Somali president pardons jailed Westerners (AP)

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Somalia has pardoned six foreigners sentenced to at least 10 years in prison each for bringing millions of dollars intended for pirate ransom into the country, a government spokesman said Sunday.

Abdirahman Omar Osman said the three British nationals, an American and two Kenyans, will be free after the court completes processing their release. The country's president granted them a pardon from their sentences, he said.

The men were arrested in Mogadishu last month after their planes were found to be carrying millions of dollars in cash. Two of the defendants were sentenced to 15 years in prison and a $15,000 fine, the others were sentenced to 10 years and a $10,000 fine on June 18.

Osman said $50,000 fines for each of the planes would need to be paid before they could be released.

Pirates have been receiving millions of dollars in ransoms for several years now but this was the first time Westerners were sentenced for their role in paying out the ransoms.

The average ransom paid to pirates has reached nearly $5 million. The ransoms are often air-dropped down to hijacked ships. Somalia has been mired in conflict since longtime dictator Siad Barre was overthrown by warlords in 1991 who then turned on each other.

The conflict inland has helped piracy flourish on the waters off the horn Africa country.

There were a record high 142 piracy attacks worldwide in the first quarter of this year, according to the International Maritime Bureau, a global maritime watchdog. Nearly 70 percent or 97 of the attacks occurred off the coast of Somalia, up sharply from 35 attacks in the same period a year earlier.

Yahoo! News

Somali minister killed in suicide blast

Abdishakur Sheikh Hassan was killed in his home by a suicide bomber.Somali Interior Minister Abdishakur Sheikh Hassan has been killed by a suicide bomberHassan was killed in his own home by the bomber, who was a womanHassan was treated for wounds to the head and one leg before he died

(CNN) -- Somalia's interior minister was killed Friday in a suicide bomb attack carried out in his own home by a female bomber, Somali government officials said.

The death of Abdishakur Sheikh Hassan was announced on state run radio by Somalia's deputy information minister.

Hassan was briefly treated for wounds to the head and one leg at Mogadishu's Benedir Hospital before dying, according to a government security official who declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

The official confirmed that the suicide bomber had been staying at Hassan's house.

The jihadist group al-Shabaab has been waging a war against Somalia's government in an effort to implement a stricter form of Islamic law, or sharia law. Somalia has not had a stable government since 1991, and fighting between the rebels and government troops has added to the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa nation.

It was not immediately clear if the suicide bomber had ties to al-Shabaab.

Journalist Mohamed Amiin contributed to this report

CNN

U.S. brings first case against alleged Somali pirate leader

An alleged Somali pirate leader has been indicted in the kidnapping and deaths of four Americans. STORY HIGHLIGHTSFour Americans died during the hijacking of a yacht in FebruaryThe purported leader of alleged pirates was arrested in Somalia on April 4A prosecutor says the indictment marks the first U.S. prosecution of a pirate leader Washington (CNN) -- An alleged Somali pirate leader has been indicted for the takeover of the yacht Quest and the kidnapping of four Americans who subsequently were killed during the incident.

Mohammad Saaili Shibin, 50, appeared at a detention hearing in federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, on Wednesday afternoon after the indictment against him was unsealed. He will remain in federal custody.

"Today marks the first time that the U.S. government has captured and charged an alleged pirate in a leadership role -- a hostage negotiator who operated in Somalia," said U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride in a written statement. MacBride went on to say the arrest and charges against Shibin should "send a strong message to all pirates that they are not beyond the reach of the FBI, whether they board the ships or remain on-shore in Somalia."

According to the indictment, one of the alleged pirates aboard the Quest identified Shibin as the person who would negotiate the terms for the release of the four Americans. The document says Shibin did Internet research about the hostages on the Quest "to determine the amount of ransom to demand and the identity of family members of the hostages whom he could contact about the ransom."

An FBI official said Shibin was arrested in Somalia on April 4 by "host nation security." FBI agents were at the scene of the arrest, though law enforcement officials would not provide details beyond that the FBI worked with Somali forces on the ground.

Shibin and 14 co-conspirators are charged with piracy, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and possession and use of a firearm during a crime of violence. The men are scheduled to go on trial November 29 and they face a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.

The U.S. military and an FBI negotiator had been trying to win the safe release of the hostages aboard the Quest. The February hijacking off the coast of Oman ended when some of the pirates on the yacht allegedly shot and killed Americans Scott and Jean Adam, Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle.

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