Swiss-flagged cargo ship attacked off Nigeria, 12 kidnapped

A Swiss shipping company says that a bulk carrier has been attacked by pirates off Nigeria's coast and 12 of its 19 crew members have been kidnapped.

Geneva-based Massoel Shipping said the MV Glarus was attacked early Saturday as it sailed from Lagos to Port Harcourt with a load of wheat. It said in a statement emailed Sunday that the pirates apparently boarded the ship using long ladders and cut razor wire on the deck to make their way to the bridge.

The company added that, after destroying much of the ship's communications equipment, the gang departed with 12 of the crew members. It said that a pilot and naval officers are now on board, and it is working for "the speedy and safe release" of the captured crew.

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Virus kills Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, 61

Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, a former chief of internal security who became one of the most high-profile leaders in the communist-ruled country, died on Friday after an illness, state media said. Quang's rise, at a time of growing dissent on social media and challenges to the party's authority, signalled limits to the country's liberal agenda, despite a growing openness to social change and sweeping economic reform, experts say. The 61-year-old died in a military hospital in Hanoi of a "serious illness despite efforts by domestic and international doctors and professors," Vietnam Television said. He had hosted a reception for China's Supreme Court chief on Wednesday, state-owned newspaper Vietnam News said. Rumours of his illness had circulated on social media for months. At one of Quang's last appearances, during a visit to Hanoi by Indonesian President Joko Widodo on September 11, the President appeared visibly unwell and stumbled a...

How an Israeli Solar Solution Can Benefit the U.S. and the World

America is undergoing a quiet clean-energy revolution. Renewable resources such as solar, wind, hydro- and nuclear power produce more than a third of the country’s energy, and this sector is growing at a rate several times faster than the national economy. Many would be surprised to learn that this revolution has its roots in research done in the 1950s in Israel, where home use of solar energy has been the norm for decades. As we seek alternative sources of energy to power our society, policymakers should look to Israel for concrete ideas on utilizing solar-based innovations to reduce our carbon footprint and help average Americans reduce their bills. Today, nearly every state in the union harnesses the power of the sun. Forty-two states have a total of 1,721 solar-powered electric plants, which produce 1 percent of the country’s energy. Four states in particular have made impressive strides in exploiting the sun: California gets 10 percent of its electricity from s...

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