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Kenya: Drone Fighters Protect Shipping From Somali Pirates

By JASON STRAZIUSO
Associated Press Writer

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - For the first time, sophisticated U.S. military surveillance drones capable of carrying missiles have begun patrolling waters off Somalia in hopes of stemming rising piracy.

Three ships have been seized in a week off Africa's lawless eastern coast and Vice Adm. Robert Moeller, the deputy commander for the U.S. Africa Command, said pirates continue to pose a significant challenge.

With the monsoon season now ended, there have been a rash of attacks as pirates return to the open seas. More than 130 crew members from seven ships are currently being held, including about 70 from the latest attacks.

In an effort to stem the surge, unmanned U.S. military surveillance planes called MQ-9 Reapers stationed on the island nation of Seychelles are being deployed to patrol the Indian Ocean in search of pirates, Moeller told The Associated Press in an interview at command headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. The patrols began this week, military officials said.

The 36-foot-long (11-meter-long) Reapers are the size of a jet fighter, can fly about 16 hours and are capable of carrying a dozen guided bombs and missiles. They are outfitted with infrared, laser and radar targeting.

Military officials said Friday the drones would not immediately be fitted with weaponry, but they did not rule out doing so in the future.

Analysts said they expected the Reapers would also be used to hunt al-Qaida and other Islamist militants in Somalia. While Moeller said the aircraft would "primarily" be used against pirates, he acknowledged they could also be used for other missions.

Even the drones and the presence of an international naval armada are unlikely to deter pirates, Moeller said. Pirates are "prepared to take their chances against the warships that are patrolling the area, simply because the potential for big financial gain is significant," he said.

Cyrus Mody, an expert on piracy at the London branch of the International Maritime Bureau, said he expects the drones will help ward off attacks by acting as an early-warning system for tankers and other commercial vessels traversing waters off the Somali coast.

"What we hope will happen is that they will get much earlier warning of suspicious vessels or suspected (pirate) mother ships that can then be targeted by the naval vessels. Or alerts and broadcasts can be sent out indicating the positions of these ships (and) indicating they should keep as clear a distance as possible," Mody said.

U.S. Navy vessels have used 3-foot(meter)-long drones off the East Africa coast before. But the Reapers -- which have a 66-foot (20-meter) wingspan -- represent a significant investment by the U.S. military to gather intelligence in the region.

Last spring, U.S. Navy sharpshooters killed three of the four pirates who were holding Richard Phillips, captain of the U.S.-flagged cargo ship the Maersk Alabama, hostage in a lifeboat.

The drone deployment comes as piracy is on the rise in the area. While the bandits targeted 35 vessels in 2007 and 111 in 2008, they have launched some 178 attacks so far in 2009, according to International Maritime Bureau figures.

The high-seas hijackings have persisted despite an international armada of warships deployed by the United States, the European Union, NATO, Japan, South Korea and China to patrol the region.

In a sign that nations are being forced to step up security, Seychelles announced this week that it would send troops to its outer islands. A Seychelles minister, Joel Morgan, said the coast guard is working closely with international naval forces and that both the U.S. and Europe have maritime patrol aircraft stationed in the island nation.

The Somali-based pirates operate freely in a country with no effective government and can earn millions of dollars by hijacking a ship that might contain oil, coal or other goods -- a windfall for young, unemployed men.

Moeller, the U.S. commander, said good governance, rule of law and economic development are all needed in Somalia so that pirates "have an alternative lifestyle to pursue. And unfortunately, that's not the case today."

"The long-term solution to the piracy issue is basically getting the conditions right in Somalia," he said.

Peter Chalk, an expert on piracy at the Washington-based RAND Corp., said he believed the new drones would be "largely irrelevant" in bringing an end to the lawlessness because problems with Somalia's government need to be addressed first. Otherwise, piracy will persist, he said.

"The risks of being caught are very low (and even lower in terms of being successfully prosecuted) while the potential rewards are enormous -- at least in a Somali context," Chalk wrote in an e-mail.

Pirates raked in up to $80 million in ransoms in 2008, Roger Middletown, a piracy expert at the London-based think-tank Chatham House, says. Tracing the cash has been difficult in part because of Somalia's chaotic civil war and partly because many Somalis use an informal clan-based money transfer system instead of normal banking channels.

Analysts say the pirate attacks are criminal in nature and not part of Somalia's Islamic militancy or al-Qaida. The pirates try to keep their distance from such groups so the ransom payments don't get seized by terrorists.

Surveillance gathered by the drones will augment other international investigations into pirate activity. Experts have been keen to trace the cash from ransoms, usually packed in a waterproof container and dropped by parachute into the sea, where it is picked up by pirates. Many worry about putting huge sums of cash in the hands of pirates who live in a country where al-Qaida operates.

The U.S. military is stepping up efforts in the region to ensure that shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden remain open, said Mark Schroeder, an Africa analyst at the global intelligence firm Stratfor. He said he believed the Reapers would also be used to track al-Qaida figures in Somalia.

"They need to ensure nothing gets disrupted (at sea)," Schroeder said. "There is the ordinary commercial traffic that is significant (and) the U.S. and the other navies there don't want to see that blocked by Somali pirates."

AP-CS-10-23-09 2051EDT

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EUROPE

Vetican City: Bishops Say to Corrupt African Leaders, "Repent or Quit"

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Bishops attending a Vatican meeting on Africa issued a blunt ultimatum Friday to corrupt Catholic political leaders in Africa: repent or leave public office.

In a strong final message, the bishops said Africa needs "saints" in government "who will clean the continent of corruption, work for the good of the people," and end the evils of war and poverty devastating the continent.

They cited as an example the late Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, the father of Tanzanian independence and a symbol of Africa's hopes as it emerged from the shadow of colonial rule, who is being considered for possible beatification.

While praising some Catholic leaders who are doing their public service well, they accused others of having "fallen woefully short in their performance in office."

"The synod calls on such people to repent, or quit the public arena and stop causing havoc to the people and giving the Catholic Church a bad name," the bishops wrote at the end of their monthlong synod.

The bishops didn't name names, but Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, who has been blamed for presiding over a politically repressive regime that led to the economic collapse of the country, and Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos, whose party swept elections last year that critics say were marred by fraud and corruption, are two well-known Catholic leaders.

The prelates, some 300 from Africa and around the world, also condemned non-Catholic leaders and outside foreign interests for allowing African countries to fall into such devastation, saying "in most cases we are dealing with greed for power and wealth at the expense of the people and nation."

In particular they cited areas of conflict such as Somalia, the Great Lakes region, Sudan and Guinea.

"Whatever may be the responsibility of foreign interests, there is always the shameful and tragic collusion of the local leaders: politicians who betray and sell out their nations, dirty business people who collude with rapacious multinationals, African arms dealers and traffickers who thrive on small arms that cause great havoc on human lives, and local agents of some international organizations who get paid for peddling toxic ideologies that they don't believe in" -- a reference to NGOs and humanitarian groups that promote abortion rights.

The results, the bishops wrote, are visible for the world to see: poverty, misery and disease, refugees within Africa's borders and beyond, brain drain, human trafficking, wars, child soldiers and violence against women.

"How can anybody be proud of 'presiding' over such chaos?" the bishops asked. "What has happened to our traditional African sense of shame? This synod proclaims it loud and clear: it is time to change habits, for the sake of present and future generations."

To be fair, the bishops said the Catholic Church had to get its house in order, too, saying it must serve as a model for good governance, transparency, good financial management and unity -- a reference to the ethnic divisions that even mar relations between priests and bishops.

"Your example of living together in peace across tribal and racial lines can be a powerful witness to others," the bishops wrote to churchmen at home, telling them they should "gladly welcome" whomever the Vatican appoints to be their bishops, regardless of where he was born.

The bishops didn't mention Rwanda, but in that country Catholic Church officials themselves were alleged to have played significant roles in the 100-day massacre of Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

The message from the bishops is intended as their public statement at the end of their monthlong meeting on how the Church can help bring peace, justice and reconciliation to the continent.

On Saturday, the bishops will issue another document: a set of proposals to Pope Benedict XVI to use as he formulates a policy response to what the church should be doing in Africa.

Two pressing policy areas that the bishops touched on in their Friday statement included celibacy for priests and condoms as a way to fight HIV infection.

There have been several cases in Africa with priests living openly with women; in their message Friday, the bishops reminded priests of their commitment to "a life of celibacy in chastity."

Regarding AIDS, which has devastated the continent, the bishops made no concessions on the Vatican's opposition to using condoms as a means to fight the virus' spread. The bishops warned that "the problem cannot be overcome by the distribution of prophylactics" and urged greater awareness of sexual abstinence and fidelity programs.

Addressing young people, the bishops said, "Let no one deceive you into thinking you cannot control yourselves. Yes you can, with the grace of God."

AP-CS-10-23-09 1126EDT

Australia: Rights Body Claims Immigrant Children Being Detained Illegally

By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press Writer

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - Children are being held in a crowded detention camp for asylum seekers on a remote Indian Ocean island, contrary to government policy that they should be housed elsewhere, a state rights commission reported Friday.

After allegations in recent years from rights groups that children were being emotionally scarred by Australia holding them in prison-like immigration detention centers, the government has ruled that they should live with their families in community-based housing outside the fences.

"For many children on Christmas Island, that is not the case," the government's Human Rights Commission reported Friday, referring to an Australian territory near Indonesia where applications of refugees who have arrived in Australian waters by boat are processed.

On a recent visit, the commission found that only 29 of 82 children asylum seekers on Christmas Island were living in community accommodation. The remaining 53 were held in a low-security camp which they were not allowed to leave unescorted.

It described the camp as "claustrophic."

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's government is already under fire for relaxing restrictions on asylum applications, which the political opposition alleges has led to a flood of migrants.

On Friday, the navy intercepted the third boat of asylum seekers in three days.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans rejected the commission's criticism.

He said the camp in question did not fit the government's definition of an immigration detention center. There are two such high-security facilities on Christmas Island, and children were not being held inside them, he said.

The commission also recommended that the government stop shipping asylum seekers to Christmas Island for their refugee applications to be processed. Failing that, the government should give them more access to the Australian legal system.

Evens rejected both recommendations.

AP-CS-10-23-09 0400EDT

Dominican Republic: Canadian Missionary Accused of Sex-Abuse in Haiti

By RAMON ALMANZAR and JONATHAN M. KATZ
Associated Press Writer

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) - Dominican authorities have arrested a Canadian missionary charged with sexually abusing orphan teens in neighboring Haiti, the latest in a string of men accused of taking advantage of Haiti's deep poverty to have sex with minors.

Joao Jose Correira Duarte, a Portuguese-born orphanage administrator, was arrested Tuesday in the resort city of Puerto Plata by Dominican drug agents carrying out a Canadian warrant.

He is expected to be extradited to Canada this week, said Dominican national drug agency spokesman Roberto Lebron.

According to the agency, Correira began working in Haiti in 1995. He faces charges related to abusing at least 12 youths aged 12 to 17 in hotels in the Haitian capital, allegedly offering favors like clothes or paying rent for their relatives elsewhere in the country.

Dominican officials say a warrant was issued for his arrest in August, and that they were advised in late September that he was in the country and should be arrested.

They say he had been operating a diving school at a hotel in Puerto Plata, a beach resort city on the country's north coast popular with foreigners. Officials said Correira had previously worked as a waiter in the area.

It is not clear if he is suspected of similar abuses in the Dominican Republic.

Several men have been arrested for sex crimes involving Haiti's poorly regulated orphanages in recent years. Many youths there are not orphans at all, but sent by parents who cannot support them in hopes they will get a better life.

Two men from Quebec pleaded guilty in late 2008 to sexually abusing teenage boys at an orphanage in the southern Haitian city of Les Cayes after a two-year investigation.

Armand Huard, 66, who'd been nicknamed "Papa Theresa" in the Canadian press for his aid work in Haiti, and co-worker Denis Rochefort, 59, were sentenced to three and two years in prison respectively.

Earlier this month, a Colorado man, Douglas Perlitz, pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he sexually abused nine boys at a school he founded near the northern city of Cap-Haitien.

_______

Associated Press writer Jonathan M. Katz reported from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

AP-CS-10-22-09 1859EDT

China: Prison Boss Dismissed Over Deadly Escape

BEIJING (AP) - The head of a prison in northern China has been dismissed after four inmates killed a guard and escaped, leading to a manhunt with thousands of police, state media reported Saturday.

Zhang Heping, who is also Communist Party chief at the prison in Inner Mongolia, was removed from his post because he shouldered responsibility for the Oct. 17 escape, state television CCTV said.

The four inmates, all serving life sentences, fled the regional capital Hohhot's No. 2 Prison in a stolen taxi, leading to a manhunt involving 6,000 police and security officers.

Police shot and killed one of the convicts and captured the other three Tuesday in a small township in Helin county after they hijacked a rural wagon and took a hostage, according to state media.

Four other officials have been suspended from the prison, the Beijing News newspaper said.

AP-CS-10-24-09 0241EDT

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