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- The Indian Navy has foiled a piracy attempt in the Gulf of Aden by stopping a suspected pirate skiff from taking over a merchant vessel.
An Indian cargo vessel with 15 crew members on board has been hijacked by Somali pirates off the port city of Bosasso in Gulf of Aden waters, a media report said on Saturday.- Chinese music pirates have issued a set of Michael Jackson commemorative DVDs less than a week after his death, with the pop star's Complete 50 Year Record on sale in Beijing video shops today.
- The US Navy said it has arrested nine suspected pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday, after the Indian-flagged Motor Vessel Premedivya sent a distress call.
- Captured Somali pirates could soon face trials and serve jail sentences outside their homeland under a pact being negotiated between American officials and regional allies, the head of a new US anti-piracy task force said on Friday.
Heavily-armed pirates swarmed aboard an oil industry support vessel working off the coast of Cameroon and kidnapped 10 crew members, including six Frenchmen, the French foreign ministry said on Friday.
India is chalking out procedures to act in concert with other navies to check piracy off the Somalian coast, identified by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) as the area with the highest risk of piracy in the world, Defence Minister AK Antony said on Friday.- South Korea will send a team of military officers to Africa next week to determine whether Seoul should dispatch naval vessels to waters off Somalia to fight rampant piracy, the defence ministry said on Friday.
- Pirates who seized a cargo ship off the coast of Somalia in September freed the 22 sailors and the vessel on Thursday, a South Korean official said.
- All the crew members including three Indians of an Iranian cargo ship hijacked by sea pirates off the Somalian coast on August 21 were set free on Friday, sources said.
NATO agreed on Thursday to send ships soon to protect vessels off Somalia's dangerous coast as bandits holding a Ukrainian ship laden with weapons softened their ransom demands in response to mounting international pressure.- Somali pirates who hijacked a ship laden with tanks and heavy weapons stared down US warships and helicopters again on Wednesday, making no move to withdraw their $20 million ransom demand.
- Disagreements between Somali pirates holding a Ukrainian ship laden with tanks and heavy weapons escalated into a shootout and three pirates are believed dead, a US defence official said on Tuesday. The pirates denied the report.
- Somali pirates have released two Malaysian oil tankers and their crews in exchange for ransom a month after hijacking the vessels, a shipping company official said on Tuesday.
A US destroyer off the coast of Somalia closed in on Saturday on a hijacked Ukrainian ship loaded with tanks and ammunition, watching it to ensure the pirates who seized it do not try to remove any cargo or crew.
Russia's navy said on Friday that it had sent a warship to Somalia's coast a day after pirates seized a Ukrainian vessel loaded with 33 tanks, ammunition and some Russian crew members.
Mortar rounds slammed into a market in Somalia's capital Monday, killing up to 30 people including children and overwhelming hospitals with dozens of wounded in the worst fighting in months, witnesses said.- The number of Filipino seamen being held by pirates around the Horn of Africa has risen to nearly 100 after the hijacking of a Greek merchant vessel, the Philippines government said on Monday.
A Greek-owned ship with 19 sailors on board, most of them Filipinos, has been attacked by pirates off Somalia, the Greek merchant marine ministry said on Sunday.
A maritime official said on Friday that Somali pirates have released a UAE-owned ship, captured a week ago. The ship was seized on May 17 and had about a dozen crew members from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Tanzania.
The crew of a Spanish fishing boat seized by pirates last week off the coast of Somalia has been freed and the boat was being escorted to the Seychelles Islands, Spanish officials said on Sunday.
Spanish officials say they are working to try to win the release of a fishing boat hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia with 26 crew members aboard.
The Beijing Olympic torch relay was completed on Monday in Malaysia's capital amid tight security, as 80 athletes and local personalities took part in the 16.5-km run.
The French foreign ministry on Friday welcomed the release of 30 hostages, held aboard a French tourist yacht, off Somalia's coast for the past week.
