By Hal Bernton

Seattle Times staff reporter

Via Communist News Network:

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Pirates who seized an arms-laden Ukrainian vessel off the Somali coast lined up the 20 captive crewmen on the ship’s deck to show a nearby American naval patrol that they were in good health, a U.S. Navy spokesman said Monday.

Pirates hijacked the MV Faina September 25 as it was carrying a cargo of tanks, rifles and ammunition bound for Sudan.

The hijacking, one of around two dozen reported attacks on ships off Somalia this year, raised concerns that the sensitive cargo could fall into the hands of al-Qaeda linked insurgents in Somalia.

On Sunday, U.S. sailors on nearby vessels were able to see the 20 crewmen — 17 Ukrainians, two Russians and a Latvian — as they stood along the rail of the deck.

"They look healthy, they look like they’re OK," said Lt. Nathan Christensen, deputy spokesman at the Middle East headquarters of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain.

The ship’s Russian captain died of a heart condition soon after the hijacking, officials in Moscow say.

A photograph taken by a U.S. sailor shows the men leaning forward against a deck railing as pirates armed with what appear to be rocket-propelled grenades and rifles keep watch a few steps away.

U.S. warships have been surrounding the vessel, and American sailors have maintained radio contact with the pirates and crew. The U.S. Navy is aiming to prevent the pirates from any attempt to offload the ship’s military cargo.

The pirates have lowered an initial ransom demand from $20 million to $8 million and have withdrawn a threat to blow up the vessel if they don’t receive the sum.

Via The Denver Post 

WASHINGTON — Colin Powell will have a role as a top presidential adviser in an Obama administration, the Democratic White House hopeful said today.

"He will have a role as one of my advisers," Barack Obama said on NBC’s "Today" in an interview aired today, a day after Powell, a four-star general and President Bush’s former secretary of state, endorsed him.

"Whether he wants to take a formal role, whether that’s a good fit for him, is something we’d have to discuss," Obama said.

Powell announced his vote on NBC’s "Meet the Press" Sunday morning, then discussed it further at a conference of the Project Managers Institute at the Colorado Convention Center

Being a top presidential adviser, especially on foreign policy, would be familiar ground to Powell on a subject that’s relatively new to the freshman Illinois senator. Obama has struggled to establish his foreign policy credentials against GOP candidate John McCain, a decorated military veteran, former prisoner of war and ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

In the NBC interview, Obama said Powell did not give him a heads up heads-up before he crossed party lines and endorsed the Democratic presidential candidate on the network’s "Meet the Press" a day earlier.

In that interview, Powell called Obama a "transformational figure" in the nation’s history and expressed disappointment in some of McCain’s campaign tactics. But, Powell said, he didn’t plan to hit the campaign trail with Obama before the Nov. 4 election.

"I won’t lie to you, I would love to have him at any stop," Obama said with a grin today. "Obviously, if he wants to show up he’s got an open invitation." Powell’s endorsement came just hours after Obama’s campaign disclosed that it raised $150 million in September — obliterating the old record of $66 million it had set only one month earlier.

He expressed disappointment in the negative tone of McCain’s campaign, his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate and their decision to focus in the closing weeks of the contest on Obama’s ties to 1960s-era radical William Ayers, saying "it goes too far." McCain, meanwhile, seemed dismissive of Powell’s endorsement, saying it wasn’t a surprise, that the two share mutual respect and are longtime friends.

The Republican from Arizona pointed out on Sunday that he had support from four other former secretaries of state, all veterans of Republican administrations: Henry Kissinger, James A. Baker III, Lawrence Eagleburger and Alexander Haig.

At a boisterous rally Sunday, Obama said McCain was "out of ideas and almost out of time." He and his aides appear so confident of his prospects that apart from a brief stop in Madison, Wis., next Thursday, Obama currently has no plans during the next 10 days to return to Pennsylvania, Minnesota, New Hampshire or any other state that voted for John Kerry in 2004.

Instead, he intends to spend two days this week in Florida, where early voting begins today, and travel to Virginia, Iowa, Ohio, Colorado, New Mexico and possibly Nevada and Indiana. Those states hold 97 electoral votes combined, and Bush won all in 2004.

Obama also may stop in West Virginia, where his campaign recently bought statewide television advertising in a late attempt to put the state’s five electoral votes into serious contention.