They found it!

The Arctic Sea, which was carrying a load of timber to Bejaia, Algeria, was discovered at 1 p.m., Moscow Time, on Monday, about 300 miles off the coast of the Cape Verde islands according to Russian authorities. The 15-man Russian crew was  reportedly in good health and aboard the Ladny, a Russian antisubmarine vessel. She ship was reportedly boarded at 3 a.m. on July 24 by a group of about 12 men armed with guns and pistols in Swedish waters posing as law-enforcement officials who left the ship after 12 hours on an inflatable boat. The particulars remain a mystery, though there has been no shortage of theories ranging from commercial disputes, to secret cargoes, to hijacking by prawns. The two questions that beg are who issued the ransom demand and who sponsored the ship boarders?

Shiver me timbers

Hijackers have demanded a ransom for the Finnish-owned vessel Arctic Sea. The ransom has yet to be verified as genuine. The Russian-manned vessel disappeared off radar two weeks ago after passing through the English Channel. The 4,000 ton Maltese-flagged ship was carrying a load of timber and was due into port on Aug.4 in Algeria. Solchart Management in Finland received a ransom demand that was characterized as being “not huge, but let’s say it’s significant.” It is unclear where the vessel is, who is behind the hijacking and even if the demand is real. Three different police groups -- Finnish, Maltese and Swedish police --are investigating the matter. What does seem clear is that the problem of piracy may have just gotten bigger.

A Green Way for Iran

Iran's opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi's been busy remaking himself. He has founded Green Way of Hope, a "grass-roots and social network" to advocate democracy in the Persian republic, though he's said little else in the way of what the group will do. Since the government continues to try protesters in kangaroo courts, that tack is likely to have mixed results. On the one hand it'll make it harder for his political enemies to find a pretext to jail him. On the other hand, it'll make it harder for his supporters to rally around him. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for his part, is trying something completely different. He's naming two women to cabinet posts. The Ministry of Health post will go to Dr Marziyeh Vahid Dastjerdi, with the Ministry of Welfare post will go to Fatemah Ajourlou. There may be one more post filled by a female in his government when his full list is presented later in the week. At this point, Moussavi and Ahmadinejad seem to be in a race to see who can remake the face of Iran. The questions are 1) who will cross the finish line first, and 2) who's change will actually be meaningful.

Interesting 'District 9' comes up short

Imagine that a million refuges from another world arrived in South Africa and these aliens resembled insects. Now imagine that after 20 years of living in one internment camp, a multinational corporation is tasked with evicting them and moving them to another camp. That would be the story of "District 9."

"District 9" is several different movies. The framing device is a documentary. Indeed, portions of the documentary almost seem like an episode of "The Office." But the movie is also a SciFi action movie with plenty of alien technology and lots of violent gun play. Then there's plenty of social commentary. The South Africans don't want the aliens which they derisively refer to as 'prawns.' All the stranded aliens really want to do is go home. They are being exploited by both Multi-National United, the firm charged with moving the aliens, and a gang of Nigerians. And both parties want the same thing: access to the aliens' weapons technology which seems to be keyed to work only for them and thus is useless to humans.

That changes when MNU employee Wikus van der Merwe is exposed to a substance that begins changing him into an alien. In the process, Wikus becomes connected to one of the prawns and not only helps the prawn recover the substance but helps the alien and his son escape, thus setting up the possibility of a sequel.

This is another movie with the color bleached out. The CGI aliens and their ship are fully realized and believable. The powered armor sequence is worthy of "Iron Man." And there's plenty of carnage. The main failing of the movie is that it tries to be too many things and fails to adequitely focus on its natural theme.

The movie is a decent diversion and offers a new spin on the alien invasion film. It should have been a stronger statement and could have been better if it had put less emphasis on formuliac approaches based on alien tech inspired violence and focused on the 'humanitarian disaster' that alien refugees had both created and were facing. That would have been something to move the genre forward.

Inglorious Bastard

Josef Scheungraber, 90, was given a life sentence in a Munich state court for ordering the executions of 11 Italians on 26, June 1944. He was a 25-year-old lieutenant during WWII. Ten died and one survived. That sole survivor offered his testimony during the trial. He had been found guilty of the crimes in 2006 in an Italian court but served no time. Prior to this conviction, Scheungraber ran a furniture store and was recognized for his municipal service. Heinrich Boere, a Nazi hitman, will go on trial in October and a judge is considering the case of John Demjanjuk, 89, who is charged in connection with murders at the Sobibor camp in Poland. At long last, the last Nazi suspects of WWII are finally seeing justice.