The hijacking of the Ekawat Nava 5 far out at sea; its apparent and immediate conversion to a “mother ship” for the pirates; the gunfight that led to its fiery nighttime sinking; and the harrowing tale of a lone surviving crewman illustrate the dangers and the legal undertow that surround many of the recent hijackings in East African waters.

The Ekawat Nava 5, with a crew of 16, was hijacked on the morning of Nov. 18, according to Wicharn Sirichaiekawat, the managing director of Sirichai Fisheries, which owns the boat.

By the time vote counting ended at 10:45 p.m., 75.5 percent of voters had said yes to more autonomy, and 23.5 percent said no, spokeswoman Emma Kristensen said in an e-mail.

About 1 percent of ballots were invalid or blank, she said.

Good weather was credited for the turnout of nearly 72 percent of the island’s 39,774 registered voters.

In a written statement, Premier Hans Enoksen welcomed the decision and praised Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

“Thank you for opening the doors of opportunity,” he said. “You will have a special place in the history of Greenland. Your defense of freedom and your understanding of democracy have played an important role in our achieving self-governance.”

The .22 calibre weapon was found during an early morning raid on a property near Naples.

Officers also seized bullet proof vests, drugs, ammunition and thousands of pounds in cash.

It was all part of an operation against the Camorra, the Naples-based mafia.

Fully loaded, the gun’s capable of firing four shots in quick succession through the antenna using buttons on the keypad as the trigger.

One man was arrested by detectives but others are thought to have escaped.

MPs on Wednesday decided to make the pact dependent on a national referendum - to be held in 2009 - after delaying by 24 hours their vote on the deal.

MPs will now vote on the wide-ranging accord on Thursday after reservations by Sunnis and opposition by Shias threatened to derail the agreement.

The accord has been subject to numerous revisions in an attempt to keep various political factions on board and push it through parliament with a respectable majority.

The pact now makes provision for Iraqi supervision of US forces and also meets demands for a clear exit timetable for the 150,000 US troops in Iraq.

The ship, owned by Amsterdam-based oil trader Trafigura, tried to get rid of its cargo of waste in Amsterdam but changed plans because it was too expensive. The ship then headed for Ivory Coast where the waste was dumped, allegedly killing at least 16 people and making thousands sick.

The UN envoy, Okechukwu Obinna Ibeanu, wants to talk to human rights organisations, academics, MPs and officials who were involved in the scandal. He will then report back to the UN committee on human rights.

Last month, two people were jailed in Ivory Coast for their role in dumping the waste. Other trials are pending in London and Amsterdam.

A Council of Europe investigative team is set to visit the “yellow house” in Albanian, where it is believed the organs of abducted Kosovo Serbs were harvested.

The team, led by CoE special investigator Dick Marty, will visit the house mentioned in former Hague Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte’s book, where it is believed abducted non-Albanians from Kosovo were taken to have their organs removed and sold on the black market. ...

... “The report, compiled by UN expert Jose Pablo Baraybar, was previously believed to be missing. Though not conclusive, it mapped traces of blood that could have been human in two downstairs rooms. Lying discarded in a nearby stream, the report said, was material ‘consistent with surgical overalls’, syringes, a handgun holster, pill containers and bottles, as well as four empty drug containers, including one that contained a muscle relaxant,” the Guardian writes.

The men rode motorcycles and used water pistols to spray female teachers and students on their way to school on 12 November. Most of the women were protected by their burqas, a head-to-toe covering, but one was seriously wounded in the face and eyes.

The men — identified only as Daniel P., 26 and Harun Can A., 23 — were among eight suspects whose homes were raided on Tuesday, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

A 19-year-old German citizen identified as Irfan P. was already in custody on separate charges before the morning raids in cities including Augsburg, Duesseldorf and Bremen, where investigators combed through the suspects’ computer equipment.

Prosecutors said the three Germans are accused of belonging to the Global Islamic Media Front and of supporting a foreign terrorist organization.

A new Cornell study, published online in Nature Geosciences, quantified the amount of black carbon in Australian soils and found that there was far more than expected, said Johannes Lehmann, the paper’s lead author and a Cornell professor of biogeochemistry. The survey was the largest of black carbon ever published.

As a result of global warming, soils are expected to release more carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere, which, in turn, creates more warming. Climate models try to incorporate these increases of carbon dioxide from soils as the planet warms, but results vary greatly when realistic estimates of black carbon in soils are included in the predictions, the study found. ...

... By entering realistic estimates of stocks of black carbon in soil from two Australian savannas into a computer model that calculates carbon dioxide release from soil, the researchers found that carbon dioxide emissions from soils were reduced by about 20 percent over 100 years, as compared with simulations that did not take black carbon’s long shelf life into account.

Hamdan was convicted of aiding al-Qaida in August and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison. He would be eligible for release in January with credit for time served.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the matter, said Monday that Hamdan will serve out the remainder of his sentence in Yemen.

Waleed Alshahari, who ovesees Guantanamo Bay issues for the Yemen Embassy in Washington, said he was surprised to learn plans for Hamdan’s release because there have been no new negotiation on the release of the 90 or so Yemeni detainees at the prison.

... Decades later, Klaus, the 67-year-old president of the Czech Republic — an iconoclast with a perfectly clipped mustache — continues to provoke strong reactions. He has blamed what he calls the misguided fight against global warming for contributing to the international financial crisis, branded Al Gore an “apostle of arrogance” for his role in that fight, and accused the European Union of acting like a Communist state.

Now the Czech Republic is about to assume the rotating presidency of the European Union and there is palpable fear that Klaus will embarrass the world’s biggest trading bloc and complicate its efforts to address the economic crisis and expand its powers. His role in the Czech Republic is largely ceremonial, but he remains a powerful force here, has devotees throughout Europe and delights in basking in the spotlight.

“Oh God, Vaclav Klaus will come next,” read a recent headline in the Austrian daily Die Presse, in an article anticipating the havoc he could wreak in a union of 470 million people already divided over its future direction.