NIGERIA UPDATE:

The kidnapping of foreign oil workers has increased in the last month, despite police and military efforts to stop it. Nearly 150 have been taken so far this year, yielding at least $100,000 per captive in ransom. No one ever says anything, on the record, about ransoms. However, the money is simply too good, and has attracted some well run criminal organizations. . . . While the oil companies are trying to treat the ransoms, “danger pay” and additional security, as a cost-of-doing-business in Nigeria, it is reaching a point where is simply is not worth the extra effort. Nigeria is in danger of seeing its primary source of income (mainly for corrupt politicians), shut down by the cost of dealing with criminal activity.

Sigh.