Somali pirate sentenced to 33 years in US prison

Prosecutors described Muse as the pirates' ringleader


A Somali man who pleaded guilty to piracy has been sentenced in the US to more than 33 years in prison.

Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse is the only survivor of the crew of pirates who attacked the Maersk Alabama merchant ship off Somalia's coast in April 2009.

He was captured by the US Navy, whose sharpshooters killed three other pirates trying to escape on a lifeboat with the Alabama's American captain.

Muse told the court he was "very sorry for what I did".

"I got my hands into something that was more powerful than me," Muse said through a translator.

Muse's lawyers had sought the 27-year minimum sentence.

'Relishing cruelty'In federal court in New York, prosecutors had portrayed Muse as a ringleader of the pirate gang who seized the Maersk Alabama some 450km (280 miles) off the coast of Somalia.

US District Judge Loretta Preska described the pirates as sadists, noting they had subjected Capt Richard Phillips to a mock execution.

"They appeared to relish even their most depraved acts of physical and psychological violence," she said.

Before she announced the sentence, Maersk Alabama crew member Colin Wright told the court he was "not the same person I used to be and I never will be".

Prosecutors said Muse was the first to board the Maersk Alabama, firing his AK-47 assault rifle at Capt Phillips.

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FROM USA TODAY

Masons, other service groups fight membership declines

By Jon Ostendorff, USA TODAY


The Mount Hermon Masonic Lodge in Asheville, N.C., has used outreach programs to increase its membership.


"We're not a secret society," Bennett says. "We're a society with a few secrets."

In an effort to boost flagging membership across the USA, an increasing number of Masonic lodges, like other fraternal service groups, are abandoning secretive ways and inviting the public in to see what the organization is really all about.

There are fewer Masons today — by nearly a million — than there were in 1941 as the country came out of theGreat Depression, says Richard Fletcher, executive secretary of the Masonic Service Association of North America. There are an estimated 3 million members worldwide and 1.5 million in the USA, he says, compared with more than 4 million members in the USA in 1959.

Why? Blame the Baby Boomers, Fletcher says.

"We had what I call the '60s syndrome," he says. "That was the whole concept of the generation. You turned against anything that was mainstream."

In 2005, the association produced a report called "It's About Time," which encouraged lodges to invite the community in, Fletcher says. But most didn't start opening their doors until Masons in Massachusetts saw successes in 2009 with the policy, he says.

Since then, a growing number have opened their doors:

•In Asheville, Mount Hermon Masonic Lodge 118 allows prospective members to dine with members before official meetings to learn more about Masonry. The effort has paid off. Seven years ago, the lodge was struggling with low attendance and now has about 500 members, says John Burchfield, the local district deputy grand lecturer.

•In Ellwood City, Pa., three lodges in 37th Masonic District held open houses in August.

•In New Hampshire, Freemasons held statewide events in March and October. "It was very well received in New Hampshire," says Nashua, N.H., Rising Sun lodge member Bob Porter. The Nashua lodge got 30 new members, Porter says.

Tough timesThe Mason decline is mirrored by other fraternities.

Amos McCallum, a chairman of the past national presidents of the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, says his group has 900,000 members, down from 1.6 million in 1980.

Membership in Rotary clubs has dropped nearly 42,000 since 1995 in the USA to 360,790 last year, says Rotary spokeswoman Elizabeth Minelli.


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