Somali pirates attack French military flagship

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091007/wl_africa_afp/somaliapiracyshippingfrance_20091007151820


NAIROBI (AFP) – Somali pirates attempted to storm the French navy's 18,000 tonne flagship in the Indian Ocean after mistaking it for a cargo vessel, the French military said on Wednesday.
The crew of La Somme, a 160-metre (525-foot) command vessel and fuel tanker, easily saw off the brazen night-time assault by lightly armed fighters on two lightweight skiffs and captured five pirates, a spokesman said.
"The pirates, who because of the darkness took the French ship for a commercial vessel, were on board two vessels and opened fire with Kalashnikovs," Admiral Christophe Prazuck said in Paris.
La Somme is the French command vessel in the Indian Ocean, overseeing French air, sea and land forces fighting Somali pirates and hunting terrorists under the banner of the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom.
Officers on the ship have directed commando operations to free French hostages in the hands of Somali pirates.
The pirates tried to flee when they realised their mistake but were pursued by French forces who, after an hour-long chase, caught one of the skiffs, Prazuck said.
On it they found five men but no weapons, water or food as the pirates had apparently thrown all of the boat's contents overboard, the spokesman said.
A Western official at sea in the area, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said that there had been an exchange of fire between the warship and the pirate launches.
"One of the skiffs managed to get away in the night because La Somme was busy with the first pirate boat," he said.
"Despite the arrival of other vessels, they haven't yet managed to find the second boat," he said, adding that many warships in the area were busy hunting another group which attacked a cargo ship off the Seychelles on Sunday.
The world's naval powers have deployed dozens of warships to the lawless waters off Somalia over the past year to curb attacks by pirates in one of the world's busiest maritime trade routes.
La Somme was operating 250 nautical miles (460 kilometres) off the Somali coast, on its way to resupply fuel to frigates patrolling shipping lanes as part of the European Union's Operation Atalanta anti-piracy mission.
This was not the first time that Somali pirates have mistakenly attacked a French naval vessel. Several pirates were captured in May when they attempted to board a frigate in the area.
Somalia has had no proper government since it plunged into lawlessness after President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.
The country is riven by factional fighting and pirate gangs operate freely from several ports along its Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden coasts.
According to the environmental watchdog Ecoterra International, at least 163 attacks have been carried out by Somali pirates since the start of 2009 alone, 47 of them successful hijackings.
Last year, more than 130 merchant ships were attacked, an increase of more than 200 percent on 2007, according to the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre in Kuala Lumpur.
Pirates have in recent weeks resumed attacks with the end of the monsoon season. Last week Somali gunmen captured Spanish fishing boat The Alakrana with 36 crew members in the Indian Ocean.
The US Maritime Administration warned last month that the end of the monsoon season was likely to bring an increase in piracy off Somalia and urged shipping companies to be vigilant.
Calmer waters allow pirates, who often operate in small fibreglass skiffs towed out to sea by captured fishing vessels, to hijack freighters, trawlers and private yachts. Cruise vessels have also been attacked.

3,900 stimulus checks went to prison inmates

http://search.finance.yahoo.com/news/Stimulus-checks-not-boosting-apf-2542694170.html?x=0&.v=2

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal government sent about 3,900 economic stimulus payments of $250 each this spring to people who were in no position to use the money to help stimulate the economy: prison inmates.

The checks were part of the massive economic recovery package approved by Congress and President Barack Obama in February. About 52 million Social Security recipients, railroad retirees and those receiving Supplemental Security Income were eligible for the one-time checks.

Prison inmates are generally ineligible for federal benefits. However, 2,200 of the inmates who received checks got to keep them because, under the law, they were eligible, said Mark Lassiter, a spokesman for the Social Security Administration. They were eligible because they weren't incarcerated in any one of the three months before the recovery package was enacted.

"The law specified that any beneficiary eligible for a Social Security benefit during one of those months was eligible for the recovery payment," Lassiter said.

The other 1,700 checks? That was a mistake.

Checks were sent to those inmates because government records didn't accurately show they were in prison, Lassiter said. He said most of those checks were returned by the prisons.

"We are currently reviewing each of those cases to determine whether or not the recovery payment was due," Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue said in a statement issued Wednesday evening. "Where we determine payment was not due, we will take aggressive action to recover each of these erroneous payments."

The Boston Herald first reported that the checks were sent to inmates.

The inspector general for the Social Security Administration is performing an audit to make sure no checks went to ineligible recipients, spokesman George E. Penn said.

The audit, which had already been planned, will examine whether checks incorrectly went to inmates, dead people, fugitive felons or people living outside the U.S., Penn said.

The $787 billion economic recovery package included $2 million for the inspector general to oversee the provisions handled by the Social Security Administration. The audit is part of those efforts, Penn said. There is no timetable for its conclusion.

The federal government processed $13 billion in stimulus payments. About $425,000 was incorrectly sent to inmates.

Punters change channel on Jones’ $40 million TV

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-jimlitke-082409&prov=ap&type=lgns

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had 75,000 paying guests and a few dozen freeloaders over to his new house the other night to watch football. Punters for the visiting Tennessee Titans immediately showed their gratitude by using his $40 million TV set for target practice.
“I hit it probably a dozen times in pregame,” veteran kicker Craig Hentrich(notes) said.
“I guess,” he added a moment later, “they should have tested things out before they put that thing in place.”
“That thing” is the 1.2-million pound, four-sided video board hanging from the rafters exactly 90 feet above the field in the new Cowboys Stadium, the centerpiece of Jones’ $1.15-billion shrine to himself.
The big screens along either sideline are 160 feet wide—stretching from one 20-yard line to the other—and 72 feet tall. Throw in the “smaller” screens above the end zones and you’d need almost 5,000 52-inch flat screens to cover the same surface.
So it’s not like Jones can ring up the “Geek Squad” at the local Best Buy and ask them to raise it. Nor would he.
Jones said the league had approved its location, even though his own punter, Mat McBrier, sent at least one kick more than 100 feet high when the Cowboys conducted tests at the Alamodome in San Antonio two years ago. The owner decided 90 feet was plenty, reasoning that most punters angle kicks toward the sidelines rather than straight up. He insisted the Titans punters went out of their way to hit it, both before and during Dallas’ preseason home opener.
“I’m very comfortable that our height on our scoreboard is OK,” he said.
It’s been almost 15 years since Jones’ last serious run-in with his NFL brethren, so maybe he needs a reminder: The problem with building an empire is that sooner or later, you run into someone else’s.
The last time, Jones was upset that Cowboys merchandise accounted for one-quarter of the league’s $3 billion annual licensing sales—divided equally among the teams—and cut his own side deals with Pepsi and Nike. One measure of how peeved his colleagues were at the time was apparent when legal papers for their $300 million damage suit were served on Jones while he was midway through a bowl of clam chowder.
The matter was resolved without any legal bloodletting, and judging by the league’s measured response—“We are reviewing the situation,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said in an e-mail Sunday—this one will be, too. But not simply by Jones waving it off.
“It is an issue,” said Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher, who also serves as co-chair of the league’s competition committee, which could order Jones to raise the video board. “Something has to get worked out.”
Fisher was unhappy because he had to throw a challenge flag after backup Titan punter A.J. Trapasso hit the scoreboard with 8:07 left in the third quarter, and the refs missed it.
“Now, it’s not necessarily their responsibility,” Fisher continued. “Once a fair catch signal is given, then there are no eyes on the ball anymore. So they don’t see it. … It can become a problem.”
Even though the video board will have to be raised when U2 plays in Cowboys Stadium on Oct. 12—the band’s stage gimmickry includes something called “The Claw,” which is 164 feet high—Jones insisted he won’t budge when it comes to football.
“You don’t need to move it. You gotta be trying to do it,” he said about punters hitting the TVs. “The rule is very clear. You just kick it over.”
Yet the clock wasn’t reset after Trapasso clanked a punt off the underside in the game; unless the NFL changes the rule, and fast, a team could run plenty of time off the clock simply by banging the ball off the video board as often it likes. And even a team that wasn’t intentionally wasting time could do it, which is one more delay the games don’t need.
“It does not matter where you kick it from, it is just right there in the middle of the field,” Trapasso said. “It’s always something that you’re going to be thinking about.”
Jones is deservedly proud of his new emporium, which opened to rave reviews. Some fans will find $60 pizzas hard to swallow. And those sitting in the last row might not be thrilled that after shelling out $20,000 or more for seat licenses—plus $170 for each game—that the people looking on just over their shoulders paid $30 for standing-room tickets. But in terms of griping, that was about it.
Jones called his opening night for football “an event we will remember for a long time.”
And if he wants to keep it that way, he’ll change his mind in a hurry and move the TV. He should know better than most that in a league built on one-upmanship, the last thing you do is tempt guys with strong legs to see if they can change the channel with their feet.