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Floating treasure, tempting sea. World's biggest ship hijacking by pirates off coast of Somalia for $3 mil ransom
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A parachute dropped by a small aircraft is observed by the U.S. Navy as it drops over the MV Sirius Star during an apparent payment via a parachuted container to pirates holding the Sirius Star off the coast of Somalia, January 9, 2009. Somali pirates then freed the Saudi supertanker seized in the world's biggest ship hijacking for a $3 million ransom - but five drowned when their boat capsized as they were making off with their share.
The crew of the hijacked Ukrainian merchant vessel MV Faina stand on the deck, under the watch of armed Somali pirates on November 9 after a US Navy request to check on their health and welfare, at sea off the coast of Somalia.
In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, ransom money is dropped near the Ukrainian cargo ship MV Faina while under observation by a U.S. Navy ship February 4, 2009 off the coast of Somalia near Hobyo. Pirates did not leave the ship until February 5. read more »
May 2, 2008 spectacular photo: eruption of Chaiten volcano in Chile which had been dormant for thousands of years
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Carlos F. Gutierrez, a Patagonia Press for Diario La Tercera photographer based in Chile, has won the first prize of the Nature Singles category of the World Press Photo Contest with this photo of Chaiten volcano eruption, Chile, taken May 2, 2008. A cloud of debris soared as high as 20 miles (32 km) into the air and was kept aloft by the pressure of constant eruptions for weeks, covering towns in neighboring Argentina with volcanic ash.
It again spewed a vast cloud of ash in February in what appeared to be a partial collapse of its cone. Television footage showed a could of ash billowing into the sky over the town of Chaiten, which lies about six miles (10 km) from the crater. Authorities evacuated about 160 people from the area. Most of the town’s 4,500 residents were evacuated last year after the volcano, dormant for thousands of years, erupted.
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Photos courtesy of Reuters
Original Source: Vancouver Sun
3-year-old little boy bows head to his father in line with soldiers deployed as part of Massachusetts National Guard
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Picture of three-year-old Morgan Riddick saying goodbye to his father who was being deployed during a ceremony of the 772nd Military Police Company, Massachusetts National Guard on Taunton Green. Taken by John Tlumacki, this photo was the Overall Winner in the annual Boston Press Photographers Association competition, and also won 1st Place in General News.
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Photos courtesy of John Tlumacki/Globe Staff
Original Source: Boston Globe
Protesters in Berlin rage at economic plight by torching expensive cars - symbols of German wealth and power
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While youths in Athens protest by throwing Molotov cocktails, in Paris by toppling barricades, and in Budapest by hurling eggs at politicians, protesters in Berlin rage at their economic plight by targeting the most expensive cars -- symbols of German wealth and power. At least 29 vehicles were destroyed in arson attacks this year, most of them luxury cars, according to police. The number is already about 30 percent of the total for 2008. The latest to go up in flames was a Porsche, on Feb. 14, two days after a Mercedes was set alight in a public car park.
A group calling itself BMW -- the initials stand for Movement for Militant Resistance in German -- has claimed responsibility for several attacks in left-wing magazines and Web sites, police spokesman Bernhard Schodrowski said. One-third of the incidents are classed as “political,” prompting officers to assign a special unit to investigate, Schodrowski said. No arrests have been made. Schodrowski attributed the arson to “a protest against the world economy and rising rents.”
German unemployment began to rise last November after almost three years of declines. Deutsche Bank AG Chief Economist Norbert Walter predicts the German economy, Europe’s biggest, may shrink by more than 5 percent this year. The worst recession since World War II is fueling anger among youths across Europe who “perceive their future as rather precarious,” said Margit Mayer, a politics professor at Berlin’s Free University.
Hero in Our Life: with seconds from an oncoming train, one man risked everything to save a woman he'd never met
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Lisa Donath was running late. Heading down the sidewalk toward her subway stop in Manhattan's Washington Heights neighbor- hood, she decided to skip her usual espresso. By the time she got to the platform, Donath felt faint-maybe it hadn't been a good idea to give blood the night before, she thought. She leaned heavily against a post close to the tracks. Several yards away, Ismael "Mel" Feneque, 43, and his girlfriend, Melina Gonzalez, found a spot close to where the front of the train would stop.
When he heard the scream, followed by someone yelling, "Oh, my God, she fell in!" Feneque didn't hesitate. Yanking off the bag he had slung across his six-three frame, he jumped down to the tracks and ran some 40 feet toward the body sprawled facedown on the rails. "No! Not you!" his girlfriend screamed after him. She was right to be alarmed. By the time Feneque reached Donath, he could "feel the vibration on the tracks and see the light coming into the tunnel," he remembers. "The train was maybe 20 seconds from the station." In that instant, Feneque gave himself a mission: I'm going to get her out, and then I'm going to get myself out, ASAP. I'm not going to let myself get killed here. read more »
Sea gypsies: the Samah who live in the Sulawesi Sea off Malaysia's state of Sabah
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(Above) Two boys from a community commonly known as sea gypsies paddle their boat close to their home.
The Samah are an indigenous ethnic group from Malaysia and the Philippines who live a sea-based lifestyle in the Sulawesi Sea off Malaysia's state of Sabah.
The Sabah are one of a number of groups collectively known as Bajau, or sea gypsies.
Although sea gypsies are Muslims, they also revere the gods of the sea and make offerings when a large catch is brought in.
Originally the sea gypsies lived a nomadic lifestyle in boats. Nowadays most live in small communities, building houses on stilts in the coastal shallows without fresh water or electricity.
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Australian wildlife rescuers and 100+ island volunteers race to save 200 stranded whales and dolphins off Tasmania
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Australian wildlife rescuers were using jetskis and small boats today to try to save nearly 200 pilot whales and a small pod of dolphins beached on an island between the mainland and Tasmania.
Rescuers said only 54 of the 194 whales stranded on King Island had survived, and seven dolphins were still alive. It is the fourth beaching incident near Tasmania in recent months.
Rescuers dug trenches in the sand to channel water close to the whales as volunteers doused them with water and draped wet fabric over their bodies to keep them cool. More than 100 volunteers used stretchers to carry dolphins into the shallows, and other officials used small boats and a jetski to pull whales out to sea.
Whale strandings happen periodically in Tasmania during their migration to and from Antarctic waters, but scientists do not know why it happens. It is unusual, however, for whales and dolphins to get stranded together. read more »
