Prosecuting Pirates: No More Walking The Plank
NPR.org – Jan. 9
…”Trials are expensive, and there’s no international criminal court that has jurisdiction over pirates. What’s happened is that no nation wants to prosecute,” says Kenneth Randall, dean of the University of Alabama law school…Randall, an expert on international law, says there is plenty of precedent for any nation to prosecute pirates, going back to the days of Blackbeard and Captain Kidd. He says piracy was regarded as the “archetypal offense” that any nation-state could punish. “One reason is that it was on the high seas and beyond any territory,” Randall says. “Another was that pirates were committing such heinous crimes that they essentially were stateless and that they were the enemies of all mankind.” But Randall says there’s a difference between having jurisdiction and wanting to exercise it, considering the expenses and legal difficulties involved…Randall, the legal expert, says the bottom line in some ways is that countries such as Denmark may have to hold their prisoners for a while until there is more definition about what to do. “At some point, this will raise questions of due process, and obviously, even international offenders deserve some due process,” he says. “Probably what has to happen is that the United Nations needs to step up to the plate and help to define the prosecution of pirates. It may be that the U.N. should even establish an international tribunal if Denmark and other states are not willing to prosecute them.”
SomaliPressReview.com – Jan. 12
New models may help steer Alabama auto industry to survival
Birmingham News – Jan. 11
…Alabama’s three automakers – Mercedes-Benz, Honda and Hyundai – all have flexible and fairly new facilities that could be retooled to build a wider selection of vehicles, said Sam Addy, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama. “I don’t think there will be a very fast turnaround, but I think in a year or two, if they retool and add a couple of models, we’ll be in great shape,” he said…
Project seeks to enrich lives of prisoners through books
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 11
…Robbins is now heading the beginning of a Tuscaloosa chapter of the Books to Prisons Project…Robbins first became familiar with the cause through interactions with student workers at the Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library on the University of Alabama campus where she works…
Gadsden Center starts new program
Gadsden Times – Jan. 11
The University of Alabama Gadsden Center is introducing a new program to its curriculum in 2009 to provide mature adults learning for fun. The new program named Osher Lifelong Learning Institute is designed to be a daytime course selection targeting retired people who want to go back to school. Director Randy Holland said that the new program is not a degree program. “This is not a program that we will be awarding a degree for, but it is a program that would offer people more knowledge about certain topics,” Holland said. “We consider it learning for fun.”…
Program preps kids for college
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 12
…Alter created the Grow to College program to promote a greater understanding of college for students in K-12 schools, giving them skills needed to make an informed decision about college, Alter said…As a Grow to College board member, University of Alabama assistant law professor Brian Fair, is helping to promote the program. Fair said he shares Alter’s goal of providing user friendly college information to mentors, parents and people working with children who otherwise wouldn’t have access to such information. “I think [Alter’s] goal is to see that the traditional opportunity is available to more people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds in homes where parents have not necessarily gone to school and in communities with high levels of poverty,” Fair said. Fair believes the program also has the potential to reduce poverty. “I think that education is the principal way out of poverty and to become a more productive citizen,” he said. “The more we can raise the education attainment levels of all our children throughout our life time, we can close gaps in performance and test scores.”…
College Briefs
Mobile Register – Jan. 12
Pianist Andrew Willis will perform the next concert of the University of Alabama Celebrity Series at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the concert hall of the Moody Music Building…In conjunction with the concert, Willis will host a master class that is free and open to the public at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the recital hall of the Moody Music Building on the Tuscaloosa campus… — The University of Alabama has received a $250,000 gift from The Wachovia Foundation to establish the Wachovia Foundation First Generation Scholarships. The first Wachovia Foundation First Generation Scholars will be selected beginning in the fall…