Somali Islamist militants yesterday urged pirates holding a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks and military hardware to destroy the cargo and the vessel if they are not paid ransom.
As US warships and other navies blockaded the MV Faina off Somalia’s Indian Ocean coast, the pirates have insisted on being paid US$20 million to release the cargo and the 21-member crew.
“If they do not get the money they are demanding, we call on them to either burn down the ship and its arms or sink it,” Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, a spokesman for the Shabab movement, said in an interview.
But Robow said his movement, which is gradually gaining ground over government troops in southern Somalia, was not linked to the pirates who seized the Belize-flagged freighter last week as it headed for Mombasa in Kenya.
“We have no contacts and links with the pirates and they are in the waters for their own interests,” he said.
Robow said the 33 Soviet-era T72 battle tanks and other military hardware on the Faina belonged to Ethiopian forces, who are propping up the embattled Somali government in Mogadishu.
On Wednesday, the Somali government said it would allow foreign powers to use force if necessary against pirates who are holding the Faina. The ship is surrounded by several US warships and helicopters. Moscow has also sent a warship to protect the few Russian hostages on board, but it will take a week to arrive off the coast of central Somalia, where the Faina has been anchored since Thursday last week.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition