International Pirates: Price Tag for Somali Piracy Surges (Spiegel International, 18 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Spiegel International, Germany", 18 May 2011
The Booty Business
Price Tag for Somali Piracy Surges 
International piracy is emerging as a market in its own right, one that cost the global economy an estimated $8.3 billion in 2010. Efforts to contain the problem are having little impact, and the costs of lost booty, ransom and other costs associated with pirates could double within a few years.

Pirates of yesteryear have been romanticized in literature through books like "Treasure Island" and in films like "Pirates of the Caribbean". But the modern day piracy off the coast of Somalia is no swashbuckling fun and adventure. It is an expensive and dangerous problem that is escalating at an alarming rate.

Piracy cost the international economy up to $8.3 billion last year and "has emerged as a market it its own right," states a new report by political and economic intelligence consulting firm Geopolicity. Already in the first quarter of 2011, Somali pirates have attacked more than 117 ships, killed 7 crew members and held 338 hostages for ransom, the study finds. But international efforts to scupper the problem are failing, and it is predicted that piracy-related costs could more than double in just the next three years.

Measles Claims Many Lives in Congo as Public, Private Resources Stretched Thin (Inter Press Service, 18 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Inter Press Service (IOS)", 18 May 2011
Measles Claims Lives as Public, Private Resources Stretched Thin
By Emmanuel Chaco
KINSHASA, May 18, 2011 (IPS) - More than 3,000 cases of measles have been recorded in the past three months in two districts of Maniema Province, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Provincial statistics seen by IPS for the districts of Kibombo and Kindu, show that since mid-April, a measles epidemic has caused more than 15 deaths at health facilities, and three or four times as many have died at home, in cases where families did not take stricken children to medical centres.
"The villages further upstream along the Congo River are the worst affected by measles," says Dr Théo Katako, interim head of the Provincial Inspectorate of the Ministry of Public Health. "Meanwhile, the province was only able to organise a vaccination campaign against polio, for lack of resources to take on these two epidemics at once."