FBI involved in talks to free U.S. captain
MOGADISHU, Somalia, April 9 (UPI) -- The FBI became involved Thursday in negotiations for the release of the U.S. captain held hostage by pirates off the Somali coast, officials said.
Meanwhile, the U.S.-flagged cargo ship Maersk Alabama headed to port in Mombasa, Kenya, to deliver humanitarian aid the day after it was hijacked, the father of a crew member told CNN.
An 18-person security detail was on board to ensure the safety of the crew during the 50-hour journey to port, the crew said.
FBI negotiators have made contact with the pirates, CNN reported, but it was unclear whether it was direct contact. A naval surveillance plane and a drone are in the area of the lifeboat holding Maersk Alabama Capt. Richard Phillips and four pirates.
The destroyer USS Bainbridge was positioned near the lifeboat.
Pirates who hijacked the vessel Wednesday backed out of an agreement to exchange Phillips for a pirate captured by crew members attempting to retake the ship, Maersk Alabama's second officer Ken Quinn said.
The rest of the 20-member crew was in good shape, Quinn said.
Before going into a Australia-U.S. ministerial meeting in Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: "We are watching this very closely. Apparently the lifeboat has run out of gas."
Phillips "remains hostage but is unharmed," Maersk spokesman Kevin Speers said during a news conference Thursday. "The safe return of the captain is our foremost priority."
The spokesman said the U.S. Navy "is in command of the situation" and that the shipping line is "coordinating with the Navy and all the governmental organizations involved in this crisis."
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said administration officials were working "around the clock" on the situation.
Va. rejects stimulus for jobless benefits
RICHMOND, Va., April 9 (UPI) -- A divided Virginia legislature rejected $125 million in federal stimulus money for jobless benefits, contending a rule change it required would raise taxes.
The Virginia Senate voted 21-19 in favor of accepting the money and the state unemployment-system rule change. The change would have made thousands of part-time workers and residents in approved job-training programs eligible to receive benefits.
Virginia's jobless rate is 6.7 percent, with almost 300,000 Virginians unemployed, the state labor department said.
But the legislature's lower House of Delegates rejected the bill 53-46, arguing the unemployment-system change would translate into higher business taxes once the stimulus money was exhausted, The Washington Post reported.
"We are being used," Republican state Sen. Ken Cuccinelli said. "Actually our constituents ... who are now unemployed are being used by this administration to hold a gun to the head of this General Assembly with the assistance of the governor to force through a bad bill."
Gov. Timothy Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, had pushed the bill as the state legislature convened for a one-day session, the Post said.
After the vote, Kaine berated legislators, saying they seemed to be telling unemployed Virginians: "We don't care. Fend for yourself," the Post said.
Kaine hinted he might try to find another way to accept the federal money, the newspaper said.
Court frees 4 accused in Rwanda genocide
LONDON, April 9 (UPI) -- Four men accused in the Rwanda genocide must be set free and not extradited because they cannot receive a fair trial in their country, a British court ruled.
Britain's High Court of Justice ruled there was "a real risk" the men, held in British custody since December 2006, "would suffer a flagrant denial of justice" if they were returned to Rwanda to face trial.
The ruling marks the first time a British court has blocked an extradition request from a foreign government on the grounds it would violate the European Convention on Human Rights, which safeguards the right to a fair trial.
The men -- Vincent Bajinya, who had changed his name to Vincent Brown; Celestin Ugirashebuja; Emmanuel Nteziryayo; and Charles Munyaneza -- are accused of killing, or of conspiring with or aiding and abetting others to kill, members of the Tutsi ethnic group "with the intent to destroy in whole, or in part, that group," The Times of London reported.
The judges said they were convinced that defense witnesses would be afraid to give evidence in any Rwanda trial and that Rwanda's government would interfere with the judiciary, The Times said.
The judges also refused to let Rwanda appeal the decision to the House of Lords, Britain's court of last resort in addition to its legislative function.
Group gears up protests against Thai PM
BANGKOK, April 9 (UPI) -- Demonstrators brought traffic to a halt in a Bangkok business district Thursday after Thailand's prime minister ignored calls for his resignation.
Taxi drivers parked vehicles at the intersections of roads leading to the business area and also blocked access to a nearby hospital, the Bangkok Post reported.
In a televised interview Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said he wouldn't step down as the leaders of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, the so-called red shirt anti-government movement, demanded Wednesday.
Sources close to group's leadership told the Post the protesters are considering additional measures to put pressure on the government, including an attempt to disrupt the Asean+3 summit Saturday in Pattaya. Another possibility was for the protesters to regroup at several locations with the goal of jamming traffic.
The demonstrators are supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was elected in 2001 and re-elected in 2005 but ousted in a military coup in 2006. Thaksin, a former telecommunications billionaire, fled the country before he was convicted last year on abuse-of-power charges and lives in exile, mainly in Dubai. Thaksin faces other charges in Thailand and the courts have frozen an estimated $2 billion in family assets.
Georgians ask Saakashvili to resign
TBILISI, Georgia, April 9 (UPI) -- Thousands of Georgians attended a rally in Tbilisi Thursday demanding President Mikhail Saakashvili resign for failing to install reforms, reports said.
More than 60,000 protesters gathered in front of the parliament building as Georgian opposition parties blamed Saakashvili for unsuccessful war against Russia over South Ossetia in August, the Serbian news agency Beta reported.
Opposition leaders put the number of people at the rally at 80,000, saying they will keep protesting until a new presidential election is called.
Saakashvili said Thursday he won't resign but plans to remain in the office by the end of his term in 2013, Beta reported.
The protests were organized on the 20th anniversary of bloody anti-Soviet demonstrations in 1989. Georgia declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
U.S. aid urged in Mexican drug war
MEXICO CITY, April 9 (UPI) -- Mexico's top lawman wants the United States to deliver on a promise of hundreds of millions of dollars in training and equipment to fight drug lords.
"I think it could be much faster, surely," Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said in an interview with USA Today, referring to an aid package bogged down in the U.S. Congress.
The aid package is known as the Merida Initiative after the city where Mexican President Felipe Calderon and former U.S. President George W. Bush first discussed it in March 2007. Bush originally requested $1.4 billion.
Much of the aid is in the form of equipment, such as helicopters, X-ray machines and computers for prosecutors, and police training. The Democrat-controlled Congress cut the first chunk of aid from $450 million to $300 million, USA Today said. Little of that money has been spent as violence intensified.
Medina said that his country urgently needs the assistance but that Congress seems reluctant. In that respect, he told USA Today, "I don't think this issue is being given adequate priority."
U.S. President Barack Obama visits Mexico next week.
