World Briefs

BERLIN – Hundreds of passengers on a round-the-world cruise will disembark before reaching waters off Somalia and fly to Dubai to avoid pirates, German cruise operator Hapag-Lloyd said Tuesday.

The company said the 150-meter (490-foot) MS Columbus and its crew will continue on through the Gulf of Aden.

Passengers will rejoin the vessel in Oman for the remainder of a trip that began last month in Genoa, Italy.

A company spokesman said passengers would be transferred to planes, but would not comment further.

Pirates off the Somali coast have recently started trying to take cruise vessels after a string of attack on cargo ships, including a Saudi oil tanker and a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks and other weapons.

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama should make preventing genocide and mass atrocities a priority for his government and establish a procedure to determine when the threat of genocide is emerging, a task force led by former Cabinet officials recommended Monday.

The objective always should be to stop the buildup before killing begins, their report said, but Obama and his successors should not shirk from using military force, with or without allies, when necessary.

"We urge America's 44th president to demonstrate at the outset that preventing genocide and mass atrocities is a national priority," said the report, titled "Preventing Genocide: A Blueprint for U.S. Policymakers."

"Achieving this goal will require the president to muster political will that has too often been lacking in the past."

WASHINGTON – Five Blackwater Worldwide guards charged with the unprovoked shooting that killed 14 innocent Iraqis and wounded dozens of others in 2007 will get their day in a Washington court after unsuccessfully trying to move the trial to Utah.

A federal judge on Monday ordered the guards to report Jan. 6 to a D.C. courthouse, where they are expected to plead not guilty.

The decision came hours after prosecutors announced charges against the guards that carry mandatory 30-year prison terms for the wild gunfire and grenade attacks on a Baghdad street.

The guards "must be held accountable for their actions, not just for the integrity of the American people, but for the Iraqi men, women and children whose lives have been destroyed," FBI Assistant Director Joseph Persichini said at a Justice Department news conference in Washington.

The five guards — all decorated military veterans — declined comment.