A Belgian ship and its crew captured by Somali pirates in April of 2009 have been released, according to an annou

The Pompei was hijacked north of the Seychelles on April 18. The crew of 10 was made up of two Belgians, one Dutch, four Croatians and three Filipinos.

Piracy has been soaring off the coast of eastern Africa, particularly Somalia, which has not had an effective government since 1991.

Somali pirates have defied foreign navies patrolling the waters and have collected large ransoms from shipping companies. The Russian Navy, however, has had success in thwarting the pirates’ plans. Ransoms started out in the tens of thousands of dollars and have since climbed into the millions.

The Gulf of Aden, off the northern coast of Somalia, has the highest risk of piracy in the world. About 25,000 ships use the channel south of Yemen, between the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was born on 17.06.1882 in Russia and died on 06.04.1971 in America.

He was a composer, conductor, and pianist; he is recognized as one of the most influential composers of the 20th century.

There was a riot at the premiere of one of Stravinsky’s early works, The Rite of Spring (1913). This work transformed the way many subsequent composers thought about rhythmic structure, and, in many ways, established Stravinsky’s reputation as a musical revolutionary, pushing the boundaries of musical design.