Human trafficking in every US city…When FBI and immigration agents arrested a 28-year-old Guatemalan woman three months ago in Los Angeles, they announced that they had shut down one of the most elaborate sex trafficking rings in the country. It was also the family business.

Kosovo threatens to ban products from Serbia …Kosovo threatened on [...]

http://www.bloomberg.com…
By Gregory Viscusi
Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) — International patrols at sea have done little to stop pirates from menacing ships off the coast of Somalia. Even less is being done to thwart them on land — and for that the brigands may want to thank an unintended consequence of the U.S.’s war on terror.

U.S. Contractor Confined More Than 1000 Foreign Workers In Windowless Warehouses In Iraq…Najlaa International Catering Services, a subcontractor to KBR, the Texas firm formerly known as Halliburton, hired the men, who’re from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
UN Ambassador-nominee Susan Rice: I’m not going to ask John Bolton for advice.…Yesterday, President-elect [...]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com…
from Huff Po by Eric Margolis
November 24, 2008
They are ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and cute little Johnny Depps they are not. Somalia’s pirates tote AK-47’s and RPG rockets, chew the narcotic shrub qat, use satellite cell phones for their negotiations, and are just about the only people in strife-ravaged Somalia these days who have a [...]

globalresearch.ca
Global Research, November 23, 2008
Afrol News - 2008-11-21
The Eritrean Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement has blamed Washington’s alleged policy of “balkanising Somalia” for being the root cause behind piracy off the Somali coast, adding that breakaway Somaliland and Puntland must return to Somalia to create a forceful unit.

6 of one. Half Dozen of the other.

The increase in pirate attacks interests me, especially as Blackwater wants to take on that task. A little created terror, anyone?
http://blog.wired.com…
Indian Frigate 1, Pirate ‘Mother Ship’ 0
Noah Shachtman
A Somali pirate “mother ship” is now in flames, after a firefight with an Indian frigate in the Gulf of Aden.
The INS Tabar intercepted the pirate ship [...]

1. Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker…
Pirates have seized a giant Saudi-owned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean off the Kenyan coast and are steering it towards Somalia, the US Navy reports.

2. CNN: Scooter Libby may have requested Bush pardon…
As President Bush gets closer to leaving the White House, expectations are mounting that he will follow [...]