Crime pays for Somalia’s pirates

Somali pirates are demanding an $8m ransom for the release of a Ukrainian ship they are holding off the coast off their country’s northern coast.

The pirates appear to rule the seas around Somalia with impunity, while towns in Somalia’s Puntland region have become the hub for many of their activities.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow sent this exclusive report.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJmDrm80o7M

Jitters in Japanese stock markets

After the Nikkei Index dropped more than 9 per cent on October 7, Japanese investors remain jittery about whether a worldwide, co-ordinated cut in interest-rates will shore up the markets and whether the US bank bailout will do any good.

Japan’s banks are in pretty good shape: they’ve been through something like this once before – in the late 1980s and early 1990s when a bubble in Japanese real estate popped.

But, as David Hawkins reports, that’s small comfort and hasn’t kept the diseased US economy from infecting the Japanese stock market.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOEdxtQ-AWQ