A 41-year-old Somali woman from the Vollsmose Estate has been evicted from a city bus for refusing to bare her face to the bus driver, according to Fyens Stiftstidende.
The case has emerged in the wake of a similar episode in Århus this week.
For Amina Farah Suleiman, it was the fourth time in a few months that she has been evicted from a bus in Odense. Her Muslim niqab dress code only permits a small opening for the eyes.
See face
According to Amina Farah Suleiman the driver told her he could not see who she was and refused to accept her season ticket. She ignored him after which she was ordered off the bus.
“I will not drive unless you get out. Out of the bus. Now!” Amina Farah Suleiman quoted the driver as saying.
“I was very angry and began to cry,” she said.
Not good
The Chairman of Fynbus Torben Andersen, who is also a Socialist People’s Party local counsellor, says the bus driver’s reaction was unsatisfactory.
“I don’t think the judgement shown in this case was good enough,” he says but adds that the Board is also responsible as there are no clear guidelines as to how drivers should react when faced with fully-veiled Muslim women who will not show their faces.
“This is a grey area where the Board has not said exactly what it wants. But I have asked CEO Carsten Hyldborg to make sure that we have proposals for rules at the next Board meeting so that it will be possible to use a season ticket when you are veiled,” says Andersen.
Danish People’s Party
The Fynbus Board may not agree with the driver’s rejection of Amina Farah Suleiman, but the Danish People’s Party Local Counsellor Alex Ahrendtsen does.
“The driver did the right thing and I hope that the Fynbus Board and management uphold the decision. Anything else would be grotesque. We live in Denmark, and in Denmark you show your face,” Ahrendtsen says.
Transport Minister
Transport Minister Lars Barfoed (Cons) says that if a person does not wish to show her face, then she should buy another type of ticket rather than a season card, and accept the extra costs involved.
“You can buy a regular cash ticket or a punchable ticket coupon,” he suggests.
Source: POLITIKEN.DK
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Seychelles deploys troops after pirate attacks
Security forces have deployed to outer islands of the Seychelles archipelago after a second vessel flying the Indian Ocean nation's flag was seized by Somali pirates, the army chief said on Thursday.
Pirates hijacked the oceanographic research cruiser Indian Ocean Explorer this week near Seychelles' island of Assumption with seven locals on board. Several weeks ago, pirates seized the yacht Serenity with three people on board. "We have doubled the strength of our forces there and given the coastguards the necessary instructions. Our forces are ready for any eventualities," said Brigadier Leopold Payet.
The Seychelles archipelago covers more than 1.3 million square km (500,000 square miles) of the Western Indian Ocean although total land area is 445 square km.
Navies from around the world have sent warships to the perilous waters off Somalia to shield vessels plying the busy shipping lanes linking Asia to Europe.
Two European-owned tankers were seized within 24 hours last last month and are heading to Somali coastal havens. The pirates typically demand ransoms and release the ships and crew unharmed once they have been paid.
While the number of successful hijackings this year has fallen from a year earlier, there are near daily attempts and some gunmen have shifted their focus to more remote waters north of Madagascar and near the Seychelles.
Government sources said the Indian Ocean Explorer crew were safe and they believed the vessel was heading to Somalia.
"We will act within the limits of what we can do, and within the limits of all international assistance that can be mobilised, to try to secure the release of all these people on board the Indian Ocean Explorer and the ones taken some time back on the Serenity," the government said in a statement.
"We strongly condemn any act of aggression against our citizens, property and territory," it said. (Editing by David Clarke and Philippa Fletcher) (for recent piracy incidents, double-click on [nL2564857]).
Source: Reuters
Pirates hijacked the oceanographic research cruiser Indian Ocean Explorer this week near Seychelles' island of Assumption with seven locals on board. Several weeks ago, pirates seized the yacht Serenity with three people on board. "We have doubled the strength of our forces there and given the coastguards the necessary instructions. Our forces are ready for any eventualities," said Brigadier Leopold Payet.
The Seychelles archipelago covers more than 1.3 million square km (500,000 square miles) of the Western Indian Ocean although total land area is 445 square km.
Navies from around the world have sent warships to the perilous waters off Somalia to shield vessels plying the busy shipping lanes linking Asia to Europe.
Two European-owned tankers were seized within 24 hours last last month and are heading to Somali coastal havens. The pirates typically demand ransoms and release the ships and crew unharmed once they have been paid.
While the number of successful hijackings this year has fallen from a year earlier, there are near daily attempts and some gunmen have shifted their focus to more remote waters north of Madagascar and near the Seychelles.
Government sources said the Indian Ocean Explorer crew were safe and they believed the vessel was heading to Somalia.
"We will act within the limits of what we can do, and within the limits of all international assistance that can be mobilised, to try to secure the release of all these people on board the Indian Ocean Explorer and the ones taken some time back on the Serenity," the government said in a statement.
"We strongly condemn any act of aggression against our citizens, property and territory," it said. (Editing by David Clarke and Philippa Fletcher) (for recent piracy incidents, double-click on [nL2564857]).
Source: Reuters
Somalia's Struggling Success Story
In 1998, Puntland declared that its territory should be treated as an autonomous state. However, unlike its neighbor Somaliland and bordering Ethiopia, a self-proclaimed and secessionist state to the west, Puntland maintains that it does not aspire to international endorsement as an independent government.
It strongly affirms that it wants to remain an integral part of the Somali Republic: Puntland residents refuse to refer to themselves as Puntlanders, but call themselves Somalis. The majority of Somaliland’s residents defiantly refer to themselves as Somalilanders.
The first Puntland president was Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed who served three years in the position until 2001; he became Somalia’s president in October 2004, resigning in December 2008 following a bitter dispute with the former prime minister Nor Hassan Hussein.
Puntland has emerged largely unscathed from the perennial violence that has engulfed much of southern Somalia, although there have been some spates of hostility mainly with neighboring Somaliland over disputed territories including the Sool and Sanaag regions.
There has also been some bloodshed during several usually brief flareups of clan fighting and political power struggles.
Most of the people in the region come from the same clan – the Majarteen clan of Abdullahi Yusuf, the former president of Somalia's transitional federal government.
Puntland’s attempts to sign an oil exploration agreement with the Australian Stock Exchange (SAX) without authorization from Somali government caused a heated dispute between former prime minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi and the former president Yusuf after Ghedi rejected the agreement saying, “it is not regional topic but a national one.”
The exploration for minerals, oil and gas in the main resources areas of Dharoor and Nugaal Valley has drawn criticism from within Puntland, Somalia and abroad as the minerals, oil and gas economy has become an engine powering conflict and war in northern Somalia.
Since exploration began, Puntland has been at odds with Somaliland as the two neighboring regions appear to be embroiled in a land dispute.
The economy of the region relies largely on the raising and herding of livestock, with milk and dairy products being critical sources of protein in this region plagued by heat. Poor soil makes the growth of crops extremely difficult.
Many citizens of Puntland also rely on remittances from relatives abroad as sources of extra income.
Fishing also provides an important source of food and income for many in the region, but interference and intimidation of locals by foreign trawling vessels has slowed the economy and depleted fish populations.
Piracy off the Somali coast has brought huge sums of cash into parts of the region, but this money has been largely divided among a small group of individuals.
Although under the watchful eye of many foreign navies, the tuna-rich waters of the Gulf of Aden along the Puntland coast continue to see pirate attacks (although at a reduced rate) and incursions by foreign vessels.
Many ships have been hijacked and held for long periods on the coast of the region.
Puntland has a beautiful coast but is largely devoid of tourism because of the danger of possible kidnapping and the fact that some areas are rampant piracy havens.
Many Somalis are hoping that the international community will do more to stop illegal fishing and illegal dumping.
Puntland's economy relies on the export of live seafood such as lobsters, dried fish, shark vines and tuna. Saudi Arabia has banned the import of Somali livestock, which has dealt a devastating blow to the already weak economy.
It is important to note that profits from illegal fishing in Somali waters greatly exceed the total income of the whole Somali piracy industry in any calendar year. The Laasqoray fish factory has reached commercial levels and its tuna is found throughout Puntland and outside the region. Sea salt is also being produced.
A fish-processing plant is also being constructed in Habo, which locals hope will reduce poverty and unemployment and improve the economy of the area.
Thousands of displaced Somalis have traveled to the region as it is stable compared with the south where deadly clashes have created masses of IDPs (internally displaced persons) fleeing the country.
“I came here to live safely,” Somali refugee Nadifa Ali, who fled from Mogadishu, told The Media Line (TML) in Garowe City, Puntland’s capital.
The region relies on trained police and military regional forces, which appear to have gained a reputation for establishing security in the district, although several kidnappings have taken place in the area, mostly of foreign journalists.
“Our security forces do their best to work honestly for their people,” Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamud Farole told TML by phone in Bosasso. "Foreigners come and live here without restraint.”
Farole, 63, a former PhD student in the history department at Latrobe University in Melbourne, Australia, promised huge developmental changes in the region after he was elected.
But people fleeing the poverty in the East Africa in search of better lives in Saudi Arabia through Yemen are falling victim to human trafficking cartels. Human trafficking in Bosasso, Puntland’s capital, is vying with the traditional contraband such as drugs and weapons, and is now one of its most lucrative industries.
This appalling practice has been widely condemned by the international community.
In the last 10 years, human trafficking has become the "best profession" in Puntland, 81-year-old elder Ali Hussein told TML.
He adds that the human trafficking started right after the administration was formed in 1998 after the region emerged from the civil wars in the country.
TML tried to obtain a comment from the immigration minister, but his staff said he was “busy with work.”
Many have expressed concern about how few resources are devoted to saving immigrants who are frequently abused, and even thrown overboard by ruthless smugglers on their way to the shores of Yemen.
Many Somalis and Ethiopians who try to flee to Yemen via illegal boats are forced to disembark away from the coast and often fall prey to man-eating sharks.
Carrying a small black bag on his back to board a boat to Yemen, 18-year-old Nor Yusuf tells TML that he experienced very bad unemployment along with constant violence in Mogadishu and is prepared to venture into dangerous seas.
Puntland appears silent on this tragedy as the officials slowly talk about the immigrants leaving from the region who die between Yemen and Somalia’s shores.
“We will do our best to close down this illegal trafficking that causes the deaths of many Somalis on the seas,” a Puntland minister who asked to remain anonymous told TML in Bosasso.
The United Nation suspects there is collaboration between the pirates and government officials as the government does not appear to be committed to fighting the pirates.
The office of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a report saying it had identified two main piracy networks in Somalia – one in the semi-autonomous northern Puntland region and the other based in the Eyl district, a haven for pirates.
Many hijacked ships are being held on the shores of the town of Eyl, whose residents support the pirates who are made up of mostly their sons, brothers and relatives.
“We get an amount of money when our brothers seize ships,” says Fatima Abdi Hashi, an Eyl resident who spoke to TML by phone.
Another resident, Hassan Afyare, says he is happy to be in Eyl because of the economy flowing from the hijacked ships.
“I used to be unemployed, but now I’ve got more money earned by my pirate brother,” Afyare tells TML in a telephone interview.
Life is slowly improving in the region, with a number of high-level education centers opening in recent years.
Three universities have been established in the region, the main one being Bariga Africa, which means eastern Africa.
Bariga Africa was established seven years ago when the region was sorely lacking in higher education centers.
“We want to teach our students, which is why we returned to our region from abroad,” Abdi Weli Abdirahman the dean of the faculty of Business Administration told TML.
There were no further education opportunities for school leavers in Puntland before the universities opened.
“Whoever finished high school used to go to abroad; those who couldn’t had to stay, but now we have universities,” says Mohamed Aynab, a student who studies economics at the university.
Facts and statistics:
Population: 2.4 million (Puntland government
estimate, 2003)
Capital: Garowe (administrative), Bosasso (commercial)
Major languages: Somali, Arabic
Religion: Islam
Monetary unit: Somali shilling
Main export: Livestock
International dialing code: +252
Leader: Abdirahman Mohamed Farole, elected by the parliament; the region has 66 members of parliament and dominant elders.
The structure of the state of Puntland consists of the legislature (House of Representatives), the judiciary, and the executive (the president and vice-president and his nominated Council of Ministers).
The media continues to be in a strong position in the region although they can’t be described as completely independent.
The main radio and TV stations in the region are: SBC Radio – private; Bosasso Radio Midnimo – private; Bosasso Radio Galkayo Radio Garowe – community station; Eastern TV Network (ETN) – private; and newly established Horseed radio.
Source: Themedialine.org
It strongly affirms that it wants to remain an integral part of the Somali Republic: Puntland residents refuse to refer to themselves as Puntlanders, but call themselves Somalis. The majority of Somaliland’s residents defiantly refer to themselves as Somalilanders.
The first Puntland president was Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed who served three years in the position until 2001; he became Somalia’s president in October 2004, resigning in December 2008 following a bitter dispute with the former prime minister Nor Hassan Hussein.
Puntland has emerged largely unscathed from the perennial violence that has engulfed much of southern Somalia, although there have been some spates of hostility mainly with neighboring Somaliland over disputed territories including the Sool and Sanaag regions.
There has also been some bloodshed during several usually brief flareups of clan fighting and political power struggles.
Most of the people in the region come from the same clan – the Majarteen clan of Abdullahi Yusuf, the former president of Somalia's transitional federal government.
Puntland’s attempts to sign an oil exploration agreement with the Australian Stock Exchange (SAX) without authorization from Somali government caused a heated dispute between former prime minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi and the former president Yusuf after Ghedi rejected the agreement saying, “it is not regional topic but a national one.”
The exploration for minerals, oil and gas in the main resources areas of Dharoor and Nugaal Valley has drawn criticism from within Puntland, Somalia and abroad as the minerals, oil and gas economy has become an engine powering conflict and war in northern Somalia.
Since exploration began, Puntland has been at odds with Somaliland as the two neighboring regions appear to be embroiled in a land dispute.
The economy of the region relies largely on the raising and herding of livestock, with milk and dairy products being critical sources of protein in this region plagued by heat. Poor soil makes the growth of crops extremely difficult.
Many citizens of Puntland also rely on remittances from relatives abroad as sources of extra income.
Fishing also provides an important source of food and income for many in the region, but interference and intimidation of locals by foreign trawling vessels has slowed the economy and depleted fish populations.
Piracy off the Somali coast has brought huge sums of cash into parts of the region, but this money has been largely divided among a small group of individuals.
Although under the watchful eye of many foreign navies, the tuna-rich waters of the Gulf of Aden along the Puntland coast continue to see pirate attacks (although at a reduced rate) and incursions by foreign vessels.
Many ships have been hijacked and held for long periods on the coast of the region.
Puntland has a beautiful coast but is largely devoid of tourism because of the danger of possible kidnapping and the fact that some areas are rampant piracy havens.
Many Somalis are hoping that the international community will do more to stop illegal fishing and illegal dumping.
Puntland's economy relies on the export of live seafood such as lobsters, dried fish, shark vines and tuna. Saudi Arabia has banned the import of Somali livestock, which has dealt a devastating blow to the already weak economy.
It is important to note that profits from illegal fishing in Somali waters greatly exceed the total income of the whole Somali piracy industry in any calendar year. The Laasqoray fish factory has reached commercial levels and its tuna is found throughout Puntland and outside the region. Sea salt is also being produced.
A fish-processing plant is also being constructed in Habo, which locals hope will reduce poverty and unemployment and improve the economy of the area.
Thousands of displaced Somalis have traveled to the region as it is stable compared with the south where deadly clashes have created masses of IDPs (internally displaced persons) fleeing the country.
“I came here to live safely,” Somali refugee Nadifa Ali, who fled from Mogadishu, told The Media Line (TML) in Garowe City, Puntland’s capital.
The region relies on trained police and military regional forces, which appear to have gained a reputation for establishing security in the district, although several kidnappings have taken place in the area, mostly of foreign journalists.
“Our security forces do their best to work honestly for their people,” Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamud Farole told TML by phone in Bosasso. "Foreigners come and live here without restraint.”
Farole, 63, a former PhD student in the history department at Latrobe University in Melbourne, Australia, promised huge developmental changes in the region after he was elected.
But people fleeing the poverty in the East Africa in search of better lives in Saudi Arabia through Yemen are falling victim to human trafficking cartels. Human trafficking in Bosasso, Puntland’s capital, is vying with the traditional contraband such as drugs and weapons, and is now one of its most lucrative industries.
This appalling practice has been widely condemned by the international community.
In the last 10 years, human trafficking has become the "best profession" in Puntland, 81-year-old elder Ali Hussein told TML.
He adds that the human trafficking started right after the administration was formed in 1998 after the region emerged from the civil wars in the country.
TML tried to obtain a comment from the immigration minister, but his staff said he was “busy with work.”
Many have expressed concern about how few resources are devoted to saving immigrants who are frequently abused, and even thrown overboard by ruthless smugglers on their way to the shores of Yemen.
Many Somalis and Ethiopians who try to flee to Yemen via illegal boats are forced to disembark away from the coast and often fall prey to man-eating sharks.
Carrying a small black bag on his back to board a boat to Yemen, 18-year-old Nor Yusuf tells TML that he experienced very bad unemployment along with constant violence in Mogadishu and is prepared to venture into dangerous seas.
Puntland appears silent on this tragedy as the officials slowly talk about the immigrants leaving from the region who die between Yemen and Somalia’s shores.
“We will do our best to close down this illegal trafficking that causes the deaths of many Somalis on the seas,” a Puntland minister who asked to remain anonymous told TML in Bosasso.
The United Nation suspects there is collaboration between the pirates and government officials as the government does not appear to be committed to fighting the pirates.
The office of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a report saying it had identified two main piracy networks in Somalia – one in the semi-autonomous northern Puntland region and the other based in the Eyl district, a haven for pirates.
Many hijacked ships are being held on the shores of the town of Eyl, whose residents support the pirates who are made up of mostly their sons, brothers and relatives.
“We get an amount of money when our brothers seize ships,” says Fatima Abdi Hashi, an Eyl resident who spoke to TML by phone.
Another resident, Hassan Afyare, says he is happy to be in Eyl because of the economy flowing from the hijacked ships.
“I used to be unemployed, but now I’ve got more money earned by my pirate brother,” Afyare tells TML in a telephone interview.
Life is slowly improving in the region, with a number of high-level education centers opening in recent years.
Three universities have been established in the region, the main one being Bariga Africa, which means eastern Africa.
Bariga Africa was established seven years ago when the region was sorely lacking in higher education centers.
“We want to teach our students, which is why we returned to our region from abroad,” Abdi Weli Abdirahman the dean of the faculty of Business Administration told TML.
There were no further education opportunities for school leavers in Puntland before the universities opened.
“Whoever finished high school used to go to abroad; those who couldn’t had to stay, but now we have universities,” says Mohamed Aynab, a student who studies economics at the university.
Facts and statistics:
Population: 2.4 million (Puntland government
estimate, 2003)
Capital: Garowe (administrative), Bosasso (commercial)
Major languages: Somali, Arabic
Religion: Islam
Monetary unit: Somali shilling
Main export: Livestock
International dialing code: +252
Leader: Abdirahman Mohamed Farole, elected by the parliament; the region has 66 members of parliament and dominant elders.
The structure of the state of Puntland consists of the legislature (House of Representatives), the judiciary, and the executive (the president and vice-president and his nominated Council of Ministers).
The media continues to be in a strong position in the region although they can’t be described as completely independent.
The main radio and TV stations in the region are: SBC Radio – private; Bosasso Radio Midnimo – private; Bosasso Radio Galkayo Radio Garowe – community station; Eastern TV Network (ETN) – private; and newly established Horseed radio.
Source: Themedialine.org
Yacht hijacked by pirates near Seychelles islands
Two Kenya-based diplomats say a yacht and its crew of seven has been hijacked by pirates near the Seychelles islands off Africa's east coast.
The two separately say the Indian Ocean Explorer was hijacked by pirates on Wednesday. Both diplomats spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media. One diplomat said the boat was returning from a trip to nearby islands when it was taken. All seven people on board were from the Seychelles, he said.
It was not immediately clear who seized the ship.
Somali pirates are common in the Gulf of Aden. But analysts say an increase in foreign warships patrolling the area has forced pirates to shift their operations east into the Indian Ocean, toward the Seychelles.
Source: AP
The two separately say the Indian Ocean Explorer was hijacked by pirates on Wednesday. Both diplomats spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media. One diplomat said the boat was returning from a trip to nearby islands when it was taken. All seven people on board were from the Seychelles, he said.
It was not immediately clear who seized the ship.
Somali pirates are common in the Gulf of Aden. But analysts say an increase in foreign warships patrolling the area has forced pirates to shift their operations east into the Indian Ocean, toward the Seychelles.
Source: AP
Somalia: Sudan to mediate between Somali government and opposition
Reports from Sudan's capital Khartoum say mediation efforts between Somalia's government and the Asmara based wing of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia led by Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys have started in Khartoum, sources told Mareeg media on Wednesday.
Sheik Hassan Dahir aweys left for Sudan on Tuesday and he is expected to meet with government officials of Sudan.
Somali government officials including the deputy speaker Mohamed Omar Dalha and the minister for justice Sheik Abdirahman Mohamud Farah were already in Khartoum.
Somali president Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed met with Sudan's president Omar Hassan al Bashir in the Qatari capital Doha and he requested from him to mediate between his government and the rebels.
President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed and President al Bashir have also met in Khartoum earlier and discussed the Somali situation.
Sheik Aweys confirmed that he will come back to Mogadishu after his visit in Sudan. Both Sheik Sharif and Sheik Aweys were the leaders of the Islamic Courts Union before Ethiopian troops ousted them from power in late 2006.
amsomalia@mareeg.com
Sheik Hassan Dahir aweys left for Sudan on Tuesday and he is expected to meet with government officials of Sudan.
Somali government officials including the deputy speaker Mohamed Omar Dalha and the minister for justice Sheik Abdirahman Mohamud Farah were already in Khartoum.
Somali president Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed met with Sudan's president Omar Hassan al Bashir in the Qatari capital Doha and he requested from him to mediate between his government and the rebels.
President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed and President al Bashir have also met in Khartoum earlier and discussed the Somali situation.
Sheik Aweys confirmed that he will come back to Mogadishu after his visit in Sudan. Both Sheik Sharif and Sheik Aweys were the leaders of the Islamic Courts Union before Ethiopian troops ousted them from power in late 2006.
amsomalia@mareeg.com
A Change Of Tactics For The Somali Pirates
Pirate Tactics Evolve Off Somalia
EagleOne has an interesting map noting how the pirate attacks appear to be shifting to the south and east, although there is still plenty of evidence that attacks are occurring frequently in the north as well. IMB has seen the pattern developing as well, and is calling for the coalition to extend its coverage area.
A maritime watchdog Tuesday urged an international naval coalition patrolling the waters off northern Somalia to extend its watch to the country's eastern and southern coasts.
The warning came amid a spike in attacks in the area. The latest attack occurred late Monday, when pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at a South Korean bulk carrier off eastern Somalia. The vessel managed to escape after carrying out evasive maneuvers, the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center said.
Since March 22, pirates have attacked 10 ships off eastern and southern Somalia, hijacking two of them, said Noel Choong of the piracy center in Kuala Lumpur. In contrast, he said, there was only one reported attack in the Gulf of Aden, to the north of Somalia, because of the international anti-piracy task force protecting those waters.
The problem is, there are no more ships. The international community has been able to limit the number of hijackings by creating transit lanes for convoys and organizing the shipping community.
This problem will only be solved on land.
source: Information Dissemination
Observations of an Armchair Admiral
EagleOne has an interesting map noting how the pirate attacks appear to be shifting to the south and east, although there is still plenty of evidence that attacks are occurring frequently in the north as well. IMB has seen the pattern developing as well, and is calling for the coalition to extend its coverage area.
A maritime watchdog Tuesday urged an international naval coalition patrolling the waters off northern Somalia to extend its watch to the country's eastern and southern coasts.
The warning came amid a spike in attacks in the area. The latest attack occurred late Monday, when pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at a South Korean bulk carrier off eastern Somalia. The vessel managed to escape after carrying out evasive maneuvers, the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center said.
Since March 22, pirates have attacked 10 ships off eastern and southern Somalia, hijacking two of them, said Noel Choong of the piracy center in Kuala Lumpur. In contrast, he said, there was only one reported attack in the Gulf of Aden, to the north of Somalia, because of the international anti-piracy task force protecting those waters.
The problem is, there are no more ships. The international community has been able to limit the number of hijackings by creating transit lanes for convoys and organizing the shipping community.
This problem will only be solved on land.
source: Information Dissemination
Observations of an Armchair Admiral
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Study due today on autism among Somali pre-schoolers in Minneapolis
State health officials today will reveal what they've learned after concerns arose last year about the number of Somali pre-schoolers in Minneapolis public schools being classified as having autism.
The results are scheduled to be released at 2 this afternoon.
Autism, a brain disorder that can cause disruptive and withdrawn behavior, has been rising rapidly throughout the country. The discovery of a cluster among Somalis, experts say, could help scientists shed light on why. Or, it could just be a statistical fluke.
In 2007, Somali children made up just under 6 percent of the school population but 17 percent of those in the early childhood autism programs (14 of 81 children).
The results are scheduled to be released at 2 this afternoon.
Autism, a brain disorder that can cause disruptive and withdrawn behavior, has been rising rapidly throughout the country. The discovery of a cluster among Somalis, experts say, could help scientists shed light on why. Or, it could just be a statistical fluke.
In 2007, Somali children made up just under 6 percent of the school population but 17 percent of those in the early childhood autism programs (14 of 81 children).
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