US Going After Pirates' Loot

Hillary Clinton plans to go after pirates' bounty as part of a multi-pronged effort to tackle piracy, USA Today reports. The secretary of state said finding and freezing the pirates' assets and property will make it tougher for them to collect their ransoms and buy new ships and surveillance systems. The US also will try to crack down on companies doing business with them.

"We may be dealing with a 17th-century crime," Clinton said, "but we need to bring 21st-century assets to bear." Clinton said a key to solving the problem of piracy is to eliminate their bases on land, and she promised to press Somali leaders to do so, notes Bloomberg. She also pledged to step up international efforts to tackle the underlying instability in Somalia.