Thursday, October 20, 2011

BREAKING NEWS Picture of moammor Gadhafi captured and wounded as he try to escape in a convoy

A mobile phone image allegedly showing the arrest of Libya's strongman Muammar Gaddafi after being captured in Sirte on 20 October 2011.


people are celebrating in tripol town as the news spread about the capture of Gadhafi in sirte a place where gadhaf was born

(Antagonistic reports) Gadhafi's death, capture

Reports: Gadhafi dead

 Conflicting reports surfaced Thursday that deposed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is dead or has been captured. Deafening celebrations erupted in Tripoli, but none of the reports could be independently verified.
Gadhafi was killed, AbdelHakim Bilhajj, head of the National Transitional Council's military arm in Tripoli announced live on Al-Jazeera Arabic Thursday. Gadhafi's death was also reported by National Transitional Council television station Al-Ahrar. It did not cite a source.
A cell phone photograph distributed by the news agency Agence France Presse appeared to show the arrest of a bloodied Gadhafi. CNN could not independently verify the authenticity of the image.
Gadhafi's capture was also reported by Libyan television, citing the Misrata Military Council.
Earlier, a National Transitional Council military spokesman told CNN that reports of Gadhafi's capture are only rumors. Abdurahman Bousin added that it's doubtful that Gadhafi was even in or around his hometown of Sirte.
A "big fish" has been captured in Libya, but Libyan Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam couldn't say with certainty whether it was Gadhafi.
The U.S. State Department could not confirm any of the reports about Gadhafi's capture or killing, a spokeswoman said.
In another major development, revolutionary fighters said they wrested control of Sirte Thursday. And NATO said it is going to convene soon for a meeting to discuss ending its operation in Libya, a source told CNN.
Earlier, NATO aircraft struck two pro-Gadhafi military vehicles in the Sirte vicinity.
Without foolproof evidence of Gadhafi's capture, it was unclear whether Thursday would turn out to be the biggest day in recent Libyan history. Statements made by representatives of Libya's new leadership in the past have not always turned out to be true.
Still, Libyans erupted in joy. Horns blared and celebratory gunfire burst into the air in Tripoli.
Gadhafi ruled Libya with an iron fist for 42 years. The mercurial leader came to power in a bloodless coup against King Idris in 1969, when he was just an army captain.
But a February uprising evolved into civil war that resulted in ousting the strongman from power.
Many were waiting for photographs as proof of Gadhafi's capture.
Earlier, anti-Gadhafi fighters said they had taken control of the last holdout of loyalists in Sirte. They said they were still battling pockets of resistance, but they were in control of District 2.
Sirte has been the big prize for Libya's NTC, waiting for the city to fall to officially declare liberation.
Most residents abandoned Sirte in the many weeks of bloody battles that raged there. Revolutionary forces have fought Gadhafi's men street by street, cornering the last vestiges of the old regime to that last district.
Gadhafi, wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, for alleged crimes against humanity has not been seen in public in months. Many believed he was hiding out in Sirte after rebel forces marched into Tripoli in August.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Speaker Makinda to address Asian and African Women’s Conference

Professor Lee welcomes Madam Speaker (left) as she arrives at the Incheon International Airport to attend the Asian and African Women’s Conference (AAWC) 2011 at the Sookmyung Women’s Univesity. Five other African countries to participate.
At the Millenium Seoul Hilton Hotel Madam Speaker is met by the chief coordinator of the AAWC Ms. Soo Young Song (left).

This is the Incheon International Airport in Seoul, classified as the best airport in the world
Professor Kisuk Lee (left) leads professors and members of staff from Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul, South Korea to welcome the Speaker of the Parliament of the United Republic of Tanzania Hon. Anne Makinda who arrived here today by the Sookmyung University’s invitation.(Photos by Prosper Minja-Bunge)

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Steve Jobs dies:The founder of Apple




Steve Jobs, the mastermind behind Apple's iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac and iTunes, has died, Apple said. Jobs was 56.
"We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today," read a statement by Apple's board of directors. "Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts."
The homepage of Apple's website this evening switched to a full-page image of Jobs with the text, "Steve Jobs 1955-2011."

Monday, October 3, 2011

Mark Zuckerberg: I do too use Facebook 'all day long'

 Mark Zuckerberg
is always a great relief when CEOs love their products. It is an even greater relief when they actually use those products just as much as those people out of whom they make money.
So, somewhere on the social graph where endearing meets heartening is where you'll find the notion that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg really does spend his day just like any other office worker--on Facebook.
This stark revelation emerged after Zuckerberg responded  to a post from Awesm developer Jeremiah Cohick.t
Cohick had originally slapped this thoughtful brick onto his Statement of Status: "In the same way drug dealers don't use the product they sell, I doubt Zuckerberg is on Facebook all day. Visionaries don't idle online."
I am not sure how well Cohick knows drug dealers or, indeed, how well he knows visionaries. I have a feeling that there are some of both categories who behave in ways that aren't necessarily predictably capitalist.
However, Zuckerberg decided to set him straight, when he replied to this thought: "No I really do use Facebook all day long."
(Credit: Screenshot: Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

Cohick was subsequently at pains to point out just how awesm he believes Zuckerberg to be.
Commenting on his own status, he explained that he was in awe of Zuckerberg's achievements, addressing His Awesomeness directly: "You, and many who use Facebook, bring an interesting offline life online which adds to offline life in a virtuous cycle that negates whether one is on or offline. That's awesome."

Awesome, indeed.
It seems that TruthfulTech was first to notice this seminal exchange, one that surely has philosophers already musing as to its meaning.
Could it be that Zuckerberg really does spend all his days looking for new friends, defriending those he doesn't love any more and generally scouring Facebook for news, videos and inspiration?
Or could it be that what Zuckerberg was really implying was that he uses Facebookers all day long, but he has somehow conflated the site with those who use it into one Transformer-like entity?
I mention this because Facebook certainly has, yet again, something of a sincerity struggle going on.
This comes after a fledgling site called Uncrunched offered a startling contrast between what Facebook says about tracking people when not on its site and the patents it applies for-- ones that most definitely suggest it has a vast interest in doing a lot of tracking people when not on its site. (The application reads, in part: "A method is described for tracking information about the activities of users of a social networking system while on another domain.")
So one might be forgiven for imagining that Zuckerberg exaggerates just a little.
On the other hand, what else is he going to do all day? Sit in boring meetings? Code? Or, um, talk to people? What would be the point of that?


Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20114579-71/zuckerberg-i-do-too-use-facebook-all-day-long/#ixzz1ZlHiJ5Br

(NASA) Rover may tackle Kilimanjaro-sized mound on Mars

A mound of sedimentary rock rises nearly 5 kilometres high inside Mars's Gale crater (Image: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems)
A mound of sedimentary rock rises nearly 5 kilometres high inside Mars's Gale crater (Image: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems)

Talk about a tough road to climb. On 24 June, mission scientists endorsed two landing sites for NASA's next Mars rover from a shortlist of four. One of the two would see Curiosity tackle a mound of rocks nearly as high as mount Kilimanjaro.
Where to land the $2.5 billion robot, due to blast off in November, has been debated for years. NASA will now mull over the mission scientists' recommendations but is not obliged to follow either of them.
One pick is the 150-kilometre-wide Gale crater (pictured), which hosts a 5-kilometre-high mound. The mound contains clays and sulphate minerals that require water to form, suggesting it was laid down in layers as sediment when water filled the crater over a period of a few hundred million years, beginning about 3.8 billion years ago.
"Because it's a bowl, it has been collecting this evidence in the sediment as to what's been happening to Mars over time," says Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St Louis, who participated in earlier discussions about possible landing sites.

Existence of life in Mars was once a hypohethesis (Mars Rover sIntroduction)

One of NASA's two Mars Rovers (Image: NASA)
One of NASA's two Mars Rovers (Image: NASA)

In space, a year can be a long time. Back at the beginning 2004, the idea that the Red planet had once been covered with rivers, lakes and seas was just a hypothesis. By 2005, two quad-bike-sized, roving laboratories had collected abundant evidence on the ground that turned the idea into an established fact, including stratified sediments, and minerals that probably formed in the presence of water.
At the beginning of 2004 it was scientific heresy even to talk of the possibilityof life existing today on Mars and previous missions had been ill-equipped to detect it. But with the proof that water might have lasted for aeons - plus evidence from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter that there was recently methane in the atmosphere - it became a subject for serious discussion. Water is a pre-requisite for life as we know it, and, on Earth at least, most methane is produced by living organisms.

Tutu disappointed by Dalai Lama visa reaction

Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu
The Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu are old friends
 
Pressure mounted Friday on a reluctant South Africa to grant Tibet's spiritual leader a visa as a..

Pressure mounted Friday on a reluctant South Africa to grant Tibet's spiritual leader a visa as a disappointed Desmond Tutu said he expects his 80th birthday gift will be "no Dalai Lama".
The retired archbishop had invited his fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate and close friend to give an inaugural peace lecture on October 8 as part of a three-day programme to celebrate his birthday.
But he said he believed South Africa, which barred his entry two years ago over fears of angering trade partner China, was holding off an announcement to avoid negative criticism.
"I think my birthday gift is going to be: no Dalai Lama," Tutu told the weekly Mail&Guardian.
"It's unlikely that they'll give him a visa. If they were going to, they would have done so already. I think they're going to hold on so there's little time for people to get nasty against the government. It's sad."
Civil rights groups, including Tutu's Peace Centre, on Friday launched a campaign urging the government to immediately grant the Dalai Lama permission to travel to South Africa and will hold a night vigil on Monday.
"We are embarrassed by the decision and conduct of the South African government -- which is reminiscent of apartheid South Africa," they state in a petition to be submitted to President Jacob Zuma.
Pretoria has refused to say if it will allow the Dalai Lama after its 2009 ban caused an outcry. The issue was not mentioned in a statement Friday after Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe wrapped up his trip to China.
"We're still hoping against hope that he'll be here," Tutu told the newspaper.
"He draws so many people and, I can tell you, I'm not jealous," he then quipped.
After campaigning against white-minority rule, Tutu is seen as the country's moral compass and has remained a frequent critic of the democratic government.
"I am not their blue-eyed boy," he said when asked if he could use his influence to win over authorities.
His birthday celebrations start Thursday with the launch of a new biography, followed by a public church service the next day. The Dalai Lama is slated to give a lecture at the Peace Centre on Friday to wrap up events.
Human Rights Watch urged South Africa to grant the visa.
"For the government to block a leader who supported South Africa's struggles is not only to deny its own history, but it raises questions about whether the government looks to Pretoria, or to Beijing, for some of its domestic policy decisions," said Daniel Bekele, HRW Africa director.
"There are few better ways to honour Archbishop Tutu, and that for which he and South Africa stand, than by acting on principle rather than perceived political expediency," said Bekele.
The University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, which has also invited the Dalai Lama to speak later in October, added to the pressure.
"We should welcome the opportunity and allow all voices to be heard in our democracy -- a right for which we fought with our lives," said university principal Loyiso Nongxa.
Foreign ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela on Friday described Tutu as someone "we respect profoundly" but told independent television eNews that "there is no decision as yet".
Motlanthe ended his Chinese trip with talks with President Hu Jintao, after sealing trade and investment deals during his four-day visit.

Mugabe 'in Singapore for medical check'

 

Mugabe has prostate cancer, according to WikiLeaks (© 2009 AFP)

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has flown to Singapore for a medical check-up, his seventh..

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has flown to Singapore for a medical check-up, his seventh journey to see doctors in the Asian city-state this year, an independent weekly newspaper reported on Sunday.
"He went for a review following an eye operation he had earlier on. He will be back tomorrow (Sunday)," information minister Webster Shamhu was quoted as saying in The Standard weekly newspaper.
Mugabe, 87, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, has prostate cancer, according to US diplomatic cables released by the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks.
The leaked cable alleged that Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono told the then-US ambassador James McGee in 2008 that Mugabe has prostate cancer that has metastasized and "that will cause his death in three to five years."
"According to Gono, Mugabe's doctor recommended he cut back on his activities," the leaked cable said.
Gono has denied the WikiLeaks report.
Mugabe has not commented on the WikiLeaks reports, but in the past he has scoffed at reports that his health is deteriorating.
The veteran ruler is in a coalition government with his long-time rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, after 2008 elections failed violently. Mugabe has already been nominated by his ZANU-PF party as its presidential candidate in elections, expected possibly next year.

Comesa, SADC, EAC now planning regional infrastructure bonds

An aerial view of the port of Mombasa. Photo/FILE.
An aerial view of the port of Mombasa. Photo/FILE.

Municipal bonds are issued by local authorities and are seen as a cheaper and safer way to raise cash for big infrastructure projects such as roads, railways and construction of housing.
To successfully list a bond in the market, the issuer is required to meet key financial benchmarks including sustainable debt levels, positive cashflows and a profitability record.
They are considered public debt instruments and are usually guaranteed by central governments. City Council of Nairobi is said to be working on a Ksh100 billion ($1.1 billion) municipal bond to be floated in the local market to fund building of roads, water and health infrastructure.

Municipal bonds are issued by local authorities and are seen as a cheaper and safer way to raise cash for big infrastructure projects such as roads, railways and construction of housing.
To successfully list a bond in the market, the issuer is required to meet key financial benchmarks including sustainable debt levels, positive cashflows and a profitability record.
They are considered public debt instruments and are usually guaranteed by central governments. City Council of Nairobi is said to be working on a Ksh100 billion ($1.1 billion) municipal bond to be floated in the local market to fund building of roads, water and health infrastructure.
Africa’s three key trading blocs are planning to float joint infrastructure and municipal bonds.
While the officials would not give details on the size of the bonds, they estimate it would cost the region about $93 billion to fix its infrastructure in the next decade as members seek to join the ranks of middle-income economies.
The regional economic bodies are working together to raise funds for key infrastructure projects on the Northern, Central, Lamu and Djibouti corridors.
Comesa Secretary General Sindiso Ngwenya said the bonds could be floated in 2012.
Issuing municipal and infrastructure bonds across the region would offer an opportunity for investors who are looking for safe investment bets as stockmarkets turn bearish on the back of growing uncertainty over the growth of local economies as the US and Eurozone slow down.
In most stockmarkets in the region, shares and benchmark indices have been falling over the past few weeks as investors worried by the world’s troubled economic outlook and the prospect of their returns being eroded by sharply weakening currencies take cover in less-risky instruments like bonds.
Kenya has already raised nearly $1 billion through infrastructure bonds over the past four years to fund road, energy, water and irrigation projects.
Kenya’s Central Bank last week began selling a 12-year infrastructure bond valued at $195 million, targeted at Kenyans living abroad.
Infrastructure is one of the biggest challenges facing the region, given the huge investment needed to build roads, ports, railways and airports as well as water and energy projects.
Shift in financing
Issuing regional bonds will mark a big shift for the regional blocs, which have been banking on donor financing to fund infrastructure projects as huge budget deficits left governments unable to meet such expenditures.
Municipal bonds are issued by local authorities and are seen as a cheaper and safer way to raise cash for big infrastructure projects such as roads, railways and construction of housing.
To successfully list a bond in the market, the issuer is required to meet key financial benchmarks including sustainable debt levels, positive cashflows and a profitability record.
They are considered public debt instruments and are usually guaranteed by central governments. City Council of Nairobi is said to be working on a Ksh100 billion ($1.1 billion) municipal bond to be floated in the local market to fund building of roads, water and health infrastructure.

Jenerali Ulimwengu


If only the TPDF could shoot down all the problems afflicting Tanzania today

Recently, Tanzanians have been experiencing the proverbial interesting times of the Chinese curse.
Even the regularity of strange occurrences, bizarre behaviour and weird statements from some of our rulers has not lessened the menace posed thereby.
To wit: In the middle of this vast nation there sits a small patch of country that some time ago attained parliamentary constituency status, meaning it earned the right to periodically organise a rowdy circus called an election campaign to choose one man or woman to represent its people in Dodoma.
Igunga — for that’s what that dusty, windswept moonscape is called — would have had no way of arresting the nation’s gaze in these times of power cuts, sugar shortages and escalating fuel prices, except that the man who has represented the little place for close to 20 years
recently resigned his seat and other positions, claiming his party, the mighty CCM, was bedevilled by dirty and divisive politics.
Apart from the tsunami effect of that resignation on the ruling party, which found itself forced to contest a by-election when it is at arguably its weakest moment, an expectant atmosphere was created by the prospect of the first political fight since the general election of last year, which left CCM with a black eye and the main opposition, Chadema, with a new ambition.
We all expected the campaign would be tough. But few people thought that a district commissioner, say, would be subjected to a crude form of citizen’s arrest by Chadema; nor that a campaigning Member of Parliament would climb onto the speaker’s dais with a clearly visible pistol at his hip, nor still that shots would be fired and vehicles rammed into gathered crowds.
To wit: Sugar has become scarce in the whole of the East African region, and smuggling is ripe.
No one seems to be quite sure what causes this widespread shortage, but my understanding is that mafia syndicates may have more than an interest in sweetened tea. No matter, the fact is that the Tanzanian police have been accused of aiding and abetting the smuggling.
A very senior government official has come up with a brilliant idea: Since the police have obviously let us down, the government will mandate the venerated Tanzania People’s Defence Force, TPDF, to track down the smugglers.
Never mind that the TPDF is not a civil force, not versed in the delicate art of arresting suspects: These guys shoot to kill, after all. The fact that the police, whose job it is to arrest smugglers, have apparently failed to do so, has not attracted any remedial action on the force itself.
To wit: Crucially important drugs on the market have been discovered to be fake, and they seem to have been there for quite some time, giving one goose pimples just to think how many people these fakes have killed while officialdom watched.
To wit: In the Igunga campaign, the three main parties contesting the seat have taken to the air, crisscrossing the constituency, awing villagers who flock to ogle at choppers that are probably not supplied by the sugar mafias but by some rich guys nonetheless.
To wit: A friend of mine lost a daughter recently. She had complications from malaria, developed a most terrible and excruciating condition called Black Water Fever. The parents of the 25-year-old did everything they could to save their beloved daughter, but in the end they had to watch, helpless, as their baby faded, and slipped through their fingers.
The Igunga campaign was probably not to blame for the young woman’s death, and to blame the sugar mafias would be farfetched. The drugs rackets seem more relevant, but there’s nobody the military could have shot.

Source The East African

Search for missing tourist intensifies



A Kenyan naval ship patrols the Lamu coastline, on Sunday. On Saturday, suspected pirates from Somalia attacked Manda Island and kidnapped a disabled, elderly French woman.


Kenyan and French security teams may be mobilising to attack bases used by Al-Shabaab fighters in the Southern Somalia after the militia group abducted a French tourist.
Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula on Sunday said the Government would not sit and watch as Al-Shabaab continues to launch attacks on its citizens and foreign tourists.
Wetangula declared that Kenyan forces have the ability and resources of wiping out the militia.

“We have since decided to follow them (Al-Shabaab) to Somalia going by recent incidents in the Kenyan territory,” he said.
The latest efforts to rescue French tourist Ms Marie Dideu comes barely a month after two Britons, David and his wife Judith Tebutt were attacked in Lamu, leading to the death of the former and Judith’s abduction.
Tourism Minister Najib Balala also announced the Kenyan security forces are doing everything they can to rescue the tourist.
“We are using all means to rescue the woman, including sending local leaders to negotiate for the release of the tourist,” said Balala.
On Monday, Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere leads a team of security officers who will join Balala in a delegation to assess the level of security in the Lamu area.
Over the last two months, armed bandits have used speedboats in the middle of the night to grab two foreigners before escaping with them into Somalia.
The Government says it has increased security in the area but it is not clear why it has taken the kidnapping of the two women and killing of one man for such belated action to be taken.
Travel advisory
“This is an international issue and we will require the support of everyone instead of giving travel advisories,” Balala said, adding that there was urgent need to collectively address the issue although the Government was doing everything possible to rescue its visitors.
“We have sent mediators into Somalia as we try to find a lasting solution to deal with the problem.”
Last evening, Aljazeera TV also reported that French forces based in Djibouti had been seen leaving their base and heading south towards the Somalia coast.
The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office last evening revised its travel advisory in Kenya by asking its nationals not to travel to within 150km of the Kenya-Somalia border, widening it from the previously stated 60km.
It also emerged that Kenyan defence forces engaged Al-Shabaab militia in a fierce gun battle in the Indian Ocean waters on Saturday, as they tried to rescue the French tourist.
A statement from the Department of Defence Headquarters Public Affairs office said Kenya Navy officers faced-off with heavily armed members of the militant group off the Manda Island, in Lamu.
“We can confirm our officers were engaged in an exchange of gunfire in the thick of night against Al-Shabaab fighters and we killed two in the process of combat,” said the statement.
The statement, however, said nothing about two missing Navy fighters whose whereabouts sources said remained unknown. But other sources from within the armed forces indicated a boat belonging to the Navy capsized during the battle.
On Sunday, a Kenya Navy officer said: “It was heavy fighting between the Kenya Navy officers and the militants. The Kenyan defence forces gave chase until a place called Odo but the fighters disappeared to Gurukavu area in Somali.
“The exchange forced the military officers to engage the Kenya Air Force in repulsing the attackers, but we were acting sparingly because we did not want to endanger the life of the tourist Ms Marie Dideu.”
Boat capsized
The Department of Defence (DoD) disputed claims a boat capsized after the militia sank it, and instead blamed the stormy waters for the mishap.
A Navy officer who was caught in the crossfire was taken to Mombasa for a medical check-up in what a statement from the public relations office termed “normal treatment after an operation.”
A third sailor who is reported to be in the rank of Major sustained injuries after the inflatable vessel they were in capsized following rough weather in the Indian Ocean.
Authorities were tight lipped over the incident with several calls made to the DoD spokesman, John Mwandikwa going unanswered.
Meanwhile, tension continued to build on the Lamu archipelago with several locals and investors in the tourism industry calling for beefing up of security.
Questions were also asked about the capability of Kenya Navy Base at Navy Island, a short distance from the scene of the abduction.
The state of the Navy’s patrol boats was brought to the fore as well as their safety and that of military officers manning them, after reports of missing officers.
The suspected Al-Shabaab militants reportedly attacked and sunk the Kenyan vessel as they neared the abductors.
Questions were directed at operations command with sources at the Navy base saying the use of US-made boats required specialised training. The boats were acquired about fours years ago and this was the second fatal accident in which they were involved.
In December 2008, a similar accident occurred and a navy officer died during a routine patrol.
Injured officerOne of the officers injured in the Saturday night standoff was transported to Nairobi for further treatment. On Sunday, local boat operators from Lamu Island decried the insecurity following incursions by suspected Al-Shabaab militia.
Mr Babu Mzee, a chef onboard a sail dhow that specialises in island- hopping cruises in the Lamu archipelago, said they lost their vessel to unknown people after it disappeared while at anchor last Saturday.
“We were to take a group of American students on a study tour of Lamu to Kipungani Resort on Saturday morning but found out that it was not at anchorage,” he said.
He said they had reported the matter to the police who were investigating.
The local Provincial Administration in Lamu was holed up in a meeting at the Lamu Palace Hotel, with area DC Stephen Ikua chairing a crisis session.
British High Commission’s Political Counsellor, Mr Michael Nevin flew to Lamu and also attended the meeting.
However, Mombasa and Coast Tourist Association chairman, Mr Mohamed Hersi reiterated that Kenya was still a safe destination.
He said that the French woman who lived as a resident by virtue of her engagement to a local, was “open to risk like ordinary Kenyans.”
“It should not escape the fact that Kenya borders Somalia which is a lawless border state. Even the United Nations has done little to try and reverse the trend there,’’ said Hersi, who is also Regional General Manager for Sarova Hotels-Coast.

Source The Standard

Somali pirates free Greek-owned cargo ship

MOGADISHU Somali pirates have freed a Greek-owned bulk carrier held off the Horn of Africa coast for seven months after a multi-million dollar ransom was air-dropped to secure its release, a pirate source and local maritime expert said on Friday.
'We have received a $3.5 million ransom and abandoned the ship,' a pirate who identified himself as Hussein told Reuters by telephone from the coastal village of Ras Bina.
Pirates hijacked the Panamanian-flagged MV Dover in late February about 260 nautical miles north east of Salalah in Oman, taking the 23-strong crew hostage.
'The MV Dover is free. She is currently steaming out to safe waters,' confirmed Andrew Mwangura, maritime editor of the Somalia Report and a former regional maritime official.
Mwangura said there was no immediate word on the crew's well-being.
Somali pirates in the past have typically not harmed crew members during ransom negotiations with ship owners, but shipping companies say the armed gangs are becoming increasingly violent.
The lawless nation has been mired in violence and awash with weapons since the overthrow of a dictator two decades ago, allowing piracy to flourish off the lawless nation's shores.
Preying on merchant vessels and pleasure boats, the pirates rake in tens of millions of dollars a year in ransoms.
Source: Reuters
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