Pirates

Foreign Policy's blog posts an interesting map from UNOSAT capturing pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia. The most recent attack, when pirates hijacked a French yacht, prompted French special forces to swoop in and capture six of the hijackers, who the French are hoping to try in France.

A couple of further thoughts on th FP post. First, I've said it before, but how did the magazine, along with the Center for Global Development, rank Somalia only the third-most failed state in the world? Number 2 Iraq, for all its problems, has a more functioning government. And the top-ranked Sudan has a pretty firmly-established government in Khartoum. And the semi-autonomous government in the south is more than Somalia has.

Also:

But according to UNOSAT's figures, piracy actually subsided during the UIC [Union of Islamic Courts] period, a time otherwise reported as bearing a striking resemblance to the Taliban regime. (emphasis in the original)

This shouldn't be surprising. Yes, the short-lived Islamist regime was repressive, shooting people for watching the World Cup, etc., but it's also no secret that Mogadishu under the Courts was the most orderly it's been in years.