Word: ransoms
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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There are two kinds of kidnappings in Mexico: those meant for ransom and those meant as a warning. This month's abduction of Felix Batista in the northern state of Coahuila was most likely the latter - and it's one of the more chilling messages that Mexico's ubiquitous police-linked kidnapping industry has ever sent...
...survey by the Mexican polling firm Gabinete de Comunicacion Estrategica. In the same poll, 45% of Mexicans who have a phone line said they've been victims of telephone extortion, in which persons call a residence, claim they've abducted a family member and demand a ransom. Often the claims of abduction are false; but either way, because the fear of kidnapping is so high in Mexico, the callers usually get money...
...failed to draw the world's interest to Somalia. The return of piracy to the high seas, however, has. The Somali pirates have attacked more than 100 vessels in the waters leading to and from the Suez Canal this year, and earned tens of millions of dollars in ransom. Today they are holding 17 ships with around 300 crew members off the Somali coast. And at a weekend security conference organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Bahrain, headquarters to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, opinion appeared unanimous: to fix the pirates, fix Somalia. "We haven...
...hostage—or why the seemingly rational Barkley would go along with the plan—is left completely unexplained. Nonetheless, it seems the viewer is meant to root for the brothers as they carry out their plan. A rather exciting chase scene follows the payment of the ransom, and this clever sequence marks a highlight of the film. Unfortunately, it also divides “Nobel Son” between its mildly entertaining opening act and its manic, absurd conclusion. Indeed, the film veers wildly off track in its second hour. Writers Jody Savin and Randall Miller abandon...
...security companies, political parties or loose business networks. Allegations of land grabs, rape, murder and kidnapping are rife. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Afghan human rights organizations such as Samimi's have documented extortion rackets run by former warlords and militia-run prisons where captives are held for ransom. Afghan journalists covering their crimes have been harassed by police or thrown in jail. Last year Samimi received a phone call from General Abdul Rashid Dostum, a U.S. ally who was appointed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai as Army Chief of Staff, threatening to have her raped...