Friday, January 07, 2011
newinsideSix pirates were in custody Wednesday after mistakenly trying to attacked a French warship off the coast of Somalia.
French Col. Patrick Steiger said the attackers fired eight rounds from automatic weapons on La Somme, a French navy refueling ship — but missed. The pre-dawn attack Tuesday was answered by warning shots from La Somme, which then pursued the attackers.
The pirates mistook La Somme for a civilian vessel, Steiger said.
Also Wednesday, four suspected Somali pirates carrying AK-47s and a rocket-propelled grenade seized a bulk carrier with 21 Filipino crewmembers. It was the fourth ship pirates have seized in less than a week, a European Union official said.
The Voc Daisy was taken about 200 miles outside the corridor where international warships guard convoys of merchant vessels, said Cmdr. John Harbour, a spokesman for the EU Naval Force.
Pirates now hold 15 vessels and 326 crewmembers, according to an Associated Press count.
Pope promises action against abuse
Pope Benedict XVI promised Wednesday that the Roman Catholic Church will take action to confront the clerical sex-abuse scandal, making his first public comments on the crisis days after meeting with victims in Malta.
During his weekly public audience in St. Peter's Square, Benedict recounted his tearful weekend encounter with eight men who say they were abused as children by priests in a church-run orphanage. "I shared with them their suffering, and emotionally prayed with them, assuring them of church action," Benedict said.
The Vatican has not elaborated on what action is being considered.
Luxury train derails in S. Africa
A luxury train in South Africa filled with foreign tourists, many of them Americans, sped downhill out of control before derailing, killing a pregnant woman and a crewmember and trapping passengers in the mangled coaches.
Rail officials advised passengers and crewmembers to jump as the train sped into Pretoria, South Africa's capital, after their attempts to use the brakes failed, Rovos Rail Managing Director Rohan Vos said. Seventeen coaches derailed.
Johan Pieterse of the capital's community safety department said two people died at the scene. The passengers included 44 Americans, Vos said. The two-day Cape Town-Pretoria trip can cost from about $1,500 to nearly $3,000 per passenger. Gunmen abduct 6 from Mexico hotels
Dozens of gunmen burst into a Holiday Inn and another hotel in the northern Mexico city of Monterrey and abducted at least six people, prosecutors said. Nuevo Leon state Attorney General Alejandro Garza y Garza said 20 to 30 gunmen abducted four guests and a receptionist from the Holiday Inn. Then they went to the nearby Hotel Misión, where they abducted a receptionist, he said.
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