A European Maritime patrol airplane arrived on the scene shortly after receiving a distress call from the Ariella, he noted. After the plane verified the presence of pirates on the ship, nearby NATO Danish Special Forces approached and boarded the ship.
Special Forces members found the ship’s crew hiding in a compartment, unharmed. Both the Special Forces and the EU Naval Forces believe the pirates fled when the warship arrived.
They’re probably just concerned about recycling.
The Irish National Liberation Army has decommissioned its weapons, days before the body overseeing Northern Ireland paramilitary weapons ceases to exist.
The move took place in recent weeks and is expected to be confirmed on Monday by the INLA and General John de Chastelain, head of the IICD.
“If men decide to abandon the practice, it’s sure and certain that women will follow suit, because for the moment I’ve not seen in Mali a single woman come forward to say, ‘We have to circumcise our daughters,” doctor and parliamentary deputy Omar Mariko said.
Sprigg, an adjunct research professor in the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Arizona, led the technical review of the first global warming report issued by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1990.
In his address to the Thirteenth Annual Energy and Environment Expo, Sprigg took on the ClimateGate scandal and called for “serious reforms” of the global scientific community. He warned of a growing perception that “the IPCC is biased, conflicted, [and] pushing political agendas.”
Sprigg called for a new climate research agency supported not entirely by the government, but in conjunction with the private sector.
“We need to stick to our scientific principles,” Sprigg said, referring at least in part to the critical importance of sharing data with other scientists so that hypotheses and methodologies can be checked and double-checked. “We need to improve our peer preview process, and expand the stakeholders’ role to keep us all honest.”
Former Russian army officer Bout, 42, remains in custody in a Thai jail after the Bangkok Criminal Court refused in August to extradite him to the United States, where he is facing four terrorism-related charges and a possible life sentence.
“I was informed that my client had been asked to appear in court on February 16. However, I was not told why he had been summoned,” Thai lawyer Chamroen Panompakakom told RIA Novosti.
The European Parliament (EP) plans to discuss and take a position next Thursday on human rights situation in Venezuela following the closure of the private TV network RCTVI and the deaths of two students in protests carried out after the Venezuelan government decision.
Buzz, a kestrel falcon at the Air Force Academy, poses for a photo in the Academy mews Jan. 21, 2010. Buzz, the newest of the Academy’s 13 falcons, came to the Academy from the University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center. He’s named after the “Toy Story” character Buzz Lightyear. (U.S. Air Force photo/Bill Evans)
I see so few people smoking pipes today ...
Earlier this year, Congress passed and the President enacted a major tax increase on tobacco products as a way to pay for subsidizing health care for low-income children. The total cost of federal cigarette taxes went up 62 cents per pack to $1. But taxes on roll-your-own tobacco went up even higher, from $1.10 to $24.78 per pound. That’s a 2,250% increase.
THE wife of South Africa’s minister of state security, Siyabonga Cwele, has been arrested, charged with drug-trafficking. The corruption trial of Jackie Selebi, the country’s former chief of police and one-time Interpol boss, is to resume next month. The head of Armscor, the state defence-procurement company, was recently sacked for dishonesty. And the managing director of the freight-rail division of Trans- net, the state transport company, is fighting his suspension for an alleged serious breach of procurement regulations.
And so it goes on, one report of public-sector sleaze after another.
Hodge has abandoned her bid for re-election as a state representative, and her guilty plea on tax evasion ends her 14-year reign as a popular, if controversial, figure in Dallas politics.
With Hodge out of the race, Dallas lawyer Eric Johnson has a nearly unobstructed path to the Democratic nomination for District 100. And because there are no Republican challengers, his elevation to state representative is all but assured.
... that is unless she is also related to George Bush.
The most “transparent administration in history” has evidently arranged yet another rare closed-door deportation hearing for President Obama’s illegal alien aunt, even though the Justice Department’s immigration court manual—as well as a federal appellate court—says such proceedings should be open.
With the broader health care bill still perilously close to collapse, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to take a shot at the health insurance industry next week by scheduling a vote on a smaller bill to revoke its half-century-old exemption from antitrust laws.
The vote is part of her new two-track strategy to tackle things that won’t be included in a more sweeping bill — if Congress ever passes one — while giving her members something politically popular to vote on. The move also puts pressure on Republicans, the industry and wavering Democrats, who wish their leaders would abandon the push altogether.
Boulder Time