Somalis

A federal judge in Virginia threw out piracy charges against six Somali nationals Tuesday, saying prosecutors had failed to prove that an April attack on a Navy ship off Africa was piracy "as defined by the law of nations. " But U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson allowed the prosecution to go forward against the men on seven lesser charges. Convictions on the piracy allegations could have brought mandatory life sentences without parole. Defense attorneys had argued that their clients were not guilty of piracy because they had made no attempt to rob or board the ship.

The Somali pirates in the documentary "Stolen Seas" brandish bazookas instead of swords and have roughly the same sense of chivalry as the husbands on "The Real Housewives of New Jersey. " "There's no such thing as a romantic Somali pirate," says one of the movie's many talking heads. You probably suspected as much. Still, Thymaya Payne's ambitious doc contains plenty of surprising and interesting details about the Somali pirate trade, which, according to the film, costs the shipping industry $7 billion to $12 billion annually.

A federal jury convicted five Somali men Wednesday of piracy on the high seas, the first such verdict in an American court in nearly 200 years, for shooting at a U.S. Navy warship disguised as a merchant vessel in the Indian Ocean last spring. The conviction on all counts after a dramatic trial in U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Va., carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison plus 80 years. Defense lawyers said they would appeal. The five defendants stood without expression and listened to an interpreter through earphones as the court clerk pronounced them each guilty on 14 counts, including attempts to plunder a vessel and assault with a deadly weapon.

WASHINGTON - A Somali suspect who was captured at sea two years ago and interrogated aboard a U.S. warship has pleaded guilty to aiding terrorist groups Al Shabaab and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, federal prosecutors said, a success for the Obama administration's efforts to use criminal courts rather than military tribunals to prosecute terrorism. Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame pleaded guilty to nine counts in December 2011 but the plea was sealed until Monday. He could be sentenced to life in prison.

When Mohamed Ali Dahir, a 21-year-old business administration student, used to board the bus to school, he wasn't worried about being prepared for an exam or arriving late to a lecture. Instead, he braced himself for gunfire or other violence that might erupt while he was traveling the streets of Mogadishu. Even though his bus is clearly marked as school transportation, he said, there were times when even "the government soldiers open fire at us as we return from our schools or college.

MOGADISHU, Somalia - As Somalia approaches its umpteenth attempt to forge a government that will actually stick, there's a deadening familiarity here: bloodstained warlords reemerging, clan elders manipulating politics, roadblocks going up as militias try to reclaim turf. And yet a year of relative peace in Mogadishu, long the world capital of chaos, and the recent adoption of a new constitution have raised faint hopes that this latest stab at shedding the "failed state" label might actually work.

MOGADISHU, Somalia - They came to the stadium in late afternoon, a sprinkle of rain mixing with their sweat as they pounded around the rough sand track. This is Mogadishu and the stadium bears the scars of war, but the gray sky could have been golden. In every runner's heart, it was as if there were another presence in the stadium, running with them: Mo Farah, the first Mogadishu-born athlete to take Olympic gold, in the 10,000-meter final in London. Although Farah, 29, won for the British team, to everyone in this city, he's a Somali.

A strike force of 1,800 Camp Pendleton-based U.S. Marines swept ashore here before dawn today, taking over the airport and port and launching a humanitarian mission that will bring at least 28,000 American servicemen to this chaotic, famine-racked African nation over the holidays. The troops, deployed from a flotilla in the Indian Ocean, were ferried ashore by helicopters, Hovercraft and amphibious assault vessels, escorted by armed Cobra choppers that filled the gray, cloudy skies.

After years of providing guns to the Somalis, the U.S. is now engaged in an Alms Race. HARRY SIMMONS Laguna Hills

Despite the concerted effort of food delivery by the U.N. and the United States to save Somalis from total annihilation, Somalis continue to die daily by the hundreds. It is said that a whole generation of Somalis has died of starvation and civil war. Relief agencies in Somalia report that the food donated as of mid-August is not even half of what is needed. The situation in Somalia is obscene and has surpassed anybody's imagination of what damage starvation, coupled with civil war, can do to human beings.

In Somalia, a court has cleared a woman who had been jailed after she alleged she was raped by state security forces but it has kept the journalist who interviewed her in prison. The Mogadishu appeals court found the woman not guilty, reversing an earlier conviction for defaming the government, according to news reports. However, it ruled that journalist Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim must spend six months behind bars. The January arrests of the woman and the reporter appalled human rights groups, which said the charges would discourage people from coming forward to report sexual assault, especially at the hands of government forces.

Bryan Buckley is known as "King of the Super Bowl" - he's a prolific commercial director who frequently helms many of the big game's highest-profile spots for companies including Coca-Cola and Best Buy. But this year he'll be at the Oscars, hopefully with some unusual companions. Buckley directed the Oscar-nominated short fiction film "Asad," a coming-of-age fable about a young Somali boy living in a war-torn fishing village. The project originated as Buckley's tribute to Somalis he met at the Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya in 2010, when he was filming a documentary for the U.N. High Commission for Refugees.

The disturbing case of a Somali woman who alleged she was raped by security forces, only to be convicted by a court Tuesday of making a false claim and insulting the state, has outraged human rights groups and advocates for women's rights around the world. The court also convicted a journalist who had interviewed the woman of the same charges (although he has published nothing so far). Each was given a one-year prison sentence. The State Department and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued statements of concern about the case, and a spokesperson for the U.N. noted that the organization has long been alarmed about underreported incidents of sexual violence in displaced-persons camps in Somalia, such as the one the alleged victim lived in. The case is a stark reminder of how dismissive governments often are - not just in Somalia but around the world - of sexual violence against women.

A woman who accused Somali security forces of raping her must spend a year behind bars for making a “false accusation” and insulting the government, a Mogadishu court ruled Tuesday. Court official Ahmed Aden Farah said medical evidence showed that the woman was not raped, the Associated Press reported. Her prison term was delayed to allow her to care for her baby. Journalist Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim, who had interviewed the convicted woman, will also spend a year behind bars on related charges, the court ruled.

Twitter suspended an account run by Somali extremists linked to Al Qaeda on Friday, two days after the militants threatened to execute Kenyan hostages and posted a video of one pleading for the Kenyan government to help free them. Shabab militants released the video titled “Kenyan POWS: The Final Message” on Twitter on Wednesday. In the short video, one of the hostages asks Kenyans to pressure their government to ensure the captives are freed, according to the SITE monitoring service, whose analysts track extremist statements.

MOGADISHU, Somalia - In the years to come, Ahmed Jama will be seen either as a visionary or a lunatic who squandered his money on a crazy dream. That crazy dream? To bring tourists to his hotel on the shores of one of the world's prettiest beaches - which just happens to be on the edge of a city known for more than 20 years as the world's most dangerous place. Mogadishu. In his dream, there won't be half a dozen guards with guns on the back of an SUV for most foreign visitors, like now. And the haunting memories of ruthless warlords, crippling famine and terrifying armed children will have faded.

The other night I saw "Black Hawk Down." I was moved to think of another film directed by Ridley Scott. In 1979, Scott directed "Alien," a story about a group of men and women dressed in sexy military outfits who are sent to a distant planet to investigate a distress signal and are attacked by a giant bug. In 2001, he directed "Black Hawk Down," a story about a group of men--no women--dressed in sexy military outfits who are sent to a foreign county...

A Grand Island meatpacking plant fired at least 86 workers after they walked off the job amid a dispute over prayers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, company officials said. A Muslim leader and one of the fired workers said 150 lost their jobs. Muslim workers -- mostly Somalis -- had been asking for break times to allow prayer at sunset. The issue led to walkouts this week -- not only by Muslims but also by non-Muslims protesting such accommodations as preferential treatment.

MOGADISHU, Somalia - As Somalia approaches its umpteenth attempt to forge a government that will actually stick, there's a deadening familiarity here: bloodstained warlords reemerging, clan elders manipulating politics, roadblocks going up as militias try to reclaim turf. And yet a year of relative peace in Mogadishu, long the world capital of chaos, and the recent adoption of a new constitution have raised faint hopes that this latest stab at shedding the "failed state" label might actually work.

MOGADISHU, Somalia - They came to the stadium in late afternoon, a sprinkle of rain mixing with their sweat as they pounded around the rough sand track. This is Mogadishu and the stadium bears the scars of war, but the gray sky could have been golden. In every runner's heart, it was as if there were another presence in the stadium, running with them: Mo Farah, the first Mogadishu-born athlete to take Olympic gold, in the 10,000-meter final in London. Although Farah, 29, won for the British team, to everyone in this city, he's a Somali.