Thursday, April 9, 2009

Piracy

Somali Piracy Exposes Weakness in UN Law of the Sea

Voice of America — The explosion of piracy off the coast of Somalia in recent years has exposed a weakness in the United Nations maritime law that makes high seas piracy illegal throughout the world.
In the waters off Somalia's nearly 4,000-kilometer-long coast, warships from more than a dozen countries have formed what U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recently described as "one of the largest anti-piracy flotillas in modern history."
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US crew repel pirates off Somalia

Al Jazeera — Pirates who attempted to hijack a US-flagged, Danish-owned container ship off the coast of Somalia have been repelled by the vessel's 20-strong US crew.
But the pirates, who attempted the hijack about 450km off the coast of Somalia on Wednesday, managed to capture the captain and were holding him hostage.
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Piracy Causes Changes in Routes, Insurance

Wall Street Journal — Piracy in the waters off the coast of Somalia -- particularly in the critical Gulf of Aden, connecting the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean -- soared last year. Amid the rash of attacks, some lines have stopped transiting the area altogether, and shipping-insurance rates have jumped.
That has boosted the cost of steaming through the Gulf of Aden, a body of water four times the size of Texas, and one of the world's busiest trade lanes, funneling Saudi oil, Chinese computers and Japanese cars from Asia and the Mideast to the European Union. Instead, ships are steering around the Cape of Good Hope. But that voyage adds an extra two to three weeks to the trip.
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