   Howes, from Bristol, was reported to have rejected an offer by his captors to release him to negotiate a ransom.

5.   Howes reportedly turned down an offer to go free and negotiate a ransom for the rest, preferring to stay so that his nine Cambodian colleagues would be released.

6.   Prepaid cell phones, to which calls cannot be traced, are frequently used by criminals, including to negotiate ransoms for kidnap victims.

7.   So far, neither the Philippines nor Malaysia has said it would negotiate a ransom.

8.   The brothers had apparently come to Cali from the United States earlier last week to negotiate a ransom with kidnappers who had abducted their Colombian father.

9.   The group rose to notoriety last year by kidnapping scores of foreigners from a Malaysian resort and reportedly negotiating huge ransoms.

10.   When they were freed, they got to thank Ackerman and other others who negotiated their ransom.