Hope is not a plan

A would-be bomber (perhaps suicide, perhaps not) was stopped at the United States embassy in Vienna when his backpack full of explosives and nails set off the metal detector, and he panicked and ran.

Investigation is under way right now to determine if his backpack was actually a viable explosive. I'd put even odds on it not being viable -- a bomber who doesn't realize they're going to set of the metal detector, and who then leaves (instead of rushing the facility and detonating the device) may not be entirely there. Apparently, he has yet to give any kind of coherent statement, either.

The would-be bomber is a Bosnian national.

BBC article
International Herald Tribune article

The government of the golden land of Myanmar has taken the popular totalitarian tack of blaming external agents provacateurs -- specifically, the "neo-colonialist" kind -- of inciting all that unpleasantness that's been going on for the past week or so in their country. Although late last week they were blaming the BBC and Radio Free Asia for spreading misinformation, it's notable that this week they finally caved to how information is really being spread and largely shut down internet access and mobile services within the country.

They've also been killing protesters, beating and jailing monks, and, apparently, assassinating foreign journalists. Along with an uncounted number of Burmese citizens, Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai was killed -- on camera, no less. It's looking suspiciously like he was not a random bystander, but was specifically targeted for killing by government troops. The Japanese government has not yet decided what to do -- it's in the odd position of having very little it can refuse to send to Myanmar, as it's already limiting itself to purely humanitarian aid.

The government propaganda site I linked to at the top helpfully tells me that protesters are using "catapults" against police, and that monks are threatening people into protesting. Seriously:

Some monks and people enter homes Saboteurs threaten families demanding them to join protest if not provide cash, kind Authorities urge people to make complaints in person or on line to Ward PDCs, Township PDCs or local authorities against intimidations, extortions, coercion

Yup. Cash extortion. Apparently that's just how the Buddhist monks roll in Myanmar's propaganda imaginariverse.

Showing its renowned flair for sustainable economic development, the government of Zimbabwe has decided to deal with that country's disastrous runaway inflation by simply hacking a thousand off the end of its currency.

Again. This will be "Sunrise Two", following in the wake of last year's amazingly successful "Sunrise" revaluation, during which three zeros were hacked off the end of Zimbabwe's currency. One can expect yet another successful revaluation sometime in 2008, and so on, as long as Mugabe remains in power.

The legislature of Zimbabwe is right behind Mugabe in driving the economy of Zimbabwe relentlessly forward. Just last week they approved a bill allowing Zimbabweans a majority stake in foreign-owned firms. If foreign companies are worried that this means they may lose their investments and businesses in Zimbabwe...well, yeah, you're about to:

...Mugabe told supporters his government would seize defiant businesses over high prices.

Mugabe says some businesses have raised prices without justification, alleging it was part of a Western plot to destabilise the country and ultimately unseat him.

"We don't want to be chasing each other. We will have to seize the companies," Mugabe said.

Mugabe's move earlier this year to stop inflation by simply freezing the prices of key commodities has led to stores simply refusing to stock things like bread and milk. Shucks.

Gideon Gono, stuck with the unenviable job of running the Bank of Zimbabwe, cautioned Mugabe and friends to tread carefully:

"As monetary authorities we fully support the noble objective of empowering the majority of the Zimbabweans through the introduction of enabling statutes that expand wider involvement for the people in the mainstream economy," Gono said.

"Noble as this objective is, our well considered advice to legislators and the government in general is that a fine balance should be struck between the objectives of indigenisation and the need to attract foreign investment."

This might be translated as, "We're already starving to death because you 'redistributed' the farms to unskilled indigenous workers. Could you maybe hold off on annihilating what's left of any external participation in our economy?"

I'm afraid Mr. Gono drew the very, very short straw.

As part of a package of laws designed to alienate the hell out of anyone foolish enough to immigrate there, the French parliament is now considering adding a voluntary (but at the applicant's expense) DNA test to "expedite" immigration of family members. Although this is making the top headline here, perhaps more important are tests given in one's home country designed to demonstrate good knowledge of French language and "values."

A number of Americans who have had a handful of generations in this country to develop their own xenophobia would like similar requirements for simple immigration. Of course, a key consideration is that French treatment of their immigrant and minority populations led to widespread rioting and burning of cars all throughout Paris. On the other hand, we have, well, a work force that reliably integrates into American culture within a few generations.

Of course, one of the consequences of our melting-pot approach is that you end up with a bit of that culture blended in. For those who are worried about this, I assure you that in a couple generations, your kids won't think twice about going to an Indian pub or celebrating a Chinese holiday, and a whole new generation of American xenophobes will be afraid of those weird folks from Antarctica.

BBC article

Mr. Bush -

In response to the discovery that DoJ went ahead and authorized torture even in the wake of your fatuous declaration that our country does not torture (as, indeed, it never should), your spokesperson had this to say:

White House Spokeswoman Dana Perino confirmed the existence of the February 2005 opinion, but she says all procedures used by U.S. interrogators are tough, safe, necessary, and lawful.

Perino says she will not comment specifically as to whether simulated drowning constitutes torture because discussing any specific interrogation techniques would allow the enemy to train against them.

I quote here from Voice of America, a source I hope you have the sense to trust is not conspiring against you.

Ms. Perino's answer is, in truth, no answer at all. She can't comment on whether something is or is not torture because people may train against it if she does? Seriously?

Maybe I should switch to a new career as a criminal defense attorney. When someone asks if my client is guilty of murder, I'll say that I can't comment on that nor can it be openly discussed, as it might inform others about the practice of murder (or not -- after all, if I don't comment, who's to know what my imaginary client did?).

Shoving someone's head under water until they nearly drown is torture, you dim, immoral excuse for a man. Marching Ms. Perino out and sticking her with the unfortunate job of trying to deflect an all-too-deflectable press corps is a sad, yet accurate, commentary on how little you have in common with the American citizens you regularly endanger by tarnishing our country's reputation for freedom and justice with your tawdry pretense of national defense.

Your answer, as told by Ms. Perino, was no answer at all. Try again.

(Sent today.)

Voice of America article

Recent revisions to Japanese textbooks that redirect blame for mass suicides in Okinawa during the war have led to some of the biggest protests Okinawa has seen in decades. From the International Herald Tribune:

For the past quarter-century, Japan's high school textbooks had included the accepted historical fact that Okinawans had been coerced into mass suicides by Imperial Army soldiers.

Some publishers are preparing to reinstate references to the military's role in the mass suicides, according to NHK, Japan's public broadcaster. The government would then review the changes before handing out a final decision.

The Kinjo mentioned above is the Reverend Shigeaki Kinjo, who, under direction from Japanese soldiers, beat the rest of his family to death ahead of the American advance into Okinawa in the Spring of 1945. He, and many others like him, can directly attest that they didn't just spontaneously decide to kill their families.

After U.S. troops landed, Japanese soldiers expelled Okinawans from shelters and used them as human shields. Thousands are believed to have committed suicide in villages occupied by Japanese soldiers; mass suicides did not take place where there were no soldiers.

As the article notes, although historical revisionism within Japan has repeatedly angered neighboring nations, this is the first time people within Japan have expressed outrage at this happening. Notably, of course, Okinawa is still a special case within Japan, as it was its own nation until fairly recently, and Okinawans are still culturally distinct from mainland Japanese.

In a report in the Washington Post, relayed here by CBS news, the antiterrorism nonprofit SITE Institute calls foul on the Bush administration for completely destroying one of our intelligence channels in a fit of self-serving leaking.

SITE Institute, one of many private companies that troll extremist Web content and use secret methods to find unreleased material and release it early, against the wishes of the militants creating it, was the first to obtain an Osama bin Laden video last month.

"Techniques that took years to develop are now ineffective and worthless," Katz told The Post.

This would not be the first time Bush and Cheney have destroyed an American intelligence resource for personal gain. Then, as now, it's good to recall the words of Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.

It must be comforting for al Qaeda, having a security hole sealed.

This week, al Jazeera reminds us that violence often comes as a result of a mismatch between national borders and ethnic boundaries. In our modern age, these conflicts are the unwieldy children of sometimes arbitrary and sometimes very intentional batching and dividing by the major powers of the twentieth century. The territory once bounded by Soviet borders is a poster child for this issue, whether it's Georgia trying not to further subfragment following its release from the USSR, or the ongoing problem of Tatars returning to the Crimea half a century after Stalin banished them to Central Asia. Similarly, the wake of the Ottoman Empire continues to be alive with conflict, most recently embodied in the declaration by the government of Turkey that they will take military action against Kurdish separatist groups hiding within Iraq, despite past requests from their NATO allies that they not cross that border.

Given the increasing power of the smaller party in modern conflict, and the loss of a major bilateral struggle to drown out other noises, it seems likely that wars of ethnic identity will continue as the defining kind of conflict well into the foreseeable future.

Even as the Burmese military government curtails protests in the capital by killing and jailing people into submission, it's also running an active campaign of killing and displacement among minorities in its eastern jungles. You can get a brief overview via this documentary short, titled "Shoot on Sight" --

That film was produced by the human rights group Witness. You can learn more about the movie and the situation by clicking here.

Backstopping such ground-level videos and eyewitness accounts are the efforts of the Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights group within the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Science and Human Rights Program. As they've done in other areas such as Sudan where people are abused and the official policy is denial, the GTHR group has used satellite imagery to track the effects of military actions against civilians in the Burmese jungles.

This "before and after" picture set, of an area within the Papun District on the Thai border, shows the complete removal of a local village. Other picture pairs from Papun, which you can see on this page, also show the rise of military bases in the area.

Even though international eyes have been on urban protest in the last few weeks, we must remember that for decades, Burma's military leaders have been attempting to maintain power for power's sake by killing minorities and razing their homes.

I'm not a regular Frank Rich reader (or even a regular NYT reader, as my primary news sources are the BBC, AP, and al Jazeera), but his recent column touches twice on important points of pragmatism.

Point 1: Our excessive use of contractors places our own people at risk

His words:

Last week Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq war combat veteran who directs Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, sketched for me the apocalypse to come. Should Baghdad implode, our contractors, not having to answer to the military chain of command, can simply “drop their guns and go home.” Vulnerable American troops could be deserted by those “who deliver their bullets and beans.”

This potential scenario is just one example of why it’s in our national self-interest to attend to Iraq policy the White House counts on us to ignore. Our national character is on the line too. The extralegal contractors are both a slap at the sovereignty of the self-governing Iraq we supposedly support and an insult to those in uniform receiving as little as one-sixth the pay.

Point 2: Compromising our ethics buys us nothing

Again, from the piece:

Our moral trajectory over the Bush years could not be better dramatized than it was by a reunion of an elite group of two dozen World War II veterans in Washington this month. They were participants in a top-secret operation to interrogate some 4,000 Nazi prisoners of war. Until now, they have kept silent, but America’s recent record prompted them to talk to The Washington Post.

“We got more information out of a German general with a game of chess or Ping-Pong than they do today, with their torture,” said Henry Kolm, 90, an M.I.T. physicist whose interrogation of Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy, took place over a chessboard. George Frenkel, 87, recalled that he “never laid hands on anyone” in his many interrogations, adding, “I’m proud to say I never compromised my humanity.”

Despite everything you've seen on 24, torturing people doesn't really work, and it creates all kinds of practical problems for you -- for example, if we go around torturing people left and right, what kind of support can we expect from other nations when our people are held? It's a foolish choice.

One last bit from the piece:

By any legal standards except those rubber-stamped by Alberto Gonzales, we are practicing torture, and we have known we are doing so ever since photographic proof emerged from Abu Ghraib more than three years ago. As Andrew Sullivan, once a Bush cheerleader, observed last weekend in The Sunday Times of London, America’s “enhanced interrogation” techniques have a grotesque provenance: “Verschärfte Vernehmung, enhanced or intensified interrogation, was the exact term innovated by the Gestapo to describe what became known as the ‘third degree.’ It left no marks. It included hypothermia, stress positions and long-time sleep deprivation.”

A little over a week I ago, we left the government of Japan mulling over how to respond to anti-democracy violence in Myanmar in general, and specifically to the assassination of Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai:

The Japanese government has not yet decided what to do -- it's in the odd position of having very little it can refuse to send to Myanmar, as it's already limiting itself to purely humanitarian aid.

Now, the decision has come down to start cutting the humanitarian aid. Japan is canceling a $4.7 million grant that was meant to fund a business education center at Yangon University. This is a sound move, as it strikes at economic progress in Myanmar while limiting the degree to which loss of aid will directly impact the average citizen of that country on a day-to-day basis.

The official word of the Golden Land has nothing to say about this recent development, although it does tell us the inspiring and highly plausible story of people counterprotesting that recent disruption by the evil monks:

The people of Shan State (South) and Kayah State who wish to see stability of the State, the rule of law and community peace and tranquillity regarded recent protests instigated by some monks and NLD members as a threat to peace and stability . So they held mass rallies to denounce such protests on 13 and 14 October after seeking permission from the authorities concerned .

...while tempering that with news that good folks from all over are giving provisions to monasteries and nunneries. No word, yet, on what they're feeding the several thousand protesters who remain imprisoned.

CNN article

The "investigation" into the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya has now netted some additional suspects -- this time, including Lt. Col. Pavel Ryaguzov, a member of the Federal Security Service. Col. Here's the official word, as reported by the BBC:

Investigators believe that he could have passed on details of Ms Politkovskaya's address to another suspect, who in turn gave them to the killer, the source said.

Given that Ms. Politkovskaya wasn't in a protection program at the time, it's hard to say why the killers would have needed a member of the FSS to provide the address of a random journalist. Maybe there are no phone books in Russia. Col. Ryaguzov is added to the already quirky list of suspects centered on a former Chechen politician:

Chief prosecutor Yuri Chaika said at the time that among the suspects were serving and former security officers and that their ringleader was a Chechen gang boss.

Mr Chaika said there were indications that the murder plot had been masterminded abroad with a view to discrediting the Kremlin.

Given that Ms. Politkovskaya was known for writing pieces that exposed abuse of Chechen civilians by the Russian army, this is incredible, in the traditional meaning of the word. That said, a security service that is capable of bombing its own people might well see that as a plausible story to feed to the public.

BBC article

I've been hearing people cite a "77% drop" in American casualties in Iraq during reporting today. 77% since when, exactly? The helpful people at icasualties.org have compiled this chart showing American soldiers killed in Iraq from the invasion up until a little over a week ago:

You can see an expanded version (that may be more up to date, depending on when you check) by clicking here. They've labeled major events in the war, including Fallujah, the "surge," and so forth.

The big conclusion I draw from this chart, viewing the war effort as a whole, is that I am unwilling to cite any immediate drop in casualties as an indicator of success, or even hope that things will stay that way. It's hard to draw a clear correlation between our strategy such as we know it and American casualty numbers. I can point to a sharp drop-off in deaths from June of this year until now, but I can point to the exact same drop-off between May and July of 2004...and that was followed by a return to May 2004 death rates in roughly December of that same year...and then followed by another substantial drop-off, and so forth.

In short, the current trendline is by no means predictive. It's as if Bush supporters pointed to an off-season cold snap as proof that global warming had been turned around by voluntary emission controls.

My home county is burning down again. This time it's much worse than the fires of a few years ago. According to the AP wire, as reported on KNBC in Los Angeles, the statewide evacuation estimate is about 900,000 people now, with over 500,000 of those in San Diego (meaning they're evacuating a sixth of the county). The reporter cited this as the largest peacetime movement of Americans in the history of the country.

Here's a schematic view of the burn in San Diego county as of earlier today:

(This map courtesy San Diego news station CBS 8)

Here's a satellite view of the smoke plumes heading out to sea from southern California:

People, especially in Orange County, have been complaining about the lack of available resources. Credit the firefighters for making their case, over and over again for decades, for additional resources. San Diego county alone probably needs another thousand firefighters, give or take. No credit to representatives who now complain about the lack of resources while vigorously opposing "big government" and refusing to pay taxes, believing that infrastructure and infrastructure defense solves itself.

Also no credit to all of you who fear terrorists more than anything else, when our long history and our very recent history show that, short of a terrorist group with a nuclear weapon, there is nothing that even a motivated group of terrorists could do that can match the trauma of this kind of super-disaster.

We don't have enough firefighters to put fires down and keep them down. Right now, they're skipping from place to place, not sleeping, just fencing with the flames and hoping the winds will change.

CNN coverage

You can get live feeds from SoCal news stations (such as KNBC) at wwiTV.

The winds have largely died down and even shifted direction, fire-fueling East-West Santa Anas being replaced by slower and moister offshore breezes. Even so, the is still quite dry and no rain is coming, and as the president tours the area to survey the damage, firefighters still struggle to contain flames that face no natural boundary other than the ocean.

Unfortunately, two more deaths have been reported in Poway, directly attributable to the fire. Several other people died during or just after evacuation.

Elsewhere, we learn that police have arrested one arson suspect and killed another one.

Here's a map of the damage in the San Diego area:

Taken from this BBC page, which also tells us that over 300,000 acres have burned in San Diego county.

As part of the debate on the current SCHIP bill, a Republican congressman (I'm afraid I did not catch his name) warned that the current version is untenable because it would still allow illegal immigrants to use fake social security numbers to claim benefits.

Well duh, fuckwit. That's fraud. It's a crime.

Is your piece of junk, straw man argument seriously going to be that "people might defraud this program?" If so, I recommend you get your ass right back onto the congressional floor and cancel the Farm Bill, the Veterans Administration, FEMA, the Small Business Administration, and every other Federal program or agency that ever hands out money to people.

You may want to look at cleaning up bad planning, unrealistic thinking, and out-and-out corruption in military procurement. I hear that can amount to billions, and it goes to corporations -- whereas fraudulently acquired health care for children goes to, you know, children.

Seriously. Be less stupid.

As reported in this BBC article, pirates have attacked three different ships passing through the Malacca Strait. Two of the ships, UN vessels on aid missions to Indonesia's Aceh province, lost supplies and cash to the pirates. The third ship, a Japanese merchant vessel, fended off a night-time attack with high-pressure water hoses and floodlights.

Although neighboring nations have been trying to shut down piracy, the waters of Southeast Asia continue to be fertile ground for modern-day pirates.

As a lead-in its participation in the Council of Science Editors' Global Theme Issue on Poverty and Human Development, PLoS Medicine asked a number of commentators which single intervention would do the most to improve the health of those living on less than $1 per day? Popular responses included generally increasing socioeconomic status, securing food supplies, and empowering women. Here are a few other standout answers:

Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the United Nations Millennium Project and Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals, Earth Institute, New York, New York, United States of America

In tropical Africa, a mass distribution of free long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets to fight malaria accompanied by free access to artemisinin-based combination anti-malaria medicines. In other parts of the world, the situation will be different. I should add that I've spent years objecting to posing the question this way, since at low cost we could achieve major health advances through more comprehensive approaches.

Davidson Gwatkin, Consultant on Health and Poverty, Washington, D. C., United States of America

The health of the world's poor would be best served by a series of revolutions that bring into power national leaderships that are centrally concerned about the well-being of disadvantaged groups within their borders.

Kelley Lee, Centre on Global Change and Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom

A genuine commitment by industrialised countries to fair trade and, in particular, to end the destructive impact of agricultural subsidies on the livelihoods of the poor, would greatly enhance household incomes, food security and thus widespread improvements in the health of the poor.

Solomon Benatar, Professor of Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

Only when (and if) the “haves” develop genuine empathy for the “have-nots,” and come to acknowledge their own long-term interdependence with all other humans, will the global economy be improved to any significant advantage for the desperately poor.

In their essay Child Rights and Child Poverty: Can the International Framework of Children's Rights Be Used to Improve Child Survival Rates?, Pemberton, Gordon, Nandy, Pantazis, and Townsend promote the idea that bolstering human rights for children -- specifically by following the framework of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) -- is a viable method of addressing the millions of child deaths each year that can be directly attributed to poverty. They challenge the notion that human rights issues are a distraction from greater public health concerns -- while acknowledging that not all rights are equal, when viewed from a public health viewpoint:

We argue that a rights-based strategy will increase child survival, in part by reducing child poverty, but only if some rights are prioritised over others. UNICEF, under Bellamy, adopted a position in which all the rights in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) were regarded as of equal importance, and both developed and developing countries were urged to realise these rights progressively (i.e., one after the other) [5,10]. This position has become hard to defend, since some rights are clearly more important than others and/or contingent on others. For example, whilst UNICEF recognises that children living in poverty are more likely to experience non-fulfilment of other rights [5], the right to vote is little use to a child who has died in infancy as a result of a lack of medical care due to poverty.

The "Five Core Principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child" are as follows:

• The right to life, survival, and development
• Non-discrimination
• Devotion to the best interests of the child
• The right to an adequate standard of living and social security

That first right is most key. Although people can quibble over what constitutes and adequate standard of living and what are a child's best interests, the right to life and survival pretty much rules out letting children die prematurely. That, at least, seems straightforward...yet this problem is not addressed as a rights issue. Why is this?

A third question about human rights is whether the “non-justiciability” and non-enforcement of certain economic, social, and cultural rights makes the development of anti-poverty policies difficult. It is often argued that “rights”, as they have been defined in human rights conventions, are imprecise or are moral claims that are not legally enforceable [20]. Many “rights” have so far been largely ignored by national courts, and the realisation of economic, social, and cultural rights is particularly difficult. Domestic courts have been adept at arriving at complex decisions in cases relating to civil and political rights, but they have tended to dodge issues of poverty, access to health care, and non-fulfilment of other economic and social rights. They cite the non-justiciability of such rights and have not been aided by international jurisprudence, which is currently lacking in this area.

I think we can distill this divergence between civil and political rights and all the other social rights down to one thing -- civil and political rights are easier to resolve. As much as humans are willing to die for rights such as freedom of expression and religion, clearly people are just as willing to fight to avoid starving to death -- yet we often treat the former as a crucial human rights issue and the latter as a problem of governance -- like making sure the street signs are all freshly painted. Fundamentally, to not oppress someone or to allow them some amount of freedom of expression has a very low financial cost. On the other hand, vaccinating every child in Africa against a major disease carries a substantial financial burden. Between the two, we choose to resolve the rights problem that is easily atomizable and has end states that don't seem daunting. If we were to fundamentally admit that an individual's civil liberties are completely abrogated when they die from dysentary, we'd be forced to resolve problems of public health with the same vigor with which we attack problems of public expression.

Torture charges filed in the United States against Donald Rumsfeld were dismissed earlier this year based on Rumsfeld's immunity to such prosecution and the lack of Constitutional rights of the subjects, even as an American judge accepted that the evidence showed that they had, indeed, been tortured on Rumsfeld's watch. Late last year, the Center for Constitutional Rights led the way by filing war crimes charges against Rumsfeld in Germany. These charges were dismissed by the German judge, indicating that the US should spearhead such an investigation.

Now, coinciding with a Rumsfeld visit to France, the Center for Constitutional Rights, along with European human rights groups, have filed torture charges against Rumsfeld in France. They want French investigators to hold Rumsfeld and look into the case.

"We know that we can't get him into prison right now, but it would be great to make sure that he couldn't safely leave the U.S. anymore," said Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Donald Rumsfeld seems to be on track to follow in the footsteps of Pinochet, finding himself with progressively fewer and fewer places he can safely go without risking prosecution.

Indonesia's constitutional court has upheld death sentences for nine Australians convicted of attempting to traffic heroin into Indonesia. As reported by Voice of America:

The court found that a constitutional clause supporting the right to life did not prevent the state from executing people for serious crimes. The ruling went against Australians Myuran Sukumaran, Andrew Chan and Scott Rush, who are facing execution for their convictions on heroin smuggling charges.

Relevant to more than just the nine currently on death row is the constitutional court's ruling that "foreigners do not have legal standing to challenge Indonesian laws." This has the potential to have far-reaching effects on every non-Indonesian, individual or corporation, attempting to operate in the country:

Andrew Sriro is a lawyer in Jakarta and writes an annual guide to Indonesian law.

"I think this is a draconian ruling that is a significant setback for the rule of law in Indonesia and the security of foreigners residing in or doing business in Indonesia," said Sriro.

A U.S. destroyer, the James E. Williams, intervened to rescue the crew of a North Korean ship after it was partially seized by pirates off the Somali coast. The pirates had control of the command center but not the engine room when the Wiliams ordered them to surrender, given the the North Korean crew a chance to assault the command center and retake their ship.

Following the capture of the pirates, three of the North Korean ship's crew were flown oer to the Williams for medical care.

The five surviving pirates have been left in North Korean custody.

This will likely not appear on the KCNA page, but I suspect Radio Free Asia will make sure the news makes it to the North.

Voice of America