SOMALI PIRATES SHOOT ONE ANOTHER

Worst pirates ever!

THREE Somali pirates were shot dead in an apparent argument with their mates aboard a hijacked Ukrainian cargo ship carrying military tanks.

None of the 20 crew being held hostage on the freighter Faina were injured in the exchange of fire stemming from an alleged dispute between the pirates, the Itar-Tass news agency reported yesterday.

The cargo ship remained anchored near the island of Hobyo off the Somali coast. There was no damage reported to the vessel’s cargo, including depleted uranium anti-tank shells, armoured personnel carriers, and 33 T-72 tanks.

Three US Navy warships and helicopters are monitoring the operation.

The pirates have demanded a ransom of R164.7 million (20m) to release the cargo ship and its crew.

Seventeen Ukrainians, two Russians, and one Latvian national were known to be held hostage aboard the Faina.

RUSSIA INVADES GEORGIA!

The return of the evil empire. How's that army set to defend itself EU?

Russia sent troops and dozens of tanks into the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia today, throwing the two former Soviet neighbours into a sudden yet undeclared state of war.

In the most serious regional crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, at least 50 tanks – and possibly many more – rumbled through the Roki tunnel, which cuts through the Caucasus mountains separating South Ossetia from the Russian province of North Ossetia.

"One hundred and fifty Russian tanks, armoured personnel carriers and other vehicles have entered South Ossetia,” President Saakashvili of Georgia told reporters in Tbilisi. “This is a clear intrusion on another country’s territory. We have Russian tanks on our territory, jets on our territory in broad daylight."

Mr Saakashvili added that Georgian forces had downed two Russian jet fighters over Georgian territory.

Georgia mobilised its reservists yesterday and launched a military offensive to regain control over South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia after it gained independence.

Fighting raged today around the city of Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, as Georgian troops backed by tanks and warplanes pounded separatist forces, who are mostly Russian citizens backed by Moscow. This afternoon as the Russian tanks rolled in, Georgian officials declared that they had secured the city.

I don't know, these Georgians look like they mean well, but...