Looking for love? Pin it to your chest
Reuters
From: Montreal Gazette
Single? Shy? An Australian dating website is offering wallflowers looking for love a subtle way to declare their intentions: identification badges.
The badges are the invention of IT professional and Yes I Am Single website (www.yis.com.au) founder Evan Diacopolous, who says it's a way to revive old-fashioned dating.
"It's a conversation starter, a prompt. It helps people who lack the confidence," he told Reuters of the small silver discs that bear the website's address.
"Many people now are into online dating, but once upon a time people looking for a partner actually talked to each other in person, rather than going online. This is going back to meeting people the old-fashioned way."
To get the badge, as well as gain access to the website's forums, members pay A$23 Australian ($16.5).
Diacopolous, who is single himself, started the website nearly a month ago after he and many of his friends became disillusioned by online dating.
"People spend a lot of money and send a lot of emails, there's a lot of expectations that aren't met and I thought there's got to be an easier way to meet people," he said.
So far, the site has 50 members and Diacopolous advised those looking of love to do so in "everyday settings."
"You can wear your badge at the supermarket, on the train to work or anywhere you go. You never know who you might meet," the 35-year-old said.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
Thursday, April 9, 2009
BBC iPlayer now available on a toaster
Post categories: iplayer
Anthony Rose | 10:44 UK time, Wednesday, 1 April 2009
BBC iPlayer is now available on so many devices that we thought... what next?
We've ported iPlayer to iPhone, Wii, PS3, Nokia N96, Sony Walkman, Virgin Cable and all the other gadgets and devices at "where to get iplayer" - what's the next big thing?
Our marketing team identified breakfast television as an emerging market segment for on-demand viewing and asked the iPlayer team to see if we could come up with something new in this space.
After months of top-secret development and testing, and many burned developers, we're finally ready to bring iPlayer Toaster Edition out of labs.
The iPlayer Toaster Edition looks at first glance like a regular toaster, but with the front panel sporting a 7" 1280x800 OLED display.
The touch-sensitive display is protected from the heat by special thermal insulation located behind the front panel. Device power consumption is a very eco-friendly 2 watts... until you hit the Toast button, when it rises swiftly to 2000.
The iPlayer Toaster Edition features built-in wi-fi, allowing you to stream your favourite BBC iPlayer TV and radio programmes direct to the toaster front panel. Audio is provided by two heat-proof speakers cunningly concealed within the toaster slots, which has the added advantage of shaking the crumbs off the toast - this feature can also be triggered either by the Shake link in the UI.
In keeping with the small form factor and 7" display, the UI makes use of our so-called "bigscreen" display, which is ironically optimised for small screens:
(The BigScreen version of the iPlayer UI is also available for PC - see it here
The built-in USB port is compatible with most portable media players, allowing you to transfer downloaded BBC programmes to your media player while your bread is toasting. As soon as your toast is ready, butter it, unplug your media player, and you're good to go with food and media on the move.
Our marketing team keep telling us about the importance of branding, so the iPlayer Toaster Edition can optionally burn the iPlayer play button logo into the toast using our new HD (High Darkness) rendering mode:
Another cool feature is the Digital Retraction Mechanism (DRM) which automatically withdraws and shreds any uneaten toast after 7 days. Initially the retraction mechanism was only compatible with some types of bread, but after criticism from organic bread consumers we managed to develop a full cross-comestible DRM.
Developing the iPlayer Toaster Edition has been hot and demanding work and our test team is glad it's done - frankly they've had it eating burnt toast, even though they did manage to catch up on the entire MasterChef series.
Post categories: iplayer
Anthony Rose | 10:44 UK time, Wednesday, 1 April 2009
BBC iPlayer is now available on so many devices that we thought... what next?
We've ported iPlayer to iPhone, Wii, PS3, Nokia N96, Sony Walkman, Virgin Cable and all the other gadgets and devices at "where to get iplayer" - what's the next big thing?
Our marketing team identified breakfast television as an emerging market segment for on-demand viewing and asked the iPlayer team to see if we could come up with something new in this space.
After months of top-secret development and testing, and many burned developers, we're finally ready to bring iPlayer Toaster Edition out of labs.
The iPlayer Toaster Edition looks at first glance like a regular toaster, but with the front panel sporting a 7" 1280x800 OLED display.
The touch-sensitive display is protected from the heat by special thermal insulation located behind the front panel. Device power consumption is a very eco-friendly 2 watts... until you hit the Toast button, when it rises swiftly to 2000.
The iPlayer Toaster Edition features built-in wi-fi, allowing you to stream your favourite BBC iPlayer TV and radio programmes direct to the toaster front panel. Audio is provided by two heat-proof speakers cunningly concealed within the toaster slots, which has the added advantage of shaking the crumbs off the toast - this feature can also be triggered either by the Shake link in the UI.
In keeping with the small form factor and 7" display, the UI makes use of our so-called "bigscreen" display, which is ironically optimised for small screens:
(The BigScreen version of the iPlayer UI is also available for PC - see it here
The built-in USB port is compatible with most portable media players, allowing you to transfer downloaded BBC programmes to your media player while your bread is toasting. As soon as your toast is ready, butter it, unplug your media player, and you're good to go with food and media on the move.
Our marketing team keep telling us about the importance of branding, so the iPlayer Toaster Edition can optionally burn the iPlayer play button logo into the toast using our new HD (High Darkness) rendering mode:
Another cool feature is the Digital Retraction Mechanism (DRM) which automatically withdraws and shreds any uneaten toast after 7 days. Initially the retraction mechanism was only compatible with some types of bread, but after criticism from organic bread consumers we managed to develop a full cross-comestible DRM.
Developing the iPlayer Toaster Edition has been hot and demanding work and our test team is glad it's done - frankly they've had it eating burnt toast, even though they did manage to catch up on the entire MasterChef series.
Even a good marriage cannot survive bad manners
By SUSAN SCHWARTZ, The Gazette
From: Montreal Gazette
Sorry, but I don't buy this business that manners have disappeared and rudeness is rampant. Yes, it's true that the young probably stood more readily 40 years ago to offer the elderly a seat on the bus - but then, it was also acceptable for people to spit as they rode those buses 40 years ago. Everything is relative.
I believe the foundation of manners lies, as it always has, in being courteous and in considering the impact of our actions on others. That's the crux of Barbara Cartland's Etiquette Handbook: A Guide to Good Behaviour From the Boudoir to the Boardroom (Random House Books, 2008, $23.95).
The book by the prolific British writer was first published in 1962, in an era when women graced no luncheon without a hat and a 6-year-old boy learned to address an older man as Sir. Nigel Wilcockson, publishing director at Random House, called it a fascinating part of social history; he predicted it will appeal to those who recall the time with nostalgia or people charmed by the unintentional humour of chapters like those dealing with how to wash up on the servants' night off.
It's true that some sections of the handbook are hopelessly dated - comically so. But others are timeless and of great value - and none, to my mind, more than a chapter called Home Life Is What You Make It. Cartland, who died in 2000 at 98, believed that manners begin at home. And they do.
"It is a sad reflection that we can be provoked into callous and inconsiderate behaviour more easily by those we love than by anyone else," she wrote. "The self-discipline of good behaviour should never be dropped within the home, least of all by the husband and wife."
Showing good manners in marriage means everything from not hogging the bedclothes or reading if your partner wants to sleep, Cartland believed, to not nagging or criticizing your partner to looking smart even if it's just the two of you.
Good manners mean not reserving one's best self for company. "Wives resent husbands who fall asleep every evening when they are alone with their families, but can be lively, interesting, conversationalists when guests are present," she wrote.
Similarly, "a husband is repelled by a wife who nags or treats him alternately as a child, an idiot, a brute and a tyrant."
To be fair, I believe some marriages are not meant to last; it happens that two partners are fundamentally incompatible or that one is nothing more than a lout.
Sadder is when a marriage ends because one partner or the other stops caring enough to give the relationship his - or her - best. In the absence of the nurturing the marriage needs, it shrivels.
It is during courtship, though, that at least a pretense of good manners is shown - even by the most uncouth people, Cartland opined. Partners take care with everything from their appearance to their words, as they "try to show the height and depth of their characters when expressing their hopes and ambitions."
A cardinal rule for partners, then, "is to treasure the beauty and spiritual yearning of that awakening love, and to turn it into the strong, enduring and equally beautiful love of married life," she wrote.
"I am sure that the spiritual side of love is destroyed in many marriages entirely by rudeness and contempt."
Just as familiarity breeds contempt, so, too, can living together under the same roof lead to lack of consideration, Cartland says. She berates women who don't try to look attractive in the house and admonishes men: "Washing, shaving and hair brushing are tasks to complete as early as possible, not delayed or omitted because only your wife will see you."
Gestures of affection and terms of endearment, too, remain important - and not just in the privacy of the boudoir.
"Husbands should remember to be lovers, in thought as well as in deed," Cartland wrote. "No man can be excused for later omitting the small courtesies of gratitude, tenderness and consideration. On these, more than on anything else, rests a happy marriage."
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
By SUSAN SCHWARTZ, The Gazette
From: Montreal Gazette
Sorry, but I don't buy this business that manners have disappeared and rudeness is rampant. Yes, it's true that the young probably stood more readily 40 years ago to offer the elderly a seat on the bus - but then, it was also acceptable for people to spit as they rode those buses 40 years ago. Everything is relative.
I believe the foundation of manners lies, as it always has, in being courteous and in considering the impact of our actions on others. That's the crux of Barbara Cartland's Etiquette Handbook: A Guide to Good Behaviour From the Boudoir to the Boardroom (Random House Books, 2008, $23.95).
The book by the prolific British writer was first published in 1962, in an era when women graced no luncheon without a hat and a 6-year-old boy learned to address an older man as Sir. Nigel Wilcockson, publishing director at Random House, called it a fascinating part of social history; he predicted it will appeal to those who recall the time with nostalgia or people charmed by the unintentional humour of chapters like those dealing with how to wash up on the servants' night off.
It's true that some sections of the handbook are hopelessly dated - comically so. But others are timeless and of great value - and none, to my mind, more than a chapter called Home Life Is What You Make It. Cartland, who died in 2000 at 98, believed that manners begin at home. And they do.
"It is a sad reflection that we can be provoked into callous and inconsiderate behaviour more easily by those we love than by anyone else," she wrote. "The self-discipline of good behaviour should never be dropped within the home, least of all by the husband and wife."
Showing good manners in marriage means everything from not hogging the bedclothes or reading if your partner wants to sleep, Cartland believed, to not nagging or criticizing your partner to looking smart even if it's just the two of you.
Good manners mean not reserving one's best self for company. "Wives resent husbands who fall asleep every evening when they are alone with their families, but can be lively, interesting, conversationalists when guests are present," she wrote.
Similarly, "a husband is repelled by a wife who nags or treats him alternately as a child, an idiot, a brute and a tyrant."
To be fair, I believe some marriages are not meant to last; it happens that two partners are fundamentally incompatible or that one is nothing more than a lout.
Sadder is when a marriage ends because one partner or the other stops caring enough to give the relationship his - or her - best. In the absence of the nurturing the marriage needs, it shrivels.
It is during courtship, though, that at least a pretense of good manners is shown - even by the most uncouth people, Cartland opined. Partners take care with everything from their appearance to their words, as they "try to show the height and depth of their characters when expressing their hopes and ambitions."
A cardinal rule for partners, then, "is to treasure the beauty and spiritual yearning of that awakening love, and to turn it into the strong, enduring and equally beautiful love of married life," she wrote.
"I am sure that the spiritual side of love is destroyed in many marriages entirely by rudeness and contempt."
Just as familiarity breeds contempt, so, too, can living together under the same roof lead to lack of consideration, Cartland says. She berates women who don't try to look attractive in the house and admonishes men: "Washing, shaving and hair brushing are tasks to complete as early as possible, not delayed or omitted because only your wife will see you."
Gestures of affection and terms of endearment, too, remain important - and not just in the privacy of the boudoir.
"Husbands should remember to be lovers, in thought as well as in deed," Cartland wrote. "No man can be excused for later omitting the small courtesies of gratitude, tenderness and consideration. On these, more than on anything else, rests a happy marriage."
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
Snake diet find aids anti-venom
New research by a Bangor university student has found that the diet of poisonous snakes affects its venom strength.
Axel Barlow's discovery means that anti-venom can be developed specific to a certain snake's location or diet.
His studies into saw-scaled vipers, which have evolved to eat scorpions, found that they also had venom which was more lethal to scorpions.
Researchers hope the information will lead to fewer snake bite deaths.
The research was done as part of a final-year paper on saw-scaled vipers by Mr Barlow.
Anti-venom treatment
He said the significance of the discovery was that variation in venom composition between different species or populations of snakes can complicate anti-venom treatment.
This is particularly relevant in the case of saw-scaled vipers which are probably responsible for the majority of snakebite deaths in Africa, he said.
This was because west African hospitals still rely on imported anti-venom from Asia, where the saw-scaled vipers have a very different venom composition.
Axel Barlow added: "Saw-scaled vipers provide a good model to study venom variation as different species have extremely different diets.
"This allows us to investigate the effects of evolutionary changes in diet within a single group of related snake species."
Dr Wolfgang Wüster, an expert in snakes and snake venoms who lectures at Bangor added: "This study provides one of the most convincing pieces of evidence to date for the role of natural selection for diet in shaping snake venom composition.
"It is a key question in our understanding of venom evolution in snakes."
New research by a Bangor university student has found that the diet of poisonous snakes affects its venom strength.
Axel Barlow's discovery means that anti-venom can be developed specific to a certain snake's location or diet.
His studies into saw-scaled vipers, which have evolved to eat scorpions, found that they also had venom which was more lethal to scorpions.
Researchers hope the information will lead to fewer snake bite deaths.
The research was done as part of a final-year paper on saw-scaled vipers by Mr Barlow.
Anti-venom treatment
He said the significance of the discovery was that variation in venom composition between different species or populations of snakes can complicate anti-venom treatment.
This is particularly relevant in the case of saw-scaled vipers which are probably responsible for the majority of snakebite deaths in Africa, he said.
This was because west African hospitals still rely on imported anti-venom from Asia, where the saw-scaled vipers have a very different venom composition.
Axel Barlow added: "Saw-scaled vipers provide a good model to study venom variation as different species have extremely different diets.
"This allows us to investigate the effects of evolutionary changes in diet within a single group of related snake species."
Dr Wolfgang Wüster, an expert in snakes and snake venoms who lectures at Bangor added: "This study provides one of the most convincing pieces of evidence to date for the role of natural selection for diet in shaping snake venom composition.
"It is a key question in our understanding of venom evolution in snakes."
Pollution link with birth weight
Exposure to traffic pollution could affect the development of babies in the womb, US researchers have warned.
They found the higher a mother's level of exposure in early and late pregnancy, the more likely it was that the baby would not grow properly.
The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, looked at 336,000 babies born in New Jersey between 1999 and 2003
UK experts said much more detailed research into a link was needed.
Exposure
The researchers, from the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey, used information from birth certificates and hospital discharge records.
They recorded details including each mother's ethnicity, marital status, education, whether or not she was a smoker - as well as where she lived when her baby was born.
Daily readings of air pollution from monitoring points around the state of New Jersey were taken from the US Environmental Protection Agency.
The scientists then took data from the monitoring point which was within six miles (10 km) of the mothers' homes to work out what their exposure to air pollution had been during each of the three trimesters of pregnancy.
It was found that mothers of small, and very small, birth weight babies were more likely to be younger, less well educated, of African-American ethnicity, smokers, poorer, and single parents than mothers with normal birth weight babies.
But, even after these factors had been taken into account, higher levels of air pollutants were linked to restricted foetal growth.
Two kinds of pollution produced by cars - tiny sooty particles and nitrogen dioxide - were found to have an impact.
Particulate matter is produced from vehicle exhausts and can lodge in the lungs. Fine particles, such as PM 2.5s, which penetrate deep into the lungs, have been linked to deaths from heart and respiratory diseases.
Nutrients
The risk of a small birth weight baby rose significantly with each increase in particulate matter of four micrograms per metres squared, during the first and third trimesters of pregnancy.
Similarly, the risk of a very small birth weight baby rose significantly with each 10 parts per billion increase in nitrogen dioxide.
Writing in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the team led by Professor David Rich, said: "Our findings suggest that air pollution, perhaps specifically traffic emissions during early and late pregnancy and/or factors associated with residence near a roadway during pregnancy, may affect foetal growth."
They say it is not clear exactly how air pollution might restrict foetal growth.
But they add previous research suggests that air pollution might alter cell activity, or cut the amount of oxygen and nutrients a baby receives while in the womb.
Professor Patrick O'Brien, of the UK's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said: "This is an interesting study because it flags up a possibility of a link.
"But I think it needs to be looked at again in more detail because of the probability of confounding factors.
"The researchers ruled out smoking and social-economic background - other factors which are linked to small babies - but there are many other factors, such as diet, which could have an effect."
Professor O'Brien added that future research into the effects of pollution should be careful to check if babies are born small because their parents are small, and to ensure pregnancies are dated from scans, where this study did neither.
Exposure to traffic pollution could affect the development of babies in the womb, US researchers have warned.
They found the higher a mother's level of exposure in early and late pregnancy, the more likely it was that the baby would not grow properly.
The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, looked at 336,000 babies born in New Jersey between 1999 and 2003
UK experts said much more detailed research into a link was needed.
Exposure
The researchers, from the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey, used information from birth certificates and hospital discharge records.
They recorded details including each mother's ethnicity, marital status, education, whether or not she was a smoker - as well as where she lived when her baby was born.
Daily readings of air pollution from monitoring points around the state of New Jersey were taken from the US Environmental Protection Agency.
The scientists then took data from the monitoring point which was within six miles (10 km) of the mothers' homes to work out what their exposure to air pollution had been during each of the three trimesters of pregnancy.
It was found that mothers of small, and very small, birth weight babies were more likely to be younger, less well educated, of African-American ethnicity, smokers, poorer, and single parents than mothers with normal birth weight babies.
But, even after these factors had been taken into account, higher levels of air pollutants were linked to restricted foetal growth.
Two kinds of pollution produced by cars - tiny sooty particles and nitrogen dioxide - were found to have an impact.
Particulate matter is produced from vehicle exhausts and can lodge in the lungs. Fine particles, such as PM 2.5s, which penetrate deep into the lungs, have been linked to deaths from heart and respiratory diseases.
Nutrients
The risk of a small birth weight baby rose significantly with each increase in particulate matter of four micrograms per metres squared, during the first and third trimesters of pregnancy.
Similarly, the risk of a very small birth weight baby rose significantly with each 10 parts per billion increase in nitrogen dioxide.
Writing in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the team led by Professor David Rich, said: "Our findings suggest that air pollution, perhaps specifically traffic emissions during early and late pregnancy and/or factors associated with residence near a roadway during pregnancy, may affect foetal growth."
They say it is not clear exactly how air pollution might restrict foetal growth.
But they add previous research suggests that air pollution might alter cell activity, or cut the amount of oxygen and nutrients a baby receives while in the womb.
Professor Patrick O'Brien, of the UK's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said: "This is an interesting study because it flags up a possibility of a link.
"But I think it needs to be looked at again in more detail because of the probability of confounding factors.
"The researchers ruled out smoking and social-economic background - other factors which are linked to small babies - but there are many other factors, such as diet, which could have an effect."
Professor O'Brien added that future research into the effects of pollution should be careful to check if babies are born small because their parents are small, and to ensure pregnancies are dated from scans, where this study did neither.
U.S. navy, FBI try to free hostage from stranded pirates
By Michael Richards, Agence France-PresseApril 9, 2009 4:05 PM
From: Montreal Gazette
MOMBASA, Kenya - The U.S. Navy rushed in FBI negotiators and a destroyer Thursday in a tense standoff with Somali pirates holding an American hostage on a lifeboat on the Indian Ocean.
A day after pirates hijacked the Maersk Alabama aid ship before being overpowered by the unarmed American crew, the high-seas drama remained unresolved, with both the pirates and the U.S. navy sending reinforcements.
In a rare admission it was ready to negotiate with hijackers with possible terrorist links, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was assigning negotiators to help secure the release of the ship's captain.
"FBI negotiators stationed at Quantico (Virginia) have been called by the Navy to assist with negotiations with the Somali pirates and are fully engaged in this matter," spokesman Richard Kolko said in a statement.
When the four pirates were ousted from the 17,500-tonne Danish-operated container ship, they took the captain hostage on a lifeboat, which has now run out of fuel.
"Apparently, the lifeboat has run out of gas," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said ahead of a meeting in Washington.
Kevin Speers, a U.S.-based spokesman for Maersk, told reporters on Thursday that "most recent contact with the Alabama indicated that the captain remains a hostage but is unharmed at this time."
Meanwhile the freighter was boarded by "armed guards," the second in command's father told CNN, and the Alabama was headed to its destination port of Mombasa, in Kenya, with its cargo of aid destined for African refugees, the Maersk shipping company said.
The guided missile destroyer USS Bainbridge arrived overnight to monitor the situation and prevent the pirates from securing their hostage on a larger ship, accompanied by a P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft overhead, the Pentagon said.
It was believed to be the first U.S. merchant ship hijacked since the North African Barbary Wars in the early 19th century, underlining the anarchy raging off Somalia despite an international naval effort against piracy.
A commander from the group of pirates who took the ship said pirate reinforcements were on their way to try and help those holding the hostage, who are effectively surrounded.
"We are planning to reinforce our colleagues who told us that a navy ship was closing in on them and I hope the matter will soon be solved," Abdi Garad told AFP by phone from the northern pirate lair of Eyl.
"They are closely monitored by a navy ship and I think it will be difficult for us to reach the area promptly," he admitted, with U.S. helicopters swirling the area.
"But we are making final preparations and will try our best to save our friends."
The Maersk Alabama's chief officer, Shane Murphy, told his father that the crew used "brute force" to overpower the pirates, who were armed with AK-47 assault rifles, ABC News reported.
The attack was the latest in a string of incidents in the region, a vital global shipping lane where increasingly brazen pirates on small skiffs have hijacked anything from small sailing yachts to huge super-tankers.
"These waters are infested with pirates that highjack (sic) ships daily," Murphy had written on his Facebook page recently. "I feel like it's only a matter of time before my number gets called."
There are upward of 15 foreign naval vessels operating in the area in a bid to deter piracy at any given time.
They include ships from a U.S. anti-piracy task force, a NATO force, a European Union mission as well as from China, India, Japan, Malaysia and Russia.
The Maersk Alabama had been due to dock in the Kenyan port of Mombasa on April 16 to deliver more than 5,000 tonnes of relief food supplies to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).
"This is going to Africa to people in need. We're just bringing relief cargo," Maersk Line chief executive John Reinhart said.
Over the past week, pirates have seized a German vessel, a small French sailing yacht, a British-owned Italian-operated cargo, a Taiwanese fishing vessel and a Yemeni tugboat.
The flurry of attacks, one of the worst ever off the coast of Somalia, shattered a relative lull in hijackings since the start of the year which now appears to have owed more to weather than increased naval presence.
By Michael Richards, Agence France-PresseApril 9, 2009 4:05 PM
From: Montreal Gazette
MOMBASA, Kenya - The U.S. Navy rushed in FBI negotiators and a destroyer Thursday in a tense standoff with Somali pirates holding an American hostage on a lifeboat on the Indian Ocean.
A day after pirates hijacked the Maersk Alabama aid ship before being overpowered by the unarmed American crew, the high-seas drama remained unresolved, with both the pirates and the U.S. navy sending reinforcements.
In a rare admission it was ready to negotiate with hijackers with possible terrorist links, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was assigning negotiators to help secure the release of the ship's captain.
"FBI negotiators stationed at Quantico (Virginia) have been called by the Navy to assist with negotiations with the Somali pirates and are fully engaged in this matter," spokesman Richard Kolko said in a statement.
When the four pirates were ousted from the 17,500-tonne Danish-operated container ship, they took the captain hostage on a lifeboat, which has now run out of fuel.
"Apparently, the lifeboat has run out of gas," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said ahead of a meeting in Washington.
Kevin Speers, a U.S.-based spokesman for Maersk, told reporters on Thursday that "most recent contact with the Alabama indicated that the captain remains a hostage but is unharmed at this time."
Meanwhile the freighter was boarded by "armed guards," the second in command's father told CNN, and the Alabama was headed to its destination port of Mombasa, in Kenya, with its cargo of aid destined for African refugees, the Maersk shipping company said.
The guided missile destroyer USS Bainbridge arrived overnight to monitor the situation and prevent the pirates from securing their hostage on a larger ship, accompanied by a P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft overhead, the Pentagon said.
It was believed to be the first U.S. merchant ship hijacked since the North African Barbary Wars in the early 19th century, underlining the anarchy raging off Somalia despite an international naval effort against piracy.
A commander from the group of pirates who took the ship said pirate reinforcements were on their way to try and help those holding the hostage, who are effectively surrounded.
"We are planning to reinforce our colleagues who told us that a navy ship was closing in on them and I hope the matter will soon be solved," Abdi Garad told AFP by phone from the northern pirate lair of Eyl.
"They are closely monitored by a navy ship and I think it will be difficult for us to reach the area promptly," he admitted, with U.S. helicopters swirling the area.
"But we are making final preparations and will try our best to save our friends."
The Maersk Alabama's chief officer, Shane Murphy, told his father that the crew used "brute force" to overpower the pirates, who were armed with AK-47 assault rifles, ABC News reported.
The attack was the latest in a string of incidents in the region, a vital global shipping lane where increasingly brazen pirates on small skiffs have hijacked anything from small sailing yachts to huge super-tankers.
"These waters are infested with pirates that highjack (sic) ships daily," Murphy had written on his Facebook page recently. "I feel like it's only a matter of time before my number gets called."
There are upward of 15 foreign naval vessels operating in the area in a bid to deter piracy at any given time.
They include ships from a U.S. anti-piracy task force, a NATO force, a European Union mission as well as from China, India, Japan, Malaysia and Russia.
The Maersk Alabama had been due to dock in the Kenyan port of Mombasa on April 16 to deliver more than 5,000 tonnes of relief food supplies to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).
"This is going to Africa to people in need. We're just bringing relief cargo," Maersk Line chief executive John Reinhart said.
Over the past week, pirates have seized a German vessel, a small French sailing yacht, a British-owned Italian-operated cargo, a Taiwanese fishing vessel and a Yemeni tugboat.
The flurry of attacks, one of the worst ever off the coast of Somalia, shattered a relative lull in hijackings since the start of the year which now appears to have owed more to weather than increased naval presence.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Kelowna, B.C. crook needs lessons in subterfuge and footwear
Published: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 | 6:33 PM ET
Canadian Press NewsItem/NewsComponent/NewsLines/ByLine
KELOWNA, B.C. - Most criminals try to keep their nefarious deeds under wraps - and a Kelowna, B.C., suspect is finding out why.
The 27-year-old is accused of breaking into a home in the Okanagan city and stealing electronics, a pair of shoes and a van. That was his first mistake.
His second was parking the van outside a known drug house and setting the vehicle on fire.
It didn't take long for police to show up and a search of the home revealed a man hiding in the basement.
Investigators are fairly certain they have their man, since he was wearing the stolen shoes at the time.
Published: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 | 6:33 PM ET
Canadian Press NewsItem/NewsComponent/NewsLines/ByLine
KELOWNA, B.C. - Most criminals try to keep their nefarious deeds under wraps - and a Kelowna, B.C., suspect is finding out why.
The 27-year-old is accused of breaking into a home in the Okanagan city and stealing electronics, a pair of shoes and a van. That was his first mistake.
His second was parking the van outside a known drug house and setting the vehicle on fire.
It didn't take long for police to show up and a search of the home revealed a man hiding in the basement.
Investigators are fairly certain they have their man, since he was wearing the stolen shoes at the time.
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