HORN OF AFRICA UPDATE: South Korean Naval Commandos Kill 8 Pirates, Free Hostages; Private Military Contractors Training Private Anti-Pirate Forces?

South Korean sailors from the Cheonghae Naval Unit conducting an antipiracy drill in 2009- Militaryphotos.net

Six days after the MV Samho Jewelry was boarded and seized by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, South Korean commandos stormed the cargo ship, killing 8 pirates and rescuing the 21 member crew. Taking part in multinational anti-piracy patrols in the region, the destroyer Choi Young was dispatched by South Korea to intercept the hijacked vessel.

The Samho Jewelry was carrying chemicals from the United Arab Emirates to Sri Lanka when the pirates attacked. A vessel from the same company shipping oil from Iraq to the USA- the Samho Dream- was hijacked by pirates last May and it's crew was released 217 days later only after a largest-of-its-kind ransom payment of US$9.5 million.

"Our special forces stormed the hijacked Samho Jewelry earlier today and freed all hostages," said Colonel Lee Bung-Woo, a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"During the operation, our forces killed some Somali pirates and all of the hostages were confirmed alive," Lee told reporters on Friday. Another JSC spokesman said eight pirates were killed.

The military said Friday's rescue followed a brief gunbattle Tuesday, when the destroyer encountered pirates who had apparently left the South Korean freighter to try to seize a nearby Mongolian vessel.

The South Korean commandos aboard a speedboat and a Lynx helicopter were dispatched to rescue the Mongolian ship.

Tuesday's firefight left several pirates missing and believed killed although their bodies have not been found, spokesmen said. Three commandos were slightly hurt.

The rescue took place 800 miles off the northeastern coast of Somalia, according to the Joint Chiefs.

ELSEWHERE IN THE HORN OF AFRICA: Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater USA, is reportedly backing an effort by South African Private Military Contractors to train 2000 Somalis for a land-based private army that would protect officials from Somalia's fragile Transitional government as well as combat pirates and the al-Shabaab Islamic militia.

Prince reportedly brokered the deal between officials in the United Arab Emirates and other Middle Eastern nations and South Africa's Saracen International to fill the security vacuum in the lawless region.

Presently an African Union peacekeeping force is propping up the internationally recognized Somali Transitional government that only controls parts of the capital city of Mogadishu. Last month, the AP reported that the Somalia project encompassed training a 1,000-man anti-piracy force in Somalia's northern semi-autonomous region of Puntland and presidential guards in Mogadishu, the ruined seaside capital. The story identified Saracen International, a private security company, as being involved, along with a former U.S. ambassador, Pierre Prosper; a senior ex-CIA officer, Michael Shanklin; and an unidentified Muslim donor nation. Prosper and Shanklin confirmed they were working as advisers to the Somali government.

Since then, AP has learned from officials and documents that Prince is involved and that a second 1,000-man anti-piracy force is planned for Mogadishu, where insurgents battle poorly equipped government forces.

This has some analysts fretting over what they call 'the privatization of war', which in a region that has been racked by famine, prolonged civil wars, lawlessness, piracy and terrorism for the last 20 years seems like a rather petty and abstract complaint.

I mean, really? Suddenly, employing some battle-hardened South Africans (or Brits, or Aussies, or Americans) with extensive military backgrounds to break the impasse and restore some sort of order is bad?

Worse than multiple civil wars dragging on for decades at a time that's killed millions?

Worse than multiple famines triggered by said civil wars and ethnic cleansing that's killed millions more?

Worse than rampant piracy that threatens to choke off the Red Sea to commercial maritime traffic to all nations?

Worse than yet another failed state playing host to yet another Islamic terror group that can operate with impunity?

I mean, it's not as though Saracen is usurping a Democratically elected government- there has essentially been no functioning central government in Somalia since 1991.

Food for thought.

PUNTLAND- The autonomous reigon of Puntland- where a number of pirate raids have been launched from- said it was breaking with Somalia's Transitional Federal Government 'until a legitimate Federal authority is in place in Mogadishu'.

The decision was made during a special cabinet meeting in the Puntland capital Garowe, said a government statement received by AFP in Nairobi.

It said the Mogadishu government "does not represent Puntland in international forums" and called on "the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) to reconsider its position and support for the TFG at the expense of other Somali stakeholders".

And it criticised "the lack of participation, consultation and representation of the Puntland Government during the 2008-2009 Djibouti Peace Process which led to the formation of the current Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia."

The statement also slammed "the marginalization of Puntland from the international community's initiatives and funding intended for the reconstruction and development of Somalia as a whole."

It said it "welcomes, supports and endorses the new U.S. Dual-Track Policy which is based on realities on the ground in Somalia" and called for a conference to speed up national reconciliation.

Unlike neighbouring Somaliland, Puntland, which was founded in 1998 by former transition president Abdullahi Yussuf Ahmed, did not secede from Somalia but has its own government bodies at Garowe.

While it's rumored that some government officials in Puntland take a cut of ransoms paid out to pirates, the Saracen project is reportedly using a pool of recruits from Puntland. Local reports also indicate that Saracen is aiding in the construction of a new Naval facility outside the coastal village of Bandar Siyada.

Photo- Guuleed

SOMALILAND- It could be that there's a country newer than South Sudan waiting in the wings. Somaliland declared its independence from the rest of Somalia during the 1991 Civil War and has managed to avoid the chaotic slide into lawlessness and anarchy that has characterized the rest of Somalia. It has managed to set up a functioning government and legals system, hold regularly scheduled elections and circulate its own currency- although for whatever reason the international community has been reluctant to recognize it as an independent state [I was actually made aware of Somaliland in the 1997 editon of Fielding's World's Most Dangerous Places; apparently Somaliland stood out because it wasn't as dengerous as the rest oF the country- NANESB!].

Surveys indicate that Somaliland holds considerable oil and mineral reserves, but because of it's unrecognized status, foreign companies are unable to extract those resources while Somaliland itself lacks the expertise on a local level to set up large scale drilling or mining operations. Presently, it's main source of income is exporting livestock, remittances from abroad and allowing Ethiopia to use the port of Berbera.

And they also view the rampant piracy in the region as one more problem that jeopardizes their bid for international recognition as a sovereign state. The de facto government in Somaliland has offered to put the port at Berbera at the disposal of the international navies that are patrolling the Red Sea and Indian Ocean as part of their stepped up campaign against Somali pirates as far back as 2008.

More recently, they have arrested and jailed pirates fleeing into Somaliland waters, handing out sentences of 15 years each. Last month, they arrested six Russian pilots violating territorial airspace and suspected of attempting to deliver military supplies to the Puntland reigon in defiance of a blanket arms embargo on all of Somalia (it is thought the supplies were destined for the Saracen project in Puntland). Puntland and Somaliland are involved in an ongoing border dispute as well. The Russians were released after being given a suspended sentence and fine at the end of December.

While far from perfect, this resilient and fairly orderly enclave along Somalia's northern coast could be what the international community needs to serve as a counterweight to the out of control piracy and al Shabaab militias that have taken over elsewhere in the Horn of Africa.

Guess Hu's Comng to Dinner- Chinese President Jintao Finishes Up Washington Leg of State Visit to USA

OK.....I'm sure that pun hasn't been pile driven into the ground this week.

About a week after China's People's Liberation Army Air Force debuted their prototype stealth fighter while US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates just happened to be in Beijing, Chinese president Hu Jintao was the guest at what's being described as a 'quintessentially American' State Dinner at the White House.

On the menu was steak, Maine lobster, apple pie, ice cream and wine [altho' no word if it came from the winery owned by one of the gate-crashers from the last State Dinner- NANESB!]. While it's more traditional for cuisine from the guest nation at the state dinner to be served, the Chinese delegation apparently asked for American dishes to be prepared. Whether they actually wanted steak and lobster or were concerned that the cooks would make a hash of things serving up Cantonese or Mandarin dishes is a matter of ongoing speculation.

The dinner comes after reportedly candid talks between the two presidents over human rights, trade, currency and security issues. Hopefully the talks went better than the last couple of times Presidents Obama and Jintao had met.




Members of Congress also had a chance to question the Chinese president on a number of issues before departing for the Chicago.

FCC Approves Comcast-NBC Deal

Federal regulators have approved a deal this week in which cable giant Comcast [NASDAQ: CMCSA] acquired a 51% stake of NBC Universal from General Electric [NYSE: GE].

In a 4-1 vote on Tuesday, the FCC determined that the deal, which creates a company with a combined 16.7 million broadband subscribers and 23 million cable customers, is in the nation’s public interest, seeing it complies with certain conditions.
The conditions, among other things, are intended to ensure that the nation’s largest cable provider share NBC programming, such as MSNBC and USA Network, with cable, satellite and Internet rivals. They are meant to stop the conglomerate from trampling competition, which could ultimately lead to an increase in prices for customers, according to the Department of Justice.

Also according to the deal, Comcast will have to offer online video distributors the same package of broadcast and cable channels as it sells to traditional video programming distributors.

This deal effectively makes Comcast the parent company of MSNBC, which as any cursory glance at the ratings will tell you, was likely kept around by the benevolnce towards the networks leftist 'personalities' by GE CEO Jeffery Immelt. It will be interesting to see if this deal in any way changes the arrangement (and God-awful business model) between MSNBC and its parent company.

House Votes to Repeal 0bamacare, 6 More States Challenge HR 3590

Even though it's likely to languish in the Senate, the newly elected Republicans of the 112th Congress made good on a promise that many of them campaigned on.

WASHINGTON—The Republican-led House voted Wednesday to repeal the health-care overhaul that is a signature achievement of President Barack Obama, in a largely symbolic move that made good on a GOP election promise but left uncertain what the party would offer as an alternative.

The vote was 245-189 in favor of repeal, with three Democrats joining the entire Republican caucus in the majority. That compared with 34 House Democrats who voted in March 2010 against enacting the law.

Despite Wednesday's vote, the law is all but certain to remain in place for now. The Democratic-controlled Senate doesn't plan to take up the repeal measure, and even if it were to clear that chamber, Mr. Obama would veto it.

Even if it doesn't pass the Senate, I would prefer that it went up for a vote to see who voted for and against it leading up to the 2012 elections. Although much of the public and a number of economists support a full repeal, that won't be likely as long as Obama is in the White House. However, the current congress can delay or halt implementation of key provisions of Obamacare by defunding agencies that are tasked with implementing and enforcing portions of the law.

There are also a number of legal obstructions facing the healthcare law, with at least 6 additional states joining in a lawsuit against Obamacare this week. Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Wyoming, Wisconsin and Ohio joined the lawsuit on Tuesday, bringing the total number of states challenging HR 3590 to 26.

Last month, a federal judge in Virgina struck down a key component- the government mandate to purchase insurance- as unconstitutional.

'Combat Barbie' Redux- 2009 Miss England Returns to Active Duty With Royal Army

*sigh* All good things must come to an end. Some of you who were around towards the beginning of Not Another New England Sports Blog!might remember the name Katrina Hodge- Lance Corporal Katrina Hodge of the Royal Army, to be specific.

A decorated Iraq war vet, she competed in the 2009 Miss England pageant and was awarded 1st runner up when the then-reigning Miss England was stripped of her crown for getting into an altercation with another contestant at a nightclub [No word on whether or not it was a prolonged Dynasty-esque face-slapping, dress-ripping, hair-pulling, falling-into-a-pond catfight- NANESB!]. So in a rather ironic twist, the military woman is awarded the Miss England crown for not fighting.

And now that a new Miss England was crowned last year, Corporal Hodge is back with the Royal Army and awaiting deployment to Afghanistan.

the move from soldier to beauty queen was a lot easier that the move in the other direction.

‘I’m not going to lie, it was hard to come back,' said Hodge.

‘It’s definitely a change of lifestyle from having your hair and make-up done every day to being in your combats and having your hair scraped back.'
But after 12 months of fancy hotels, false eyelashes and beauty assistants at her beck and call, Combat Barbie is back in combat training

Aside from her Miss England duties, Corporal Hodge had a pretty eventful 2010 in that she married some lucky bastard a fellow British soldier at a private ceremony in Sri Lanka last June.

Omnibus Sports Chowdah Update- Pats Suffer From Gang Green Infection; Something Magic in the Air; B's Weather Category 0 Hurricanes

POLL CLOSED: Thanks to those of you that voted. To hardly anybody's surprise, the Red Sox coming back to win the 2004 ALCS against the Yankees was the runaway winner for 'Most Memorable New England Sports Moment: 2000-2010.'

NFL: My highly placed sources indicate that there were some sort of football games that were played over the weekend, which was capped off the the New York Jets 28-21 win over New England at Foxboro on Sunday afternoon....wait.....*looks at paper*...that can't be right, can it?

*Re-examining newspaper*

What? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! Damn it to hell! I hope Rex Ryan chokes on a hooker's big toe...

Actually, I got to see the whole thing unfold in not-so-glorious hi def from start to finish. I had entertained thoughts of jumping off a bridge, but the nearest one is actually one of those little Japanese bridges that isn't too high, which kind of defeats the purpose. It's not like the Tobin bridge is right around the corner.

Tom Brady was sacked five times and had two turnovers on the day, going 29 for 45 with 299 yards and 2 TD passes. The weird thing is that more often than not, he'd have all the time in the world to throw, but most of the receivers downfield would be covered. This was somewhat offset by reasonably productive days from Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis and Danny Woodhead, but promising looking drives would sputter midfield as the Jets defense tightened up. After trailing 14-3 at the half, the Patriots were kept out of the Jets end zone until the very end of the 3rd quarter on a short pass from Brady to Alge Crumpler.

New England successfully converted the 2 point attempt to make it 14-11 heading into the 4th, but the Jets came right back with a quick strike on the next possession and went up by a 21-11 margin. Shortly after Shayne Graham kicked a short FG to make it a 14-21 game, the Jets recovered the onside kick and ran the next play into the end zone to seemingly put the game out of reach at 28-14 (when they could've just gotten a first down and bleed out the clock from there, no less). The Pats would get the ball back on their own 41, and Brady would take all of a minute and 11 seconds to find Deion Branch in the end zone to make it a 'hold the phones' 28-21 game as Gillette stadium was rapidly emptying out [way to represent, Pats faithful- NANESB!], but once again, the Jets would recover the onside kick and take a knee wit 23 seconds to seal the win.

So this marks the second straight year that New England has lost at home in the playoffs....one and done. And perhaps with the hasty departure of the defending SuperBowl champions to a team that finished the regular season 7-9 and the team with the NFC's best record also making an early exit, the Jets win shouldn't come as a huge shock.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL: The Steelers looked a little rusty in their Saturday game against Baltimore, but came back from a 21-7 halftime deficit to go ahead 24-21 before the Ravens would manage to tie it back up at 24 on their 1st possession of the 4th quarter. However, Baltimore would turn it over on downs late in the 4th and Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger managed to convert for a 58 yard completion to rookie WR Antonio Brown on 3rd and 19. The Steelers would take the 31-24 lead with just ver a minute and a half remaining in the 4th- that would be the final from Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. This sets up an AFC Championship game in the Steel City between the Jets and Pittsburgh on Sunday the 23rd at 6:30PM ET.

I gotta say, the NFC matchups weren't nearly as close as I anticipated. Granted, I didn't think the Seahawks had another rabbit to pull out of their hat either. They lose by a 35-24 final at Soldier Field in Chicago on Sunday, and believe me, that was more a byproduct of the Bears defense taking the final 5 minutes off than it being an actual close game.

On Saturday, the Green Bay Packers simply ran away with it at the Georgia Dome as the Falcons laid an egg and lost by a 48-21 final coming off of their bye week. This sets up a good old fashioned black & blue Packers and Bears matchup for the NFC Championship game at Chicago- Sunday the 23rd at 3:00 ET. Interestingly, this will be the first time the Bears and the Packers have met in he postseason since Dec. 14th, 1941- exactly a week after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

NBA: He's baaaaaaaaack! And man oh man, did he come in handy on Monday night.

The C's had Saturday and Sunday off after a surprisingly close 99-94 win over the Charlotte Bobcats on Friday. Monday night's home game against the Orlando Magic marked the return of Kevin Garnett for the first time in nearly 3 weeks after being sidelined with a right calf injury, and his presence was felt with 19 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists and that pivotal steal with 17 seconds remaining and the Magic down by 3.

Boston would go on to win by the 106-109 final- Ray Allen led the scoring with 26 points on the night, followed by KG's 19 and 'Big Baby' coming off the bench with 15. This would make it 3 wins in a row for the C's, and they will next face the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night at the Garden during this lengthy homestand.

NHL: Seems like the Bruins and the Celtics are doing their utmost to make me realize that even after Sunday's debacle in Foxboro, it's still a mighty damn good time to be a New England sports fan.

The Bruins came into Monday night's home game against the Carolina Hurricanes winning three of their last four games (including a Patrice Bergeron hat trick in a 6-0 dismantling of the Senators last Tuesday)- although their most recent game was a 3-2 loss to the struggling Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.

So not quite a week after Bergeron's first career hat trick, what could one possibly do for an encore?
How about Zdeno Chara's first career hat trick? The big Slovakian defender's first tally came almost literally right when he stepped out of the penalty box in the 1st period to make it a 2-0 game with 8 and a half minutes gone by in the 1st period. This was followed by a power play goal (5 on 3) four and a half minutes later and another power play goal with just over 6 minutes remaining in the 3rd period.

Truth be told, the Bruin's could've won with just Chara's offensive contribution alone- Tim Thomas made 31 saves in the B's 7-0 shutout of the Hurricanes. Patrice Bergeron, Gregory Campbell, Mark Stuart and Michael Ryder also had goals in last night's game.

The B's will travel down to Raleigh for a rematch on Tuesday night in the away portion of the home-and-away series against Carolina.

Today's Train of Thought- SD70MAC Attack Up North, January 15, 2011.

Even though Alaska is by far the biggest state in the Union, big trains are something of a rarity in the Big Dipper State, as the Alaska Railroad is isolated and disconnected from the rest of the rail network in the USA and Canada.

The link is provided instead by rail barges between Seattle, WA- where the cars are interchanged with BNSF or Union Pacific- or Prince Rupert, BC where the cars are interchanged with the Canadian National Railway.

The barges can typically accomodate anywhere from 40-55 cars each, but there are intra-line unit coal trains that can measure 75 cars in length. Although some of this coal is bound for on line customers like Fort Wainright, University of Alaska-Fairbanks or Eileson AFB, a good deal of the coal (mined at Healy, AK) travels to port at Seward where it is loaded onto ships for export to South Korea or Chile.

Railpictures.net photographer (and Alaska Railroad employee) David Blaze explains that on December 10, 2010, one of these 75 car trains was in the middle of unloading at Seward, but had to stop halfway through because of high winds. The train ended up leaving with 4 units and half of it's consist. The following day, another coal train showed up at Seward and was able to successfully offload its coal along with the other half of the train that had to stop on account of the wind.

For the return trip to Anchorage, the consist was successfully doubled up on December 12th, resulting in a 10 unit, 113 car, 7000 ft behemoth of a train- essentially 1½ trains. Here, David Blaze catches SD70MAC #4016 in charge of nine other EMD Behemoths as it snakes its way northward around the Turnagain Arm at Indian, AK on December 12, 2010.

Lebanese, Tunisian Governments Collapse.

Ministers from the Islamic group Hezbollah and their allies withdrew from the 30 member coalition cabinet in Beirut while the Lebanese prime minister was in Washington D.C. meeting with President Obama at the White House this week. This has effectively collapsed the Lebanese government.

Eleven ministers from Hezbollah and their allies pulled out of the 30-member coalition cabinet Wednesday after Prime Minister Saad Hariri refused to discredit a United Nations-backed court investigating the 2005 assassination of his father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The Hariri tribunal is expected as soon as next week to indict two to five members of Hezbollah for roles in the assassination, according to officials briefed on the court's work.

The announcement of the resignations coincided with Prime Minister Hariri's meeting with President Barack Obama in Washington. An opposition minister said they wanted Mr. Hariri to "meet Obama as the former prime minister of Lebanon."

Successive U.S. governments have supported Mr. Hariri and his father in a bid to build a secular Western-leaning government on Israel's northern border. The Obama administration had viewed the White House meeting as an important symbol of support for the Lebanese leader

The new developments underscore the re-emergence of Syria as a formidable power broker in Lebanon and its crucial role—along with Iran—in steering Hezbollah, a political and militant party on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist groups.

"On big regional and strategic matters Iran has the first word but in Lebanon's internal affairs, Syria calls the shots," said Okab Sakr, a parliamentarian for Mr. Hariri's bloc.

In the short term, it is unlikely that Hezbollah, will resort to violence, as it did in 2008, in a dispute over security and the use of the movement's telecom network, analysts say.

Hezbollah's ministers on Wednesday stressed that withdrawing from the government was within their democratic rights.

Mr. Hariri's office said he was cutting his visit to Washington short and heading home, where he would meet with President Michel Suleiman to discuss the next steps.

The developments in Beirut has put Israel's military on alert, as Hezbollah has used southern Lebanon to launch rocket attacks into Israel as recently as 2006.

Reuters photo

Elsewhere, the president of Tunisia has fled to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia after demonstrators protesting high unemployment and food prices began rioting and clashing with police.

President Zine al-Abadine Ben Ali seized power in a bloodless coup in 1987, and leaked diplomatic cables from the US Embassy compare Ben Ali's family and inner circle to a mafia family.The leaked cables seemed to confirm what many Tunisians had already suspected about the ruling party and first family.

Clashes between authorities and protesters and police crackdowns had killed 23 in Tunisia this week, although some human rights groups say the total could be as high as 66.

The final moments of Mr Ben Ali's long dominance of his country will be remembered for the drama on the streets as protests that have raged across the country for four weeks, finally reached the capital on Thursday.

Demonstrators ignored a curfew, and took no notice of a promise by Mr Ben Ali that night not to seek a sixth term of office in 2014. Instead of returning home, they took to the streets and the roof-tops, even of government buildings and the interior ministry, hurling stones at symbols of authority.

Ben Ali named Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi Tunisia's interim head of state before leaving the country. An aircraft thought to be carrying Ben Ali departed from Tunis and landed on the Italian island of Sardinia, but that turned out to be a decoy.

Although Tunisian airspace was briefly shut down, British Travel agency Thomas Cook began evacuating an estimated 3000 Britons on vacation in the North African country.

Although the interim government announced plans for a special election within 60 days, rioters continued looting businesses and torched the capital city's main train station on Friday.

Federal Judge, 9 Year Old Girl Killed in Tuscon Shooting Spree Laid to Rest

Security was tight for the funeral services of US District Judge John Roll in Tuscon as Arizona Senators John McCain and John Kyl, Governor Jan Brewer and former Vice President Dan Quayle were among those in attendance at the services on Friday.

Roll, 63, was heralded as a stern-but-fair jurist who had been pressing for more courts and judges to handle the increased federal caseload brought on by illegal immigration in the region. Roll was on his way back from church on Saturday and some accounts said he wanted to personally thank Congresswoman Giffords for addressing the issue of the shortage of judges and courthouses in Arizona.

The day before, 9 year old Christina-Taylor Green was laid to rest at a funeral in St Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Tuscon. The roughly 1700 mourners in attendance passed under the National 9/11 flag- a tattered patchwork of fabric that was pulled from the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers in the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001- Christina-Taylor's date of birth. She was also featured in a 2002 book called Faces of Hope: Babies Born on 9/11, which shows photos of babies from all 50 states that were born on 9/11/01.

She had just been elected to student council earlier in the school year [And I wouldn't be surprised if she was taken to Gifford's town hall event that day so she could see representative government in action for herself- NANESB]. Green also loved ballet, gymnastics and baseball, and she was the only girl on her team. Her father John is a scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Baseball Hall of Famers Ryne Sandberg and Pat Gillick were in attendance at the funeral.

Christina-Taylor was aware of the significance of her date of birth and said she thought of herself as something good that came from that terrible day. Although horrifically cut down before she could pursue her dreams of public service, she was able to find a way to help others even in death. In an interview on CNN, John Green said that Christina was an organ donor and that the family had already received word from the organ donor network that Christina's organs saved the life of a little girl in Boston.

South Sudan Expected to Break From Khartoum in Weeklong Referndum

Voters in the capital of autonomous South Sudan region broke out in song and wrapped themselves as week long balloting began on a referendum for independence from Khartoum on Sunday.

The voting is expected to be relatively peaceful, although the referendum is the culmination of a prolonged bloody civil war that left nearly 1 million dead. It is widely expected that oil rich and majority Christan South Sudan- which consists of roughly the southern ⅓ of Sudan- will vote overwhelmingly to break with the Khartoum regime of Omar al-Bashir (who has an international warrant from the International Criminal Courts from 2009).

Voter turnout has surpassed more than 60% this week in the first 3 days of voting. Polls are expected to close this upcoming Sunday.

However, even if the referendum passes and Khartoum peacefully accepts South Sudan's secession from the rest of the country, the new nation would be faced with a number of political and logistical challenges. Although rich in timber and oil, South Sudan is landlocked. Aside from Kenya, a potentially belligerent Sudan and the perennially unstable Democratic Republic of the Congo, the countries bordering South Sudan would also be landlocked [for the record, the Darfur reigon that caught the attention of so many Hollywood types is in the Western part of Sudan and bordering Chad- NANESB!].

The shortest route for exports would be to the northeast and the Red Sea port of Port Sudan. While there is talks of constructing a rail link with Uganda to the south, the new nation would be dependent on the goodwill of Khartoum and the al-Bashir regime in the near term.

There is also a high infant mortality rate and it's believed there are only three functioning hospitals in the nearly 240,000 square mile autonomous region at present.