Word: gulf
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That sounds like a scene from an action movie, but in the Gulf of Aden it is legal business practice. That's because the pirates are regarded as criminals, rather than terrorists, under U.S. or international law, which bans money going to individuals or organizations listed as terrorists. Unlike in, say, Iraq, Somali pirates appear to have little interest in killing hostages who are seized along with vessels, and the crews are usually released with the ships when the ransoms are paid. "Paying ransoms is not illegal," says Guillaume Bonnissent, a special risks underwriter for Hiscox Insurance...
...European officials insist they don't pay ransoms to pirates. And why would they? Shipping and insurance companies now routinely pay ransoms of millions of dollars, dropping sack-loads of cash from airplanes into the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden, despite assertions from politicians back home that the money is fueling the rampant piracy...
...Gates' reasoning is unlikely to deter many companies, which simply cannot afford to lose hugely valuable vessels and cargo to seaborne bandits. Indeed, insurance premiums have risen along with the ransom amounts, according to Regester, who estimates that coverage for a single voyage through the Gulf of Aden costs about $20,000. With shipping companies hard-hit by the global downturn, some opt simply to take their chances running the gauntlet of pirates, rather than pay insurance premiums. "I reckon less than 10% of vessels are insured now," says Regester. "K&R policies are considered a luxury." Whether...
Florida's Gulf Coast was crawling with shady real estate investors like Neil Husani during this decade's housing boom. According to the U.S. Attorney's office in Tampa, Husani and three co-conspirators working with his Sarasota-based Capital Force, Inc., bilked seven area banks out of $83 million in a mortgage fraud scheme. Between 2003 and 2006, they bought up dozens of properties, used false information to secure mortgages far in excess of the actual property values, then pocketed the difference, which amounted to more than $40 million. The properties went into foreclosure and the banks, as well...
...commercial fishing would virtually empty the world's oceanic stocks by 2050. Yet, Somalia's seas still offer a particularly fertile patch for tuna, sardines and mackerel, and other lucrative species of seafood, including lobsters and sharks. In other parts of the Indian Ocean region, such as the Persian Gulf, fishermen resort to dynamite and other extreme measures to pull in the kinds of catches that are still in abundance off the Horn of Africa. (Read about illegal wildlife trade...