Pirates abducted an American journalist and acclaimed surfing writer in central Somalia on Saturday and are holding him for ransom. The writer was kidnapped by armed men in Land Cruisers near the city of Galmadug, where he was researching a book on piracy. Initial reports that local elders had negotiated his release have been retracted. The Sa'ad clan has claimed responsibility and accused the man of spying and studying their activities in the Mudug region. Kidnappings are frequent in Somalia,... Read More
Conservation authorities in New Zealand are contending with another mass-stranding of whales that has left dozens of animals dead at Farewell Spit on the country's south island. Volunteers and officials refloated and saved 17 of 99 stranded whales on Monday, but another 40 whales re-beached themselves on Tuesday when they failed to escape the area's shallow water at low tide. Thirty-six whales died Monday. This is the third mass-stranding of pilot whales in Farewell Spit this season, including... Read More
Didier Cuche won the infamous Hahnenkamm downhill on Saturday in Kitzbühel, Austria, two days after announcing plans to retire from skiing at the end of the World Cup season. Cuche, 37, has now won the Hahnenkamm, considered the toughest downhill course in skiing, a record five times. That is once more than Austrian legend Hanz Klammer, who won four titles in the 1970s and 1980s. Cuche is a four-time World Cup downhill champion and had won three Hahnenkamm downhills in the past four years... Read More
Simon Gerrans won his second Tour Down Under for the newly formed team Green Edge on Sunday in Adelaide, Australia. Gerrans, 31, also took a victory at the race in 2006, before it appeared on the world tour calendar. He is one of three Australians, including 2011 Tour de France champion Cadel Evans, to take the overall title. Gerrans finished Sunday's final stage with the same time as Spain's Alejandro Valverde but was awarded victory by virtue of having finished higher in several earlier stag... Read More
On Saturday, Dutch teen Laura Dekker became the youngest sailor to circumnavigate the globe solo when she sailed into the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Martin. Dekker, 16, spent a year and a half at sea on her boat, a 38-foot Jeanneau Ginfizz ketch named Guppy. Netherlands authorities originally tried to block Dekker from leaving, prompting her to run away to St. Martin in 2009. A Dutch court eventually consented to the trip, provided that she take a first aid course and enroll in a distance-l... Read More
