Word: ransoming
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There was no question that the money was the evil lucre of rebel drug deals, extortion rackets, and ransom payments made by the desperate relatives of hostages. By some estimates, such scams earned the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - the country's largest guerrilla army known as the FARC - $500 million annually. But knowing that these riches were tainted didn't stop Suárez. "I was so happy. I'd never seen so much money," he said. "It was like the Virgin had appeared before...
...urgent visit to the country on Tuesday to try to resolve the situation. Spain's El Mundo newspaper reported last month that AQIM wanted $7 million and the release of several other militants in exchange for freeing the three Spanish hostages, but Madrid has ruled out paying a ransom. According to an audiotape released by the group, the Italians were nabbed in retaliation for "crimes committed by the Italian government in Afghanistan and Iraq," but no ransom demand has yet been made...
...attacks against North African governments remains AQIM's main reason for kidnapping foreigners, analysts believe another motivation is terrorizing the West. A French foreign intelligence official tells TIME that militants executed a British hostage last May, for example, simply to horrify the world after efforts to secure a ransom reportedly failed. The man, Edwin Dyer, was abducted while traveling in Niger in January 2009, and in exchange for his freedom, AQIM demanded $14 million and the release of a radical cleric being held in a British prison. When Britain balked, Dyer was executed less than 24 hours later. Some analysts...
Pirates operating off Somalia's lawless coast have taken in more than $100 million in ransom payments since 2007, and this year their attacks became ever more brazen. Somali pirates targeted close to 100 ships in 2009, ranging from supertankers to fishing boats. In April, a raiding party seized the U.S. cargo ship M.V. Maersk Alabama--the first American ship to be successfully hijacked since the 1800s--but all the pirates were killed or captured in the ensuing standoff with a U.S. Navy destroyer. The navies of more than two dozen nations now patrol the Gulf of Aden, and cargo...
...Turkish communities on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus share an islander's love of conspiracy theories. But the macabre theft of the remains of a hard-line Greek Cypriot President from his grave on Friday has even the most far-out pundits stymied. Was it politically motivated? For ransom? Was a mysterious gang of Romanian grave robbers involved...