If Only we Could Chalk it up to Anarchy in the UK (and not Human Nature) British court sentenced 16-year-old Andrew Smith to life in prison. The teenager and his 18-year-old friend, Jason Bolton, kicked Asaf Mahmood Ahmed so hard and so many times that the 28-year-old father of three had an asthma attack while lying in a pool of his own blood. Smith left the scene but came back to find Ahmed was reaching for his inhaler while still on the ground. Noticing the movement, Smith shoved the inhaler out of Ahmed’s hands. The boys’ unprovoked brutalization of Ahmed led to the man’s death and a complete lack of remorse on the part of Smith, who used his camera phone to film himself saying he had “the eyes of a killer.” Bolton will, as of now, be spending the next 17 years behind bars. Taking a look at Smith’s “inhuman” footage, the court promised him life in a cell.

Pirates Demand Steep Ransom The Somali pirates who hijacked “Saudi-owned supertanker” the Sirius Star have given Saudis 10 days to comply with their $25 million ransom demand. One of the pirates, Mohamed Said, has hinted that should the ship owners refuse to pay up, the captors “will take action that could be disastrous.”

Obama to Work for Peace in the Middle East The President-Elect called Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to let the latter know once in office, he would commence work on smoothing through a two-state solution peace process that would, hopefully, mitigate some of the perennial tension found in the region…

Hezbollah’s Burgeoning Army The “militant Shiite movement” has a new set of young and enthusiastic, if stern-faced, recruits: the Mahdi Scouts. The 17- and 18-year-olds dress in boy scoutesque attire and train on Lebanese fields, as they answer to a podium-using leader and the yellow Hezbollah flag while keeping Ayatollah Khomeini’s picture close to their hearts, literally. Many of them will enter the “party’s bureaucracy,” and others will take to the hills like their older cohorts, the guerilla army, all in order to fight Israel from the south of Lebanon. Meaning the “party of God” in Arabic, popular “military, political and social force” and Hamas-inspiration Hezbollah is intent on attracting as many as possible to its Israel-attacking cause.