Rise in Piracy off Somalia Expecte
Following the region’s monsoon season, piracy off of the Somali coast is expected to rise, says the Combined Maritime Forces. The group told sea crews to actively use safety measures by using certain routes and letting the European Union’s security center know when they’re traveling, CNN reports. “The prior preparation and vigilance of merchant mariners at all times of day and night is more important now than ever,” an official from the task force said. “While our ability to deter and disrupt attacks has improved over time, we are constantly adapting the way we do our business as the pirates adapt and modify their tactics.” Security forces from all over the world are patrolling the waters and will assist in battling pirates, CNN reports. In recent months pirates in the region have been kidnapping crews and demanding ransoms at an alarming rate.
 
Guyanan Authorities Bring Arson Charges
Two people have been charged in connection with a fire that destroyed Guyana’s health ministry building, the BBC reports. The arson, which occurred earlier this month, was planned by a group of people who are anti-government, according to the police commissioner, though no particular group has been named. Health records and important offices were ruined in the blaze. Two other people, possibly connected to the arson, escaped from custody. An officer was arrested as a result of the incident.

Fighting in Nigeria Kills at Least 39
Fighting between armed forces and Islamist militants killed at least 39 people in Nigeria, the BBC reports. Men from the militant group, Boko Haram (“Western education prohibited,” translated in English), attacked a Bauchi police station with guns and explosives, and security forces fought back by attacking a nearby settlement, according to reports. The militants attacked the station because of the arrest of some of the group’s leaders, one Boko Haram member told Reuters. The group wishes to “clean the system, which is polluted by Western education and uphold Sharia [Islamic law] all over the country,” he said. As a result of the conflict, police say that more than 150 people have been arrested.

Somali Pirates Attack Another U.S. Ship

Almost a week after successfully attacking the U.S. ship the Maersk Alabama, Somali pirates attacked another U.S. vessel Tuesday using rocket-propelled grenades and weapons, reports the BBC. This time, however, they were not able to actually get onboard. The Liberty Sun was carrying food aid near the coast of Somalia when it was attacked. An email from one of the crew members to his mother detailed the incident. “We are under attack by pirates, we are being hit by rockets, also bullets,” the email from 26-year-old Thomas Urbik read, reports The Associated Press. Read the rest.

Nigerian Muslims Arrested After Attacking Easter Parade A parade on Easter Monday turned violent when Muslim youths and Christians clashed, resulting in 120 people being arrested, police say. Churches were also set ablaze, and Christians were attacked in the towns of Gwada and Minna, making it necessary for police to enter the town to restore order, reports the BBC. Many of the injured had to be rushed to the hospital. While the west African nation is closely divided between Christians and Muslims, the two groups usually coexist peacefully. There are times, though, when the groups have violent clashes, more often than not due to a “competition for resources” and not religious intolerance reports the BBC.

American Capt. Richard Phillips, who had been held hostage since Wednesday by Somali pirates, was rescued Sunday after U.S. Navy snipers shot and killed three of his captors. The snipers fired after noticing that a pirate “had an AK-47 leveled at the captain’s back,” Navy Vice Adm. Bill Gortney told reporters. Officials then sailed to the lifeboat where Phillips had been held and rescued him. “The captain is in good health. He’s showered up and in a clean set of clothes,” Gortney said. Read more.

As players in a real-life pirate drama on the high seas off the eastern coast of Africa, an unarmed American crew overpowered a gang of Somali pirates and took back their vessel. However, when the ordeal had ended, the captain of the U.S. ship remained a hostage. Capt. Richard Phillips surrendered himself to the pirates to secure the safety of the crew, The Associated Press reports. “What I understand is that he offered himself as the hostage,” said Gina Coggio, 29, half sister of Phillips’ wife. “That is what he would do. It’s just who he is and his response as a captain.” By the time a U.S. warship reached the Maersk Alabama, the entire 20-member crew had managed to regain control of their ship by capturing one of the pirates; they then negotiated their own release, according to AP. Pirates are running rampant in the treacherous waters in the Indian Ocean, seizing six vessels in 66 attacks since January; they are still holding 14 ships and 260 crew members as hostages, according to the International Maritime Bureau, a watchdog group based in Kuala Lumpur. “Somalia’s 1,900-mile (3,057-kilometer) long coastline borders one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and offers a perfect haven to the heavily armed pirate gangs,” according to AP. “They often dress in military fatigues and use GPS systems and satellite phones to coordinate attacks from small, fast speedboats resupplied by a larger ‘mother ship.’

Pirates Hijack Tankers Near Somalia
In 24 hours, pirates were able to hijack two vessels off of Somalia’s coast, reports CNN. Both were chemical tankers owned by European nations, according to the European Union Maritime Security Center. One, a 23,000 ton M/V Bow-Asir owned by Norway, was hijacked 250 miles east of the city of Kismayo and southern Somalia Thursday morning. The other one captured was the 9,000-ton M/V Nipayia tanker, which is owned by Greece, and had 19 crew members on board. An alert has been issued by officials to all nearby vessels to be on alert of elevated pirate activity. 
 

Madonna Set to Adopt Another Malawian Child

Singer Madonna will travel to Malawi this weekend to adopt a second child, officials from the African nation told the BBC. She reportedly already filed adoption papers and could have her case heard at the High Court by early next week. While Madonna’s reps are mum on the topic, the singer did hint to her intentions while answering questions from readers of a Malawian newspaper. “Many people – especially our Malawian friends – say that David should have a Malawian brother or sister,” she said.  Read the rest.

Somali Pirates Drown With $3 million Ransom  It looked like they’d hit the jackpot when some Somali pirates received a $3 million ransom to release a Saudi oil tanker Friday. Instead, five of the pirates drowned when their boat capsized as they were trying to return to land, losing all of the millions, reports MSNBC. There were three other pirates who survived, but they lost their share of the money as well. The crew of the Saudi oil tanker Sirius Star already had been released. On Sunday, the body of one of the pirates washed ashore in Somalia with $153,000 in his pocket, according to a local resident. But the unfortunate, and ironic, turn events won’t do much to discourage wannabe pirates, says the managing director of Dryad Maritime Intelligence Graeme Gibbon Brooks. “The loss or potential loss of the ransom means the pirates will be all the more keen to get the next ransom. There are people lining up to be pirates,” he said. With Somalia’s shaky government and the fighting between troops and insurgents that has depressed some areas in the country, hijacking ships has been one of the few ways to earn money for some of the pirates. Pirates attacked over 100 ships last year, hijacking 42 of them. The hijackings have gone down recently, most likely due to an international crackdown that has ships from all over patrolling the waters. An Ukrainian ship, MV Faina, which was held near the Sirius Star, is still under control of the pirates. A pirate spokesman told the Associated Press that the members of that crew were safe and would be released unharmed after successful negotiations for a ransom. “Nothing has changed from our previous demand of $20 million ransom for the release of the ship, but as negotiations continue we are likely to reduce the amount,” Sugule Ali told the AP.

Somali Ship Hijackings Drop
The number of ships hijacked by pirates off Somalia’s coast has plunged during the month of December, according to the International Maritime Bureau. The drop comes after an active year that saw more than 100 ships being attacked by Somali pirates, with 42 of them being successfully hijacked. “There have been many attempted attacks but there were only two vessels which were hijacked in December,” IMB’s director, Capt. Pottengal Mukundan, told the BBC. The drop could be attributed to the fact that several countries sent ships to the waters to help patrol the area. There were two recent attacks, though. On Thursday a pirate attack on an Indian oil tanker was thwarted by the Malaysian navy, who, after seeing the tanker’s SOS signal sent in a helicopter. But on the same day an Egyptian vessel with 28 crew members was hijacked by about 15 pirates and steered towards Somalia’s coast. “The crew are hostages. …There are efforts underway to conduct the necessary talks to free the ship,” said the Egyptian Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmed Rizq.

Activists to remain jailed in Zimbabw
Fourteen Zimbabwe activists, who stand accused of planning to bring down the government and President Robert Mugabe, were ordered by a court to remain jailed pending a Supreme Court hearing, reports CNN. “It is clear that the attorney general has appealed against the high court judgment. For that reason, the accused cannot be released at this stage,” said Judge Mishrod Guvamombe. Nine activists, including the head of the rights group Zimbabwe Peace Project, were recently charged with recruiting citizens to participate in military training to overthrow the government. Seven others were charged with banditry, which, in Zimbabwe, carries the death penalty. Two activists were released.  The majority of those arrested are members of the opposition party Movement of Democratic Change. The party’s leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, had said he’d pull out of the power-sharing deal he signed in September with Mugabe if the accused were not released by the end of the year.

China will send ships to African waters to fight pirates. China will send ships to the waters near the Horn of Africa to monitor an area that has been prone to many pirate attacks, reports CNN. China hasn’t sent ships that far away from the country in centuries, but the recent surge of pirate attacks on China’s ships has pushed them into action. No word yet on how many ships the country plans to deploy, but officials did reveal that the operation would last three months. The waters have gone unmonitored, but the United Nation’s Security Council recently passed a resolution that would let an international coalition to go after pirates onto land (although China, a member of the council, hasn’t committed any forces yet). Just this year, almost 100 ships have been attacked by pirates in the waters near Somalia, with 40 of them being hijacked successfully, reports the news service. Pirates battled with crew members of a Chinese ship for four hours Wednesday before coalition helicopters and ships kept the attackers at bay.
Rwandan genocide mastermind is sentenced. The man behind the mass genocide in Rwanda during the ’90s has been given a life sentence by a United Nations tribunal, reports the BBC. Theoneste Bagosora and two co-defendants were found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Bagosora and former military commanders Anatole Nsegiyumya and Alloys Ntbakuze were found to have led a committee that planned the killing of ethnic Tutsis. More than 800,000 people were killed during in the nation’s genocide. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the sentences, a result of the first convictions of anyone involved with the genocide, a “major step in the fight against impunity.” The court rejected the argument from the defense that the mass killings were not organized and, therefore, could not be considered genocide, reports the BBC. Bagosora will appeal the verdict, according to his lawyer.  The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is based in Tanzania.

Somali pirates demand millions for hijacked ship. Somali pirates, who on Thursday hijacked a Ukrainian ship headed to Kenya, are now demanding $20 million, down from an earlier request for $35 million. The ship was transporting tanks and weapons to Mombasa (a Kenyan port) when the pirates took control of the ship near the coast of Somalia, reports CNN. Ukraine had sold the weapons (including 33 tanks, grenade launchers) to Kenya. The Kenyan government hasn’t had any contact with the pirates; the only way their demands have been made public is through interviews with the media. “The pirates are very clever and well-connected. They know the importance of using the media to put forward their side of the story,” said Rashid Abdi, an analyst with the International Crisis Group. But a Kenyan official warned the media against giving the hijackers attention. The media is “being used by terrorists who, on realizing they cannot get away with their plunder, are trying to draw attention from their criminal acts. Do not empower them by giving them the publicity they seek,” the government spokesman told CNN. Although the ship, Faina, is from Ukraine, members of the hijacked crew include citizens from Ukraine, Russia and Latvia. Pirates reportedly told town elders that one of the crew members died due to high blood pressure problems.

AIDS activists happy about Dr. Garlic’s demotion. Not too long after he was sworn in as president Thursday, South African leader Kgalema Motlanthe demoted the nation’s health minister to another position in the cabinet, reports CNN. AIDS activists couldn’t be happier. The former health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, gained her unpopularity (and the nickname “Dr. Garlic”) because she pushed remedies like garlic, lemon, and olive oil for the nation’s AIDS patients, instead of manufactured medicine. Members of an AIDS activist group, the Treatment Action Campaign, were so excited that they threw a party outside Parliament. They also held a news conference praising the decision Friday.