Piracy and the IMO

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Piracy is on the rise. More than 700 people are now being held for ransom on ships along the Somali coast. Lesley Curwen spoke to Dr Philip Belcher from the Bahamas Maritime Authority, which registers many ships under the Bahamas flag. He described how one of those ships was recently attacked, but was saved by intervention from the US Navy. Is the International Maritime Organisation failing to control rising numbers of attacks? Lesley Curwen put this to the Secretary-General of the IMO, Efthimios Mitropoulos who argued that many more ships are surviving hi-jacking attempts because of better defensive measures. Plus, the BBC's Steve Vickers reports from Zimbabwe on the renaissance of the tinny old music cassette. And US economics blogger Steve Fritzinger ponders the similarities between carpenter ants, and 'short-selling' financiers who bet against failing companies.