• shelby The Alabama sen­a­tor says that his demands were met, so he released most of the 70+ holds, bar­ring a few unnamed ones.
• obama The president’s staff says that none of Shelby’s demands were met, so some­body is lying here. We won­der who that might be. source

• The pirates want $7 mil­lion. The British gov­ern­ment won’t pay. Despite plead­ing from Paul and Rachel Chan­dler, they’re still not get­ting any help. Part of it is a long­stand­ing British pol­icy not to play nice with pirates. As a result, they’ve been cap­tured since Octo­ber. “Please help us, these peo­ple are not treat­ing us well,” Rachel Chan­dler said in a video filmed by AFP. “I’m old, I’m 56 and my hus­band is 60 years old. We need to be together because we have not much time left.” Yikes. source

$7

million dollar ransom to free this couple from Somali pirates source

• Does he know who I am? Exactly-he shouldn’t! My mom doesn’t even know I’m in the major leagues, and my dad still confuses me with my older brother at Thanksgiving dinner. To tell the truth, I’m pretty sure the ball was worth more before I hit it. I’m Matt Carson, for God’s sake!
• Oakland A’s outfielder Matt Carson • Exclaiming dismay that some jerkwad caught the career minor leaguer’s first home run ball and wants $10,000 for it. Carson’s long been in the minors and probably isn’t in a position to pay that much money for a ball which probably means sentimental value to just him. (via Jeff Greco) • source

20

U.S. nationals are likely on the ship; it’s the 9th hijacking this week source

$3

million was given to the pirates, says their negotiator source