Piracy News

China wants to take a lead role in anti-piracy operations off the Somalia coast, underscoring Beijing's desire for greater influence in Africa's affairs and global diplomacy.

Sailors who've been hijacked often say they never saw the pirates coming. That's because pirates like to strike at dawn and dusk, when the light is lowest, sneaking up on ships in small skiffs at great speed.

Indian Ocean and Red Sea countries have pledged to cooperate in seizing, investigating and prosecuting pirates off the coast of war-ravaged Somalia in a stepped-up campaign to curb a scourge that has wrought havoc with international shipping, including United Nations delivery of emergency food aid.

Somali pirates holding a Spanish trawler crew captive have kicked and spat on their hostages, the trawler captain said on Monday.

Piracy, 1st Ld-Writethru,0120 Somali pirates hit oil tanker in long-range attack Eds: APNewsNow.

The Japan News.Net Monday 9th November, 2009 Tokyo, Nov 9 : India and Japan today expressed their firm determination to take forward bilateral defence exchanges and cooperation in a meaningful way.

For the last five months, the Anzac frigate HMAS Toowoomba has hunted pirates, drug smugglers and terrorists and worked with a giant US aircraft carrier in a mission vastly more complicated than when Australia first dispatched warships to the Middle East.

Spy planes are being used for the first time to track the movements of Somali pirates as they plunder hundreds of ships, a Nato report will reveal.

Sunday, November 8, 2009 Families of Spanish sailors being held for over a month appealed to Spain's government on Friday to negotiate with the Somali pirates for their release.

The crew at the centre of the hijacked cargo vessel tell of their ordeal for the first time, The Sunday Times of UK reports.

Somali livestock exports to the Gulf States are expected to double to one million animals this month after the Saudi government lifted a long-standing ban, traders and a company official said today.

It has been a week since Somali pirates announced that they had taken a British couple hostage in the Indian Ocean.

Spain said Friday it would not free two captured pirates as demanded by their fellow hijackers who are holding a Spanish trawler and 33 crew members off the coast of Somalia.

The MSC Melody survived a Somali pirate attack earlier this year off Africa with the help of an on-board Israeli security team that exchanged fire with the attackers.

Beijing on Friday opened a two-day international conference on efforts to protect shipping in the Gulf of Aden from Somali pirates, the defence ministry said.

Rival pirate groups have reportedly fought over the custody of old British couple who were kidnapped nearly two weeks ago off the coast of East Africa and currently held near a Somali coastal town.

Japan Herald Friday 6th November, 2009 New Delhi, Nov 6 : Defence Minister AK Antony will be leaving for Japan on Saturday on an official visit at the invitation of his Japanese counterpart Toshimi Kitazawa to review the on-going defence related interactions between both the countries and to explore ways to enhance such exchanges to the mutual ...

Somali pirates seized a Greek-owned vessel full of wheat in the Indian Ocean on Thursday and threatened to hand three Spanish captives to the families of two suspected gunmen being held in Spain.

Somalian pirates have threatened to kill three crew members taken hostage from a Spanish fishing vessel if two suspected pirates held in Spain are not freed, the captain of the captured vessel said Friday.

A search has been launched for two East Coast Demerara fishermen who are missing after two Guyanese fishing boats were attacked by pirates in Suriname waters around 7 pm on Wednesday, the pirates taking the two men hostage while escaping.