Word: canal
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Panamanians take justifiable pride in their operation of the Panama Canal. Since the U.S. handed the famous waterway over to Panama nine years ago, the independent Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has run it more efficiently, more safely and more profitably than the Americans did. Too bad, most Panamanians say, that their government is still best known for the kind of corruption and waste that has marred the small Central American country's reputation ever since pirates haunted the Caribbean. If they could just run the nation the way they run the canal, Panamanians believe, they could become a world-class...
...just another of the squat and unpretentious capitals that dot Central America - almost all serviced by aging Bluebird buses, handed-down to the countries by U.S. school districts looking to dump their old fleets for newer models of transport. See pictures from Panama's historic 2006 vote on the canal...
...Somali pirates holding Captain Richard Phillips brought the end of a crisis, but it may be the beginning of a longer military effort. This year pirates have attacked dozens of vessels in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, which leads into the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Egged on by generous ransom payments, they're holding more than 300 sailors hostage. Phillips, captain of the Maersk Alabama, was the first one taken off a U.S. vessel. A Red Sox fan, a family man, a good-humored snowboarder, a pillar of his Vermont village who had the courage...
...about 40% of the world's trade passes through the strait on 50,000 vessels that ply its waters every year. Oil from the Persian Gulf flows east to China and Asia's other voracious economies, which in turn send back manufactured goods to the Middle East and Suez Canal...
India sends out more than 120,000 seafarers and Indian industry has $250 billion worth of merchandise going back and forth through the Suez Canal every year. The route is also critical to India for its energy security. Though no Indian-flagged vessel has been taken hostage lately, India has been on the forefront in dealing with hostage situations off the Somali coast, particularly after the Hong Kong-registered MT Stolt Valor was hijacked in September of last year along with its crew of 22, including 18 Indians. The wife of the ship's Indian captain, Seema Goyal, waged...