Financial Times. UK
Michael Peel and Robert Wright
December 2 2008
Flaws in anti-piracy laws and their enforcement are hampering the fight against ship hijacks that have claimed 40 vessels off the Somali coast this year, maritime lawyers and officials have warned.
The complex blend of international agreements and domestic rules governing piracy has triggered disagreements about when and [...]
Wall St. Journal
December 3, 2008
August Cole
Private security firm Blackwater Worldwide began holding meetings in London on Tuesday with potential clients for a new business venture — protection from pirates.
The Moyock, N.C., firm, which has grown rapidly through State Department security work in Iraq, has been courting shippers and insurance firms about protecting ships in pirate-infested [...]
BBC
December 3, 2008
Pirates in Somalia are making a fortune by hijacking ships and demanding ransoms to set them and their crews free - one official estimates the total this year to be around $150m.
There are conflicting reports about how much they want for the Saudi oil tanker they seized last month, the Sirius Star, [...]
Chicago Tribune/AP
December 2, 2008
ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY
NAIROBI, Kenya The luxury American cruise ship steaming across the Gulf of Aden with hundreds of well-heeled tourists just might have been too much for Somali pirates to resist.
But the six bandits, riding in two skiffs and firing rifle shots at the gleaming ship, were outrun in minutes [...]
BBC
December 2, 2008
Warships are already in the region as pirate attacks increase
The UN Security Council has extended its authorisation for countries to enter Somalia’s territorial waters to stop acts of piracy.
The 12-month extension allows nations - with advance notice - to use “all necessary means” to combat piracy in Somali waters.
Diplomats say [...]
AP
November 2, 2008
ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY
Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein speaks to The Associated Press, in Nairobi Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2008. Somalia’s prime minister said Tuesday his country is at a dangerous crossroads and cannot emerge from nearly 20 years of chaos without urgent international help
AP Photo/SAYYID AZIM
NAIROBI, Kenya — Somalia is at [...]
The Economist
Anarchy in Somalia
Nov 20th 2008
Pirates are only part of a much bigger problem in east Africa
IT IS tempting to be jaunty about piracy. So what if a few Robin Hoods in skiffs nick the odd tanker off the Horn of Africa? Often enough, the owners pay ransom and nobody gets hurt. Everyone needs a [...]
BBC
November 20, 2008
Somalia must be helped by the international community to stop it becoming a “magnet for pirates,” a senior Egyptian official has said.
Deputy foreign minister Wafaa Bassem, who chaired a piracy crisis meeting of Red Sea states, called for political, humanitarian and economic help.
And a top African Union diplomat called on the [...]
AFP
November 10, 2008
BRUSSELS — The European Union launched Monday a security operation off the coast of Somalia — its first-ever naval mission — to combat growing acts of piracy and help protect aid ships.
Dubbed Operation Atalanta, the mission, endorsed by the bloc’s defence ministers at talks in Brussels, will be led by Britain, with [...]
AP/IHT
October 22, 2008
BRUSSELS — A NATO flotilla sailing toward the Somali coast will begin antipiracy operations within the next few days, but officials said Wednesday that the alliance was still working out the ships’ rules of engagement.
The seven NATO warships will escort cargo ships carrying United Nations food aid to Somalia and will patrol [...]
