SOCIETYMOST JOURNALISTS IN JAIL (YEAR)
As of 1 Dec 2016, there were 259 journalists in prison as a
result of their work, according to non-profit organization
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). This made 2016
the worst year for media imprisonment since the CPJ began
monitoring in 1990. Pictured are protestors campaigning
against Turkey’s record for press imprisonment in 2016.LONGEST-HELD HOSTAGE
Ex-FBI investigator Robert
Levinson (USA) was abducted
on the Iranian island of Kish
on 9 Mar 2007. Although
he claimed to be tracking
cigarette smugglers for the
tobacco industry, it later
emerged that Levinson had
been working for the CIA.
His whereabouts remain a
mystery, despite a $5-m
(£3.37-m) reward. As of
6 Nov 2016, he had been
missing for 9 years 242 days.HIGHEST KIDNAP RANSOM (MODERN ERA)
Hong Kong gangster Cheung Tze-keung (known as “Big
Spender” for his lavish lifestyle) received a total of $206 m
(£131.8 m) for the safe return of two businessmen: Walter
Kwok and Victor Li, kidnapped in 1997 and 1996 respectively.
It was part of an audacious plan to kidnap the 10 richest
tycoons in Hong Kong. But when a third abduction failed,
Cheung was caught and executed in China on 5 Dec 1998.HIGHEST INCIDENCE
OF PIRACY IN A YEAR
In 20 16, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB)
reported that piracy had fallen to its lowest levels
since 1998, with 191 incidents of piracy on the high
seas. This compares with 469 global pirate attacks
in 2000, the largest total since records began.
Of those attacks, 242 occurred in Southeast Asia
and the Malacca Strait between Malaysia,
Indonesia and Singapore. Increased
police and navy patrols (shown left)
helped bring about a sharp decline
in incidents of piracy in the area.MOST LIFE SENTENCES
On 19 Apr 1995, a federal building was bombed in Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma, USA, killing 168 people. At a federal trial
in 1997, Terry Lynn Nichols (USA) was sentenced to life
imprisonment without parole for his role in the planning and
preparation of the bombing. In 2004, Nichols was convicted
on 161 counts of first-degree murder, for which he was
sentenced to 161 consecutive life sentences.
The
Malacca Strait
links the Indian
and Pacific oceans.
A quarter of all traded
goods passes
through it.MOST PRISON
INMATES BY COUNTRY
According to the
International Centre for
Prison Studies, the prison
population of the USA
numbered 2,217,947 as of
Jul 2016. China had the
second largest prison
population, with 1,649,804,
albeit taken from a much
bigger population. The
USA had 693 inmates per
100,000 people, second
only to the Seychelles,
where 799 people per
100,000 were behind bars.
Robert
Levinson has
only been sighted
rarely since his 2007
abduction. In^2
013, his
family released photos
they had received of
an unkempt Levinson
dressed in an orange
jumpsuit.