The number of pirate attacks globally has near-doubled in the first quarter of 2009 — owing in no small part to the increased efforts of hardworking Somali pirates. Not content to let the mayhem continue apace as a fascinating diversion for yours truly, countries have pledged $213 million to help Somalia defeat the pirates. Somali prime minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke also called for a lifting of the U.N. arms embargo on Somalia, so that the government can get some better guns:

"One of our biggest problems is that [terrorist group] al-Shabaab has AK-47s, and the pirates have AK-47s, and the government has AK-47s. You can't expect the government to win against such a problem.

But we're not sure bigger guns will be a match for pirate passion and moxie. We need to catch them off guard, change the state of play. Might we suggest swords? We're pretty sure these pirates haven't swashbuckled in years.

More Than $200M Pledged to Beat Somali Pirates [CNN]