somali pirates

International News Roundup: Anarchy in the UK and Pirates

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

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.

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A Palin-Free Daily News Round Up

Friday, October 3rd, 2008

Possible Elder Abuse Very troubling news from Calabasas, CA have reached our ears, eyes and screens. Those inhabiting an expensive assisted living home in the area directly north of Los Angeles may have been suffering flagrant abuses at the hands of those most responsible for caring for them. The LA County Sheriff’s Department has been investigating the death of an 80-year-old from the facility for the last 11 months and may now have concluded the killer may just have been the 20-year-old paid to watch over him.

Silicon Valley Not Exempt from Credit Crisis Up until now, San Francisco- and San Jose-based innovators were confident the financial crisis would not really affect them. But more and more they’ve realized that fewer people are indulging in expensive gadgetry when pockets are shallow, and investors may be shying away from putting their chips in the middle of the tech table.

Bailout Bill Approved Setting in motion what may be the priciest “government economic intervention in history,” the House of Representatives approved the $700 billion bailout originally thrown out last week.

Foreclosure and Desperate Times Unable to cope with the shame and sadness that displacement from her home evinced in her, a 90-year-old woman shot herself twice in the upper body when sheriff’s deputies tried to evict her from her foreclosed Ohio house. She is being treated for her wounds, but her act of desperation may become anthemic to all those enduring the fever of foreclosures running through the country.

Jobs Dropped, Unemployment Rises Further Jobs have plummeted this year, making each month’s statistics more dire than the previous one’s. In September, 159,000 people lost their positions, making it the 30-day period with the highest number of retrenchments seen in five years.

Who Will Pay Ukrainian Ransom? Somali pirates holding a Ukrainian freighter ship hostage said Wednesday they would lower their asking ransom price from $35 million to $20 million or perhaps to as “low” as $5 million. But even then, no one is coming forward to pay up. What good does a decreased amount do if it still goes unpaid to the detriment of those hijacked?

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News from Over Land and Sea(s)

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

Europe Bearing Us Financial Ill Will “The idea that markets are always right was a mad idea,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy said of our troubles. Though many European countries have been quick to come to our aid, The Economist, an English publication, no less, has pulled no punches with the characterizations it’s made of the reactions of those countries lying directly off its shores. Claiming a common “I told you so” response from European leaders such as Sarkozy, it published a piece discussing just those sorts of patronizing diatribes and possibly schadenfreude-indulging attitudes.

U.S. and India: Impending Nuclear Deal The Senate has ratified an agreement that states “civilian nuclear trade” between the two countries is, for the first time in 30 years, set to occur.

Argentina, Spain: Honoring the Disappeared The Argentinean government and the Buenos Aires-based Spanish embassy publicly remembered the 30,000 people, 139 of either Spanish birth or descent, disappeared by and during the military dictatorship of 1976-1983.

Three Warlords Wreaking Havoc in Afghanistan United States military officials have blamed the recent upsurge in Afghani violence on a “trio of warlords” operating from within Pakistan but exerting a control they acquired during the CIA-backed war to extricate Russia from the ravaged country.

Somali Pirates Lowering Ransom? Those who hijacked a Ukrainian arms-carrying freighter last week initially asked for $35 million but may have been convinced, according to a Seafarers Assistance Program rep in Kenya, to drop that amount to $5 million.

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