From the Guardian….

Strache, 39, led his Freedom party to 18% of the vote in an early general election on Sunday. His former boss and mentor-turned-rival, Jörg Haider, single-handedly steered his breakaway far-right Movement for Austria’s Future to 11% – meaning that almost one in three Austrians who voted opted for the extreme right.

“A unique case among the western democracies,” said Profil yesterday as Viennese liberals reeled from the results of an election that put the far right comfortably ahead of the mainstream conservatives of the Austrian People’s party and neck-and-neck with the Social Democrats, who narrowly won the election.

It will be very difficult for any party to muster a parliamentary majority. The only options are for the Social Democrats to invite Strache into government, or to form another “grand coalition” with the Christian Democrats. Such a coalition collapsed in June after 18 months in office, and another attempt could fire a bigger protest vote for Strache next time.

The Freedom party last stunned Europe in 1999, when Haider led it to second place with 27% of the vote, and a place in government. On Sunday, under Strache, the combined far right did even better, while the big parties did much worse.

From The Times….

A tense standoff has developed in waters off Somalia over an Iranian merchant ship laden with a mysterious cargo that was hijacked by pirates.

Somali pirates suffered skin burns, lost hair and fell gravely ill “within days” of boarding the MV Iran Deyanat. Some of them died.

Andrew Mwangura, the director of the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, told the Sunday Times: “We don’t know exactly how many, but the information that I am getting is that some of them had died. There is something very wrong about that ship.”

The vessel’s declared cargo consists of “minerals” and “industrial products”. But officials involved in negotiations over the ship are convinced that it was sailing for Eritrea to deliver small arms and chemical weapons to Somalia’s Islamist rebels.

Life just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser.

Edit: The Long War Journal has more.

This rant was translated from Chinese, so it reads a little awkwardly in places. Nonetheless, it is a moving lament brought about by China’s contaminated milk scandal.

From the AP…

A Russian warship on Friday rushed to intercept a Ukrainian vessel carrying 33 battle tanks and a hoard of ammunition that was seized by pirates off the Horn of Africa — a bold hijacking that again heightened fears about surging piracy and high-seas terrorism.

A U.S. warship is tracking the vessel but there has been no decision about intercepting it, U.S. Defense Department officials said.

The US must want to give the Russians a chance to play the hero. Otherwise intercepting this ship would seem like a no brainier.

Edit: Danger Room has more.

Felix Salmon is no fan of Bush. But this is what he said…

I was right about what Bush was going to say, but I was wrong about how he said it. This was one of the best speeches of his presidency, if not the best. I was watching in a noisy bar, and got the gist — but more importantly I got the body language. He wasn’t panicked, and he wasn’t angry, and he wasn’t telling us that we really had to Act Now Or Else. He was calm, and surprisingly coherent, and he took first-person responsibility for the bailout, and he explained the urgency without sounding like he was reacting in a knee-jerk manner.

Put it this way: if Chris Dodd has been a surprise to me over the past week, Bush tonight was a revelation. It was like he was a completely different politician from the one I’ve gotten used to for the past eight years.

Was not planing on watching it, but now I may have to check it out.