You don’t want to be sailing into the waters off the coast of Somalia, around the horn of Africa, anytime soon. The pirates there are becoming “increasingly audacious,” reports a director of the International Maritime Bureau. Ships in that area have been hijacked, lured inland by distress flares and their crews held for ransom. Still, despite this, hijacking and piracy around the world have fallen off of late: only 127 occurrences so far this year, compared to 182 last year. And not a single report of plank-walking. (BBC News)