(CNN) -- An Indian warship has exchanged fire with a pirate "mother vessel" off the hijacking-plagued Horn of Africa, leaving the ship ablaze, an official said Wednesday.


A file photo shows the Indian frigate Tabar, which was involved in the skirmish.

Indian naval spokesman Nirad Sinha said: "Given the condition we left it in, it would have sunk by now," he said.

The skirmish took place Tuesday evening about 326 miles (525 kilometers) southwest of Oman's Salalah port when the frigate INS Tabar spotted a suspected pirate ship with two speedboats in tow, India's Defense Ministry reported.

Capt. Pottengal Mukundan, of the International Maritime Bureau, in London said: "The pirates have been operating with impunity in these waters, and it is time now, it is well overdue that we send a signal to the pirates that they cannot conduct these criminal operations without sanction."

The defense ministry said in a written statement: "This vessel was similar in description to the 'Mother Vessel' mentioned in various piracy bulletins."

State officials took cash and sex from vendors, report finds
ODOT office near Cleveland 'riddled with fraud, corruption and depravity'
Thursday, October 16, 2008 10:12 AM
By James Nash

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Purchasing agents for the Ohio Department of Transportation directed contracts to vendors who repaid them with daylong boating trips, hotel rooms in Las Vegas and lap dances from strippers, according to an investigative report released today.

Inspector General Thomas P. Charles' office found that the Department of Transportation's purchasing operation in Garfield Heights, near Cleveland, had become thoroughly corrupted. In one case, a purchasing agent paid $14,000 for oil absorbents that were never delivered -- nor were the products even expected.

"We found the two departments to be so riddled with fraud, corruption and depravity that few of the contract relationships the two men maintained with the dozens of vendors with whom they did business were arms-length or untainted by personal greed," the inspector general's report said of district Facilities Manager Dennis L. Kratochvil and Equipment Superintendent Terrence M. (Terry) Kosmata.

Both employees, and five others who allegedly participated in the bid-rigging scheme, have been fired. Another employee who played a minor role in the scandal was suspended, ODOT spokesman Scott Varner said this morning.

"If there is a positive out of this, because it is very disappointing to hear the activities that went on, it's that we now know the ways the system was circumvented," Varner said.

The misdeeds took place from 2000-2007.

The inspector general's report said about three dozen ODOT vendors lavished $390,000 in cash and other gratuities -- including hunting and fishing trips, hotel rooms, sexual favors and meals -- on the ODOT officials responsible for contract bidding in Garfield Heights.

There's no indication that the scandal spread to other ODOT offices, according to the report.

Investigators said: "Kratochvil's greed was fueled by his infatuation with strippers, on whom he bestowed lavish gifts of jewelry, furniture, appliances and cash. He gave one stripper $4,000 for a breast augmentation; when she balked at going through with the surgery, he allowed her to keep $1,000 of the money as a birthday present. He also paid strippers for sexual liaisons, which took place during working hours at an Independence motel and in the back of his minivan inside the ODOT garage. One of the strippers has continued to receive money from Kratochvil by duping him into believing that he is the father of her 4-year-old daughter.

"We found that in exchange for cash, trips and other gratuities, Kratochvil, Kosmata and (senior purchasing officer, Kevin M.) Horrigan steered ODOT business to select vendors. They did so by altering bid documents, obtaining fraudulent bids and sharing bid information with preferred vendors. Kratochvil also oversaw a sham process in which he repeatedly circumvented ODOT's policy requiring purchasers to obtain competitive quotes for purchases above $1,000."