North Korean leader Kim Jong-il”s luxury trains

May 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 7 (ANI): North Korean leader Kim Jong-il enjoys traveling in style, and according to the Christian Science Monitor (CSM), has six armoured luxury trains to move around in, especially when he is heading towards close ally China.

His armored train is decked out with conference rooms, an audience chamber, bedrooms, satellite phone connections, and flat screen TVs.

Some 20 railway stations in North Korea have been built specifically for his six trains, which all together have about 90 carriages, according to a November report in South Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo.

In addition, he reportedly has four billion dollars saved away in European banks.

An alternative reason for his preference for trains could be his deference to tradition — his father always traveled by train, too. (ANI)

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Security forces succeeding in curbing militancy in North East

March 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Siliguri (West Bengal), Mar 25 (ANI): Security personnel who were engaged in countering terrorism in the North East, are gaining the upper hand day by day.

The success of the anti terror operations is restoring confidence in the public.

In one such success, recently security forces, recently arrested the commander-in-chief of the banned Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL), Ningthoujam Tomba and three others from West Bengal’s Siliguri.

Formed in 1995, the KYKL is one of the most active terrorist outfits in Manipur and presently has over 300 members.

The arrest is the result of extensive combined search operation conducted by the West Bengal Police and the Imphal East Commandos.

After receiving information about the whereabouts of some cadres of a proscribed Manipur-based militant group, the KYKL in Siliguri, a team of Imphal Police along with West Bengal Police apprehended Tomba.

Tomba was wanted in over 50 cases.

Police said all the four were trying to escape to Nepal.

One satellite phone, a laptop, six mobile phones and a number of documents have been recovered from arrested militant leader.

According to West Bengal Police, Tomba’s interrogation revealed that he had visited three countries in last one year to collect funds for organisation.

“We have already informed Manipur Police. Many cases have been filed and remained pending against the arrested person. Some members of the organization are functioning outside the state while other are engaged within the state.” Debendra Pratap Singh, SP, Darjeeling District.

A local court has sent Tomba and his three associates to 10 days police custody. (ANI)

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Taliban claim successful sabotage of Afghan presidential vote

August 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Kabul, Aug. 29 (ANI): Taliban fighters say they have successfully sabotaged the Afghanistan presidential voting process without sending in a single suicide bomber.

A Globe and Mail report says that their claim that the mere threat of violence suppressed turnout enough to cast doubt on the credibility of the vote, which is being increasingly undermined by allegations of fraud.

“It’s like the election didn’t happen at all,” said one senior Taliban commander, who was instrumental in planning the insurgents’ strategy after the their leader, Mullah Omar, ordered the elections disrupted.

He spoke to The Globe And Mail by satellite phone after meeting with a dozen other senior militant commanders in a region bordering Pakistan to discuss the election.

“We have succeeded in our plan. Even in Kandahar city, most of the people were sitting in their houses. We showed the government could not do a good election,” said the commander, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

His claims were echoed by other, less senior Taliban fighters interviewed by The Globe in Afghanistan’s southern provinces, where turnout was particularly low – 10 per cent in some districts – and allegations of fraud are most pronounced.

While the United Nations, American, Canadian and Afghan officials have praised the vote as a success, the Taliban’s new declarations of victory are finding growing resonance in official circles.

Tooryalai Wesa, the governor of Kandahar province, did not dismiss the Taliban’s claim of triumph. “The election was complicated,” he said.

“They did manage to give a sense that anything was possible. They did make it seem like they were quite a lot bigger than they were. I’d score it as a win for them,” the analyst said.

At least 30 people died on election day, including two people who were hanged from a tree near the Arghandab River. At least two others had their right index fingers cut off after they voted. Dozens of rockets fell on Kandahar and Helmand province.

However, the election was largely free of the massive scale of violence threatened by the Taliban, who promised to disrupt it at all costs. (ANI)

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Were LTTE leaders killed as they sought to surrender?

May 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, May 24 (ANI): A Sunday Times report has claimed that two senior leaders of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam had begged their correspondent to initiate moves for their surrender to the authorities, but were killed as they were waving white flags of truce.

According to the paper, both Balasingham Nadesan, the political leader of the Tamil Tigers, and Seevaratnam Puleedevan, the head of the Tigers’ peace secretariat, made desperate telephone calls to The Times correspondent, saying that they had nowhere to turn, and would be killed in a matter of hours.We are putting down our arms,” Nadesan is said to have told The Times correspondent late last Sunday night by satellite phone from the tiny slip of jungle and beach on the northeast coast of Sri Lanka where the Tigers had been making their last stand.

I could hear machinegun fire in the background as he continued coolly: “We are looking for a guarantee of security from the Obama administration and the British government. Is there a guarantee of security?”

He was well aware that surrendering to the victorious Sri Lankan army would be the most dangerous moment in the 26-year civil war between the Tigers and Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese majority.

The correspondent said that he had known both Nadesan and Puleedevan since being smuggled into rebel territory eight years ago.

At that time the Tigers controlled a third of the island; now these two men were trying to save the lives of the remaining 300 fighters and their families, many of them injured. Tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were trapped with them, hiding in hand-dug trenches, enduring near constant bombardment.

“For several days I had been the intermediary between the Tiger leadership and the United Nations as the army pressed in on the last enclave at the end of a successful military campaign to defeat the rebellion. Nadesan had asked me to relay three points to the UN: they would lay down their arms, they wanted a guarantee of safety from the Americans or British, and they wanted an assurance that the Sri Lankan government would agree to a political process that would guarantee the rights of the Tamil minority,” said the correspondent.

“Through highly placed British and American officials I had established contact with the UN special envoy in Colombo, Vijay Nambiar, chief of staff to Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general. I had passed on the Tigers’ conditions for surrender, which he had said he would relay to the Sri Lankan government. The conflict seemed set for a peaceful outcome. Puleedevan, a jolly, bespectacled figure, found time to text me a smiling photo of himself in a bunker. y last Sunday night, however, as the army pressed in, there were no more political demands from the Tigers and no more photos. Nadesan refused to use the word “surrender” when he called me, but that is what he intended to do. He wanted Nambiar to be present to guarantee the Tigers’ safety,” he added.

“Once more, the UN 24-hour control centre in New York patched me through to Nambiar in Colombo, where it was 5.30am on Monday. I woke him up. I told him the Tigers had laid down their arms. He said he had been assured by Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan president, that Nadesan and Puleedevan would be safe in surrendering. All they had to do was “hoist a white flag high”, he said.

I asked Nambiar if he should not go north to witness the surrender. He said no, that would not be necessary: the president’s assurances were enough. It was still late Sunday night in London. I tried to get through to Nadesan’s satellite phone but failed, so I called a Tigers contact in South Africa to relay Nambiar’s message: wave a white flag high. I was woken at 5am by a phone call from another Tigers contact in southeast Asia. He had been unable to get through to Nadesan. “I think it’s all over,” he said. “I think they’re all dead.”That evening, the Sri Lankan army displayed their bodies. (ANI)

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“Hi, is that the Somali pirates?”

April 13, 2009 By Leave a Comment

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Your best source is jailed. You track high-sea hijacks by text and email. You get through to captors on a satellite phone but are then roundly abused.

Reporting on Somali piracy can be surreal.

While some in the world only woke up to the phenomenon with the first seizure of an American hostage, Somalia’s modern-day buccaneers have been marauding off the Horn of Africa for years, taking hundreds of captives and millions in ransoms.

Covering their exploits is a near-daily task for reporters in Somalia and foreign correspondents in East Africa.

At times, like the saga of just-released American hostage Richard Phillips on a lifeboat with four gunmen, it becomes a 24/7 job, requiring moral judgments and canny journalism.

Reuters reporters in Somalia were able to contact Phillips’ captors — on their fuel-less, floating lifeboat stalked by U.S. warships — at the start of the standoff. They issued various defiant messages to the world in barked conversations.

Having then been informed, however, that their remarks were making instant headlines on TV networks across the world, the pirate gang became less cooperative.

“We are tired of your calls. We have no time for journalists,” is a polite translation of some of the last quotes our team managed to extract from the pirates.

“If you bother us again, we will order someone in Mogadishu to meet you,” a gang member added before the line went dead.

Often, though, the pirates are friendly and helpful, though they detest use of the p-word. “We never kill people. We are Muslims. We are marines, coastguards — not pirates,” one said.

Hostages say the pirates are normally as friendly as they can be under the circumstances. While they threaten to shoot or beat them if they do not cooperate, they also roast goat for their captives and pass phones around for calls home.

“ELECTRONIC” HIJACKS

At Reuters, news of dramatic hijacks can often break by texts, sometimes in the middle of the night, from sources.

On a warship in the Gulf of Aden, one journalist was first to report the hijacking of an Italian boat from staff who got a distress call then saw communications disappear in minutes.

One of the best sources on piracy in the region is Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme. Based in Kenya’s Mombasa port, the body is a champion for sailors’ welfare, essentially a human rights group.

Mwangura believes some authorities in the region, and wealthy kingpins in places like Nairobi, Dubai and London, are complicit in masterminding and sheltering piracy.

Last year, Mwangura accused Kenya of trying to cover up the real destination of tanks on board a hijacked Ukrainian ship.

Mwangura was labeled a “mouthpiece” for pirates by the Kenyan government, and went to jail on charges of giving “alarming” information and possessing $3 worth of marijuana.

He was later released, but the case hangs over him in what he says is a crude attempt to gag him from telling the truth.

Kenya’s sensitivity over Mwangura mirrors some of the moral ambiguities over covering piracy. Are journalists fanning criminality when they speak to the gangs, or adding to a necessary understanding of the phenomenon?

Answers, please, in a bottle on the Indian Ocean.

(Editing by Jack Kimball and Richard Balmforth)

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Somali pirates vow revenge over comrades’ killings

April 13, 2009 By Leave a Comment

BOSASSO, Somalia, April 12 (Reuters) – Somali pirates threatened revenge on Sunday after two separate hostage-rescue raids by foreign forces killed at least five comrades, raising fears of future bloodshed on the high seas.

The latest raid by U.S. forces on Sunday that saved an American hostage and one by France last week have upped the stakes in shipping lanes off the anarchic Horn of Africa nation where buccaneers have defied foreign naval patrols.

“The French and the Americans will regret starting this killing. We do not kill, but take only ransom. We shall do something to anyone we see as French or American from now,” Hussein, a pirate, told Reuters by satellite phone.

“We cannot know how or whether our friends on the lifeboat died, but this will not stop us from hijacking,” he said.

Sea gangs generally treat their captives well, hoping to fetch top dollar in ransoms.

The worst violence has been an occasional beating.

“We shall revenge,” said another pirate, Aden, in Eyl village, a pirate lair on Somalia’s eastern coast.

Some fear the U.S. and French operations may make the modern-day pirates more like their more fearsome forbearers.

“The pirates will know from now that anything can happen. The French are doing this, the Americans are doing it. Things will be more violent from now on,” said Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers Assistance Programme.

“This is a big wake-up to the pirates. It raises the stakes.”

PIRACY ESCALATION

Piracy is lucrative business in Somalia, where gangs have earned millions of dollars in ransoms, splashing it on wives, houses, cars and fancy goods.

After a wane in business early this year, pirates have struck back. They presently hold more than a dozen vessels with about 260 hostages, of whom about 100 are Filipino.

Eyl, Haradheere and other pirate havens along the Indian Ocean coastline have come back to life with the windfall of successful operations.

Somalia’s anarchy — whose 18 years of civil war have given sea gangs assault rifles, grenade launchers and little central control — has long been ignored by world powers.

The saga over the capture of cargo ship captain Richard Phillips has thrown international attention on the long-running piracy phenomenon that has hiked up insurance costs on strategic waterways where warships now patrol.

“Killing three out of thousands of pirates will only escalate piracy,” said Sheikh Abdullahi Sheikh Abu Yusuf, spokesman of the moderate Islamist group Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca. (Additional reporting by Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi and Abdi Sheikh and Abdi Guled in Mogadishu; Writing by Jack Kimball; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Jon Boyle)

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Pirates vow to fight if attacked

April 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Somali pirates holding an American hostage on a drifting lifeboat vowed on Friday to fight any attack by U.S. naval forces stalking them at high sea.

“We are not afraid of the Americans,” one of the pirates told Reuters by satellite phone on behalf of the gang holding ship captain Richard Phillips in the Indian Ocean.

“We will defend ourselves if attacked.”

Despite their defiant talk, maritime groups tracking the saga — the first time Somali pirates have captured an American — say a more likely outcome is a negotiated solution, possibly involving safe passage in exchange for their captive.

Four pirates have been holding Phillips, a former Boston taxi driver, since Wednesday after a foiled bid to hijack the 17,000-tonne Maersk Alabama several hundred miles off Somalia.

The ship’s lifeboat has run out of fuel, other pirates are too nervous to help them due to the presence of foreign naval ships, and the USS Bainbridge destroyer is up close.

“Other pirates want to come and help their friends, but that would be like sentencing themselves to death,” said Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme that monitors the region’s seas.

“They will release the captain, I think, maybe today or tomorrow, but in exchange for something. Maybe some payment or compensation, and definitely free passage back home.”

Phillips is one of about 270 hostages being held at the moment by Somali pirates, who have been plying the busy sea-lanes of the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean for years.

They are keeping 18 captured vessels at or near lairs on the Somali coast — five of them taken since the weekend alone.

Yet the fact Phillips is the first U.S. citizen seized, and the drama of his 20-man American crew stopping the Alabama being hijacked on Wednesday, has galvanized world attention.

It has also given President Barack Obama another foreign policy problem in a place most Americans would rather forget.

Perched on the Horn of Africa across from the Middle East, Somalia has suffered 18 years of civil conflict since warlords toppled former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

Americans remember with a shudder the disastrous U.S.-U.N. intervention there soon after, including the infamous “Black Hawk Down” battle in 1993 when 18 U.S. troops were killed in a 17-hour firefight that later inspired a book and a movie.

U.S. SENDS MORE SHIPS

In another Somali-American saga, Captain Phillips apparently volunteered to get in the lifeboat with the pirates on Wednesday to act as a hostage for the sake of the Alabama’s 20 American crew members, who somehow retook control of their ship.

The freighter, which is carrying food aid for Uganda and Somalia, is now on its way to its original destination, Mombasa port in Kenya. It is expected to arrive by Sunday night.

Pirate sources in Somalia told Reuters they had sent two boats full of armed men to help their colleagues on the lifeboat. The two boats were staying far apart, to help evade patrols, but were nervous of approaching due to the naval ships.

The USS Bainbridge has called on the FBI and other U.S. officials to help negotiate with the pirates.

U.S. military officials said more forces were on the way and that all options were on the table to save the captain.

“We’re definitely sending more ships down to the area,” a defense official told Reuters. He said one of the ships would be the USS Halyburton, a guided missile frigate that has two helicopters on board.

Last year saw an unprecedented number of hijackings off Somalia — 42 in total. That disrupted shipping, delayed food aid to east Africa, increased insurance costs, and persuaded some firms to send cargoes round South Africa instead of through the Suez Canal, a critical route for oil.

It also brought a massive international response, with ships from the United States, Europe, China, Japan and others flocking to the region to protect the sea-routes.

As the patrols mainly focused on the Gulf of Aden, the gateway to the Suez, the pirates began moving further afield and have been striking as far south as Indian Ocean waters near the Seychelles and Madagascar.

Analysts say the attack on the Alabama could lead to a new phase in international efforts to stop piracy.

“Piracy may be a centuries-old crime, but we are working to bring an appropriate, 21st-century response,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

With a vast area for the pirates to roam in, however, analysts say the only real solution is peace and stable government in Somalia itself.

(Additional reporting by Washington bureau, Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi; writing by Andrew Cawthorne; editing by Andrew Roche)

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Sudan’s JEM rebels says rival leaders join group

April 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

KHARTOUM, April 10 (Reuters) – A major Darfur rebel group said 22 political and military leaders from a rival faction joined its ranks on Friday, but a leader of the faction said it had no knowledge of any fresh defections.

Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) commander Suleiman Sandal said the members of the Sudan Liberation Army’s Unity faction (SLA-Unity) who defected to his group had brought with them fighters, supporters and equipment.

“Five are political leaders and 17 (are) commanders,” Sandal told Reuters via satellite phone from Darfur in Sudan’s west.

“They have joined JEM because they want to unify the struggling in Darfur, and the Darfurian people cannot achieve their demands when there are many factions and fighting among them,” Sandal added.

Sandal estimated that 90 percent of SLA-Unity’s personnel had switched allegiance to JEM.

One of the military commanders named by Sandal, Hamid Abdul Issa, confirmed he had joined JEM. Earlier this month, veteran rebel Suleiman Jamous joined JEM in a bid to unify the rebels.

But a political leader of the SLA-Unity faction said he did not know of any recent defections, other than Jamous.

“I don’t know today who exactly went to JEM, I don’t know. Maybe some people went (to JEM),” SLA-Unity’s Ahmed Kubur Jibril told Reuters, adding that the faction’s chief of staff, who he named as Mohammed Ismail Khamis, had not left Unity.

JEM was the only Darfur rebel group invited to February’s peace talks with the Sudanese government in Doha, but has said it will not attend further talks until expelled aid groups are allowed to return to Darfur and prisoners are freed.

International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes during almost six years of ethnic and politically driven fighting in Sudan’s west. Khartoum puts the death toll at around 10,000.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir last month on charges of masterminding war crimes in Darfur, and violence in Darfur has risen since the indictment.

Sudan has also expelled 13 foreign aid groups and closed three local organisations it accused of helping build a war crimes case against the country’s president. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Charles Dick)

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Somali pirates move to aid comrades, hostage recaptured

April 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment

(For full coverage of the pirate crisis, clink on [nPIRATES])

* Pirates sailing German ship to help comrades off Somalia

* U.S. captain recaptured after escape attempt

* France frees yacht; one hostage killed; four rescued

By Abdi Guled

MOGADISHU, April 11 (Reuters) – Pirates sailed a hijacked German freighter toward a lifeboat off Somalia early on Saturday to help four comrades holding an American ship captain hostage under the gaze of a U.S. destroyer.

Separately, French special forces stormed a yacht held by pirates elsewhere in the lawless stretch of the Indian Ocean in an assault that killed one hostage, but freed four others.

Two pirates were killed and three were captured.

More U.S. warships have been sent toward the lifeboat drifting in international waters off Somalia, where pirates have been holding American captain Richard Phillips since an attempt to hijack his ship, the 17,000-tonne, Danish-owned Maersk Alabama, on Wednesday.

Phillips apparently volunteered to get in the lifeboat with the pirates in exchange for the safety of his crew, who regained control of the ship, which is carrying food relief to Kenya.

Phillips leapt into the sea during the night and tried to swim away but at least one pirate quickly followed and he was hauled back onto the lifeboat, a U.S. official said.

“He didn’t get very far,” the official told Reuters.

Close by, the destroyer USS Bainbridge launched drones that monitored the incident and kept radio contact with the pirates. The Bainbridge, which is leading negotiations for Philips’ release, is seeking a peaceful outcome to the standoff with the assistance of FBI experts, a U.S. official said.

The pirate gang holding Phillips remained defiant despite the arrival of U.S. and other naval ships in the area.

“We are not afraid of the Americans,” one of the pirates told Reuters by satellite phone. “We will defend ourselves if attacked.”

$2 MILLION RANSOM

The pirates are demanding $2 million for his release and a guarantee of their own safety, a pirate source said.

The source told Reuters from the Somali fishing port of Haradheere that another group who hijacked the 20,000-tonne German container vessel, the Hansa Stavanger, a week ago were heading to the scene of the standoff.

“Knowing that the Americans will not destroy this German ship and its foreign crew, they hope they can meet their friends on the lifeboat,” said the pirate, who has given reliable information in the past but asked not to be named.

The German ship was seized off south Somalia between Kenya and the Seychelles and has a crew of 24.

Officials in Washington confirmed that reinforcements were nearby. The frigate USS Halyburton, equipped with guided missiles and helicopters, and a German frigate had arrived in the area of the standoff, they said.

The USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, was also heading for the lifeboat’s general area, mainly in case its medical facilities were required.

In France, the government stood by its raid to free the sailing boat, which was hijacked en route to Zanzibar last weekend with two couples and a 3-year-old child aboard.

“During the operation, a hostage sadly died,” said French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office. But it said the president “confirms France’s determination not to give into blackmail and to defeat the pirates.” [ID:nLA581500]

LAWLESS WATERS

Phillips is one of about 270 hostages being held by Somali pirates preying on the busy sea-lanes of the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

Somalia has suffered 18 years of civil conflict since warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and the international waters off the Horn of Africa have become some of the most dangerous in the world.

Last year there were 42 ship hijackings off Somalia, which disrupted shipping, delayed food aid to East Africa and raised insurance costs. Some cargo ships have been diverted to travel around South Africa instead of through the Suez Canal.

The hijackings brought a massive international response, with ships from the United States, Europe, China, Japan and others flocking to the region to protect the sea routes.

Maritime groups say the likeliest outcome from the U.S. hostage saga is a negotiated solution, possibly involving safe passage in exchange for the captive. [ID:nLA699491]

U.S. Somalia expert Ken Menkhaus said the best outcome would be for the German ship to be allowed to pick up Phillips and his captors and take them to shore, and for a ransom to be paid for the American.

“It would mean no loss of life and no risk to the lives of the other hostages. And at the end of the day an insurance company would be out $2 million — probably just $1 million after negotiations,” Menkhaus said. (Writing by Chris Wilson; Additional reporting by Andrew Gray and Anthony Boadle in Washington, William Maclean in London, Mogadishu office, and Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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U.S. warship pressures Somali pirates with U.S. hostage

April 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

A U.S. Navy destroyer arrived off Somalia on Thursday to apply pressure for the release of an American ship captain taken hostage in the first seizure of U.S. citizens by increasingly bold pirates.

Gunmen briefly hijacked the 17,000-tonne Maersk Alabama freighter on Wednesday, but the 20 American crew retook control after a confrontation far out in the Indian Ocean, where pirates have captured five other vessels in a week.

The four gang members were holding the captain on the ship’s lifeboat and the crew were trying to negotiate his release.

“Our main concern remains the safe return of the captain and our latest communications with the ship indicate that he is unharmed,” said B.J. Talley, spokesman for the Danish-owned freighter’s operator, Maersk Line Ltd.

The U.S. warship Bainbridge arrived on the scene before dawn on Thursday, the company added. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said it had been called in to assist, and its negotiators were “fully engaged”.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the lifeboat now appeared to be out of fuel.

“We are surrounded by warships and don’t have time to talk,” one of four pirates on the lifeboat told Reuters by satellite phone. “Please pray for us.”

The attack was the latest in a sharp escalation in piracy in the waters off lawless Somalia, where heavily armed sea gangs hijacked dozens of vessels last year, took hundreds of sailors hostage and extracted millions of dollars in ransoms.

The long-running phenomenon has disrupted shipping in the strategic Gulf of Aden and busy Indian Ocean waterways, increased insurance costs and made some firms send their cargoes round South Africa instead of the Suez Canal.

The upsurge in attacks makes a mockery of an unprecedented international naval effort against the pirates, including ships from Europe, the United States, China, Japan and others.

PIRATES HOLD CAPTAIN AS “SHIELD”

Pirates say they are undeterred by the foreign flotilla and will simply move operations away from the patrols.

“The solution to the problem, as ever, is the political situation in Somalia,” said analyst Jim Wilson, of Lloyds Register-Fairplay. Somalia has had no effective central control for 18 years.

“Until there is peace on land there will be piracy at sea.”

Maersk said its crew regained control of the Alabama on Wednesday when the pirates left the huge ship with one hostage, the ship’s captain, Richard Phillips. The rest of the crew were unhurt.

The ship was carrying thousands of tonnes of food aid destined for Somalia and Uganda from Djibouti to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was attacked about 500 km off Somalia.

“We are just trying to offer them whatever we can, food, but it is not working too good,” second mate Ken Quinn told CNN of efforts to secure their captain’s release. He said the four pirates sank their own boat after they boarded the Alabama.

Then the captain talked the gunmen into the ship’s lifeboat with him. The crew overpowered one of the pirates and sought to swap him for the captain, Quinn told CNN.

“We kept him for 12 hours. We tied him up,” Quinn said. They freed their captive, he added, but the exchange did not work.

In Haradheere port, a pirate stronghold, an associate of the gang said the gunmen were armed and ready to defend themselves.

“Our friends are still holding the captain but they cannot move, they are afraid of the warships,” he told Reuters. “We want a ransom and of course the captain is our shield. The warships might not destroy the boat as long as he is on board.”

Pirates there said two boats full of gunmen had left the port to go and support their surrounded colleagues.

“We are afraid warships will destroy them before they reach the scene,” one told Reuters.

On Monday, Somali gunmen captured a British-owned ship after hijacking another three vessels over the weekend.

“We think the world must come together to end the scourge of piracy,” Clinton told reporters in Washington, saying she was following the saga closely.

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Warship nears Somali pirates holding U.S. captain

April 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

A U.S. Navy destroyer reached waters off Somalia on Thursday to help free an American ship captain taken hostage by pirates in the first seizure of U.S. citizens by the increasingly bold sea gangs.

Gunmen briefly hijacked the 17,000-tonne Maersk Alabama freighter on Wednesday, but the 20 American crew retook control after a confrontation far out in the Indian Ocean where the pirates have captured another five vessels in a week.

The four gang members were holding the captain on the ship’s lifeboat and the crew were trying to negotiate his release.

“Our main concern remains the safe return of the captain and our latest communications with the ship indicate that he is unharmed,” said B.J. Talley, spokesman for the Danish-owned freighter’s operator, Maersk Line Ltd.

The U.S. warship Bainbridge arrived on the scene before dawn on Thursday, the company added.

“We are surrounded by warships and don’t have time to talk,” one pirate on the lifeboat told Reuters by satellite phone.

“Please pray for us.”

Quoting second mate Ken Quinn, CNN said the lifeboat, with the captain and four pirates, was within sight of the Alabama.

The attack was the latest in a sharp escalation in piracy in the waters off lawless Somalia, where heavily armed sea gangs hijacked dozens of vessels last year, took hundreds of sailors hostage and extracted millions of dollars in ransoms.

The long-running phenomenon has disrupted shipping in the strategic Gulf of Aden and busy Indian Ocean waterways, increased insurance costs and made some firms send their cargos round South Africa instead of the Suez Canal.

The upsurge in attacks makes a mockery of an unprecedented international naval effort against the pirates, including ships from Europe, the United States, China, Japan and others.

Pirates say they are undeterred by the foreign flotilla and will simply move operations away from the patrols.

“The solution to the problem, as ever, is the political situation in Somalia,” said analyst Jim Wilson, of Lloyds Register-Fairplay, referring to the 18-year civil conflict.

“Until there is peace on land there will be piracy at sea.”

PIRATES HOLD CAPTAIN AS “SHIELD”

Pirates also attacked a Marshall Island-flagged bulk carrier on Thursday in the Gulf of Aden 125 nautical miles from Bosasso in northern Somalia, NATO said on a piracy-monitoring website. It said they quit their attempt after about an hour.

Maersk said its crew regained control of the Alabama on Wednesday after the pirates left the huge ship with one hostage, the ship’s captain. The rest of the crew were unhurt.

The ship was carrying thousands of tonnes of food aid destined for Somalia and Uganda from Djibouti to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was attacked about 300 miles off Somalia.

“We are just trying to offer them whatever we can, food, but it is not working too good,” Quinn told CNN of efforts to secure their captain’s release. He said the four pirates sank their own boat after they boarded the Alabama.

Then the captain talked the gunmen into the ship’s lifeboat with him. The crew overpowered one of the pirates and sought to swap him for the captain, Quinn told CNN.

“We kept him for 12 hours. We tied him up,” Quinn said. They freed their captive, he added, but the exchange did not work.

In Haradheere port, a pirate stronghold, an associate of the gang said the gunmen were armed and ready to defend themselves.

“Our friends are still holding the captain but they cannot move, they are afraid of the warships,” he told Reuters. “We want a ransom and of course the captain is our shield. The warships might not destroy the boat as long as he is on board.”

On Monday, Somali gunmen captured a British-owned ship after hijacking another three vessels over the weekend.

“We think the world must come together to end the scourge of piracy,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters in Washington, saying she was following the saga closely.

U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry said a thorough policy debate on Somali piracy was long overdue.

“I plan to hold hearings to further examine the growing threat of piracy and all the policy options that need to be on the table before the next fire drill becomes an international incident with big implications,” Kerry said in a statement.

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Rescue launched for two Italian sailors on crippled yacht

April 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Wellington – A rescue operation was launched Monday to save two Italian sailors stranded on a crippled yacht in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, about halfway between New Zealand and Chile.

An oil tanker was diverted to their aid, but New Zealand’s Rescue Coordination Centre said it was 800 nautical miles from the 10-metre yacht and would not reach them for nearly three days.

They were identified as father and son, Pietro Fresi, 64, and Vittorio Fresi, 34, who reportedly sailed in their yacht Onitron from Italy in September planning to retrace the clipper route of sailing ships in the 19th century on a voyage expected to take up to 300 days.

The pair used a satellite phone to tell contacts in Rome that their yacht’s mast had broken and was hanging over the side of the boat, and it had lost engine power about 3,000 kilometres from New Zealand.

New Zealand authorities, who have international responsibility for maritime rescue operations in the area, were alerted and they asked the oil tanker Hellespont Trooper to help.

Dave Wilson, of the Rescue Coordination Centre, said it was the nearest ship to the stricken yacht, but it would not reach it until about midnight New Zealand time (1200 GMT) on Wednesday.

Wilson told Radio New Zealand the yacht capsized in a storm in the early hours of Monday and although the sailors were able to right it, the mast broke in winds up to 45 knots and 7-metre sea swells.

“They are in quite good spirits considering and they will just hunker down and wait for that ship to arrive,” he said. “They are inside the hull of the boat and just riding out the worst of the conditions now.

“It is quite amazing that they managed to come through unscathed.”

Wilson said the weather was forecast to improve and the men had a life raft, 10 days of food and a distress locator beacon if they lost the satellite communication that had enabled them to keep in regular contact with New Zealand and the tanker.

Once the Fresis are found, the Hellespont Trooper is expected to take them to Argentina.

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‘Lacy underwear’ guiding explorers towards North Pole

March 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Mar 30 (ANI): A bunch of Arctic explorers have found a rather ‘saucy’ tool to navigate their way to the North Pole-a pair of lacy underwear for the ladies.

The Catlin Arctic Survey are using a pair of lady’s knickers to help them with directions after compasses failed to work.

The explorers are trekking 700 miles to the North Pole to measure the thickness of the shrinking Arctic icecap.ut because of being very close to magnetic north, the compasses are “going haywire”.

And also, the freezing conditions have rendered the latest global positioning satellite or GPS equipment dysfunctional.

Thus, the team led by Pen Hadow needs to rely on navigating using the position of the sun.

But, when the weather turns cloudy, they follow the direction of the wind, as indicated by a pair of lacy knickers shredded and stuck to the end of a ski pole.

Hadow, who was the first person to trek solo to the North Pole, said a supporter of the expedition kindly donated the knickers.

“It an entirely genuine situation. If you can get gossamer thin material and attach it your ski pole it is particularly useful for this project because we can cannot use the compass as we are so close to magnetic north and it is too cold to use the GPS,” the Telegraph quoted him as saying on satellite phone from the Arctic.

He added: “The knickers have taken up a whole new value operationally.”

Navigator Ann Daniels explained why the knickers were so useful, saying: “Due to our proximity to the Magnetic North Pole, our compasses are currently going haywire.”

Daniels added: “The earth’s strong magnetic field on this part of the ocean means that the compass needle simply spins uselessly in its housing. As such, we’re currently relying on more traditional methods for day-to-day navigation, using the sun (for those few precious hours each day when it graces us with its presence), and using wind direction, as indicated by the panties…” (ANI)

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Aid worker with Canadian agency shot dead in Darfur

March 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Nairobi/Khartoum- A Sudanese aid worker employed by a Canadian agency has been shot dead in Sudan’s restive Darfur province, the agency’s country director said Tuesday.

Mark Simmons, Sudan director for The Fellowship of African Relief (FAR), said that gunmen first ambushed Adam Khatir, 39, on Saturday night in the town of Kongo Haraza to demand his satellite phone.

This attempt failed, but they came to Khatir’s home on Monday evening to try again.

“They found out where he lived and went to his home,” Simmons told German Press Agency dpa. “He had left it (the phone) in the office, so they shot him dead in front of his wife and four children.”

Tensions have risen in Darfur since the International Criminal Court in early March issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

Following the arrest warrant, al-Bashir ordered 13 aid agencies out of Darfur then said all foreign aid agencies should cease operations in Sudan within one year.

The agencies were accused of spying for the US and providing intelligence to the ICC.

There have been reports that attacks on and threats against aid workers have increased, and Simmons said that Khatir’s killing may have been linked to what he called “unhelpful statements.”

“It is possible that people may feel they can attack non-governmental organizations (since the indictment),” he said.

The UN has warned that the expulsions of NGOs could lead to deaths in refugee camps where millions are dependent on aid.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the US would hold al-Bashir responsible for any deaths that come about as a result of the expulsions.

The ICC accuses al-Bashir of genocide and other war crimes carried out in Darfur.

The conflict in Darfur began in 2003 when mainly non-Arab tribesmen took up arms against what they called decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.

The UN says up to 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced by the conflict. The Sudanese government claims only around 10,000 have died. (dpa)

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India to respond to Pak action on Mumbai dossier: Pranab Mukherjee

February 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Feb 24 (ANI): External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said that New Delhi would respond to Pakistani action on Mumbai dossier.

Speaking to media persons on Tuesday after a high-level meeting with the officials, Mukherjee said, “So far the composite dialogue is concerned, it is paused. We expect Pakistan to do more in respect of dismantling the terror infrastructure and also to bring the perpetrators of terror attacks to justice.

The process is on. We have received their response. We are going to send our response today.”

India handed over the dossier to Pakistan in January that contained the confession of the gunman, satellite phone intercepts between the attackers and their handlers in Pakistan, and a list of Pakistani-made weapons used by the militants in Mumbai attacks.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s Interior Adviser Rehman Malik had told a news conference in Islamabad on February 12 that Pakistan was holding in custody the ringleader and five other suspects in the conspiracy behind the Mumbai attacks.

Malik had said that six suspects were in custody and two were known, but still at large. The findings were being shared with India’s High Commission in Islamabad. (ANI)

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India to respond to Pak action on Mumbai dossier: Pranab Mukherjee

February 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Feb 24 (ANI): External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said that New Delhi would respond to Pakistani action on Mumbai dossier.

Speaking to media persons on Tuesday after a high-level meeting with the officials, Mukherjee said, “So far the composite dialogue is concerned, it is paused. We expect Pakistan to do more in respect of dismantling the terror infrastructure and also to bring the perpetrators of terror attacks to justice.

The process is on. We have received their response. We are going to send our response today.”

India handed over the dossier to Pakistan in January that contained the confession of the gunman, satellite phone intercepts between the attackers and their handlers in Pakistan, and a list of Pakistani-made weapons used by the militants in Mumbai attacks.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s Interior Adviser Rehman Malik had told a news conference in Islamabad on February 12 that Pakistan was holding in custody the ringleader and five other suspects in the conspiracy behind the Mumbai attacks.

Malik had said that six suspects were in custody and two were known, but still at large. The findings were being shared with India’s High Commission in Islamabad. (ANI)

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India to respond to Pak action on Mumbai dossier: Pranab Mukherjee

February 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Feb 24 (ANI): External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said that New Delhi would respond to Pakistani action on Mumbai dossier.

Speaking to media persons on Tuesday after a high-level meeting with the officials, Mukherjee said, “So far the composite dialogue is concerned, it is paused. We expect Pakistan to do more in respect of dismantling the terror infrastructure and also to bring the perpetrators of terror attacks to justice.

The process is on. We have received their response. We are going to send our response today.”

India handed over the dossier to Pakistan in January that contained the confession of the gunman, satellite phone intercepts between the attackers and their handlers in Pakistan, and a list of Pakistani-made weapons used by the militants in Mumbai attacks.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s Interior Adviser Rehman Malik had told a news conference in Islamabad on February 12 that Pakistan was holding in custody the ringleader and five other suspects in the conspiracy behind the Mumbai attacks.

Malik had said that six suspects were in custody and two were known, but still at large. The findings were being shared with India’s High Commission in Islamabad. (ANI)

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Mumbai terror attack boat returned to its owner

February 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Mumbai, Feb 17 (ANI): MV Kuber, the fishing trawler that the Indian Government says militants of the Mumbai terror attacks used to reach the metropolis, has been returned to its owner amidst speculations that the boat might sail back to Gujarat.

The trawler has been returned to Vinod Masani after the police cleared him of suspected links with the militants. The MV Kuber will sail back to Porbander.

India claims militants who came from Karachi spent 36 hours on the Kuber after it was hijacked in the Arabian Sea in Pakistani waters and abandoned close to the Mumbai coast. The militants finally reached Mumbai’s shores in rubber dinghies.

The journey by militants in the Kuber itself was violent as the boat’s Captain Amarsing Solanki was allegedly killed by them. His body with hands tied and throat slit was found on the boat.

Indian investigating authorities termed the recovery of the Kuber as a major breakthrough and provided the first piece of evidence against Pakistan.

Belongings of the gunmen and a satellite phone were recovered from the trawler and find a mention in the dossier sent to Pakistan.

Reports said that owing to procedural delays and problems, the boat is still anchored in trendy Colaba district, one of the targets of the militants.

“I will take the boat. I don’t know when it would reach Gujarat. It will take around four days I believe,” said Arvind, caretaker of the Kuber boat. (ANI)

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Canadians claim record for fastest trek across Antarctica to the South Pole

January 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Jan 10 (ANI): Three Canadian men have claimed a new record for the fastest trek across Antarctica to the South Pole.

According to a report by BBC News, Ray Zahab, Kevin Vallely and Richard Weber said they had completed the 1,130 km (700 miles) journey in 33 days, 23 hours and 30 minutes.

The Canadians’ journey took them from Hercules Inlet on Antarctica’s Ronne Ice Shelf to the South Pole.

They said that they suffered white-out, but survived on a 7,000-calorie-a-day diet of deep-fried bacon, cheese and huge chunks of butter.

“If you took a cloud, wrapped it around your head and then duct-taped it, that’s what a white-out is like,” Zahab, told The Associated Press (AP) by satellite phone from Antarctica.

Tom Sjogren, founder of ExplorersWeb.com, a New York-based Web site that compiles statistics on adventurers’ feats, said that the men beat the previous record of 39 days, 7 hours and 49 minutes, which was set by American Todd Carmichael just last month.

The Canadian trio used their satellite phone to post photos and podcasts of their journey as they did it.

They pulled 170-lb (77-kg) sleds of equipment, with Zahab travelling on foot and on snowshoes while the other two men skied.

They endured altitude sickness, vertigo and massive, painful blisters.(ANI)

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Ex-soldier Trained For Terrorists Said Ajmal Amir Kasab

November 30, 2008 By 2 Comments

Ex-soldier trained terrorists, says KasabMUMBAI: “There were 24 of us who took one-year training in camps organised by Laskar-e-Taiba (LeT) at Mansera and Muzzarafabad in Punjab province of Pakistan. Ten of us were later handpicked for the Mumbai operation,” said Ajmal Amir Kasab during interrogations.
According to sources, Kasab, 21, the only terrorist arrested by the Mumbai police, told his interrogators that Abdul Rahman, an ex-soldier popularly called Chacha, had given them training.
The sources said Kasab explained that the training was divided into seven phases. “He said the first phase was of ‘very hard physical training’ of three months which included running 10 to 15 km. The next three months were for marine training like swimming, surfing, diving and boating in high seas. The rest included arms and ammunition training,” said a source.
After the training was over, they were sent to Mumbai for a “short internship”, Kasab is believed to have told the cops. This was the period when the accused did the reccee of the city and even went to the five star hotels (Taj and Oberoi), the sources said.
Sources said the Mumbai operation plot was planned in Karachi some six months ago. Joint commissioner of police (crime) Rakesh Maria said,”We are closely working with the all the central agencies who have earlier handled such situations.”
In a fresh development in the investigations, the Mumbai police called up their Gujarat counterparts to enquire about whether the terrorists used Amar Narayan, the skipper of the fishing trawler used by them, as a mole. Narayan was detained by Pakistan for three months for illegally entering into the Pak waters.
Police are now taking the help of top technical experts to break into the details of the GPS system and the satellite phone which they recovered from a terrorist at the Taj hotel. This GPS helped them to navigate the sea route from Karachi to Mumbai via Porbander, cops said.
The police have launched a manhunt for the few locals who have given the terrorists logistic support in the operation.

By Times of India

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