Ransom

Adrift with his captors in sight of U.S. warships, the American sea captain being held for ransom by Somali pirates briefly escaped their lifeboat by jumping overboard, a U.S. official said Friday, but was recaptured and brought back. The U.S. military said Richard Phillips, who was taken by the pirates from the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama on Wednesday, appeared unharmed after the escape attempt. The military, which has been maintaining real-time video surveillance via an unmanned drone overhead, observed him moving around on the lifeboat after he was recaptured.

UPPER MARLBORO -- Walt Disney Co. was sued by the International Associations of Machinists yesterday over the labor group's portrayal in the hit film "Ransom," which has a reference to a corrupt Machinists official.The suit, filed in Prince George's County Circuit Court, seeks $50 million in compensatory damages, plus punitive damages, for allegedly injuring the union's reputation.The film describes a person known as a corrupt "Machinists Union" official who accepts a $250,000 bribe to prevent a strike.

NEW YORK -- For 12 excruciating days and nights, New York clothing executive Harvey Weinstein clung to life inside a tiny dark pit, 14 feet below a secluded rail yard in Upper Manhattan, where a band of kidnappers had left him to die.He survived by eating fruit, mostly bananas, that the kidnappers lowered to him until they received the requested ransom money.The one-time Marine lay in total darkness, his legs in shackles; at times, so were his arms.He made tape recordings at his captors' instruction, pleading with his children to pay a $3 million ransom.

I judge thrillers strictly on the twitch factor. That is, if I'm sitting there and suddenly someone is going "ULP!" "OOF!" and "AGH!" and punching the air, and annoying everybody around him, and that person is me, the movie deserves a friendly reception.What those spasms signify, of course, is that the story has gotten beyond the rational brain and connected with the subconscious. It has taken over, like the critter inside John Hurt's belly in "Alien." It's running the show.On that scale, then, "Ransom" gets three "Ulps," a couple of "Oofs" but only one "Agh!"

Michael Dickinson trains off his farm in Maryland, but one of his biggest clients lives in Kentucky - Dr. John Chandler. Chandler owns Mill Ridge Farm in the Bluegrass State and serves as president of Judd- monte Farms, one of the premier breeding operations in the world. Clients don't come much bigger than that, so when Chandler suggests a move with a horse, Dickinson would do well to listen. That dynamic came into play this spring with Western Ransom, who charged from far back to win the Martha Washington Breeders' Cup yesterday at Pimlico.

A week after a Harford County man was kidnapped, only to be found dead even though his relatives paid thousands of dollars in ransom, investigators have no solid leads in the case, police said yesterday. Jeryl Anthony Singleterry, 29, of Edgewood was unemployed and had no criminal record, police said. Police have no evidence that Singleterry was involved in drugs or anything else illegal, said Bill Toohey, a county police spokesman. "He's a victim," Toohey said, "not a suspect." Police said that kidnapping for ransom is a rare crime and that killing after a kidnapping is even more unusual.

A Baltimore man accused of killing his girlfriend's 8-year-old daughter made his first appearance yesterday in a Maryland courtroom as federal prosecutors said they would try him on extortion charges before he faces a state murder charge that could bring the death penalty. The decision to keep Jamal Kenneth Abeokuto in federal custody surprised some authorities, including the state's attorney in Harford County, where Marciana Ringo's beaten body was discovered. "I don't know why they are going forward with federal charges when there is a state capital murder case," Harford County State's Attorney Joseph I. Cassilly said, noting concerns about whether state prosecutors and defense attorneys will have full access to Abeokuto.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The fate of kidnapped American journalist Daniel Pearl remained unclear yesterday amid conflicting claims. CNN reported late last night in Pakistan that it had received an e-mail purportedly sent by the kidnappers that said Pearl, a Wall Street Journal correspondent abducted 10 days ago in Karachi, had been killed. But also yesterday, a telephone caller to the U.S. Consulate in Karachi who claimed to represent Pearl's abductors demanded a $2 million ransom and set a 36-hour deadline for payment.

A Harford County judge sentenced a 22-year-old Edgewood man to 55 years in prison Tuesday for kidnapping and carjacking. Joshua Prince Freeman was convicted by a jury in the October 2009 kidnapping of Kara Smithson, 21, of Pylesville. Freeman and three accomplices, including a female juvenile who was known to the victim, lured Smithson to a location in the southern end of the county, according to Joseph I. Cassilly, Harford County State's Attorney. When Smithson met the group, she was carjacked, kidnapped and repeatedly struck and assaulted, while being driven around the Joppa area.

Three Maryland men were convicted in U.S. District Court yesterday of trafficking hundreds of kilograms of cocaine across the country through private package-delivery companies for distribution in Baltimore. A jury delivered guilty verdicts for Bernard Christian, 34, of Pikesville, Kenneth Mitchell, 30, of Edgewood, and Ralph K. Williams Jr., 30, of Baltimore, accepting prosecutors' contentions that the men were part of a multimillion-dollar conspiracy to transport drugs from Los Angeles to Baltimore using Federal Express and United Parcel Service packages.