Somali pirates win! The world's most popular bandits had been holding a Ukrainian weapon-trafficking ship for ransom for four months. But they finally got their money, via "the new way to deliver pirate booty":

The pirates are leaving the ship tonight under cover of darkness. With millions!

The pirates aboard the Faina would not reveal how much they had netted in ransom - originally they were asking for more than $20 million. According to businessmen on shore, the ransom was around $3 million and the money was dropped by parachute from a small plane, which seems to be the new way to deliver pirate booty. Last month, a huge Saudi oil tanker that had been hijacked was freed in a similar way.

This breaking news was right on the front page of the New York Times' website, naturally, because the media loves pirates, and you can't get much cooler of a byline than Mogadishu (or "Nairobi," if you're the white guy on the story. Must stay far away). So now there are a bunch of millionaire pirates running around with new stolen machine guns. What pirate war? [NYT]

Send an email to Hamilton Nolan, the author of this post, at .