Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They
AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e
BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German
Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who
By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
My Profile
Top News
Reuters top ten news stories delivered to your inbox each day.
Subscribe
You are here:
Home
>
News
>
International
>
Article
Home
Business & Finance
News
U.S.
Politics
International
Technology
Entertainment
Sports
Lifestyle
Oddly Enough
Environment
Health
Science
Special Coverage
Video
Pictures
Your View
The Great Debate
Blogs
Weather
Reader Feedback
Do More With Reuters
RSS
Widgets
Mobile
Podcasts
Newsletters
Your View
Make Reuters My Homepage
Partner Services
CareerBuilder
Affiliate Network
Professional Products
Support (Customer Zone)
Reuters Media
Financial Products
About Thomson Reuters
U.S. Navy, NATO toughen action against pirates
Thu Feb 19, 2009 3:22pm EST
Email | Print |
Share
| Reprints | Single Page
[-]
Text
[+]
MANAMA (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy is taking a more aggressive approach in its anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, and plans are being drawn up to put suspected pirates on trial, a senior navy commander said on Thursday.
The U.S. State Department in January signed an accord with Kenya on putting suspected pirates on trial there, allowing the U.S. Navy to begin taking them into custody on the high seas.
"We're really looking forward to the capture and prosecute mechanism to drive the number of attempts down," Vice-Admiral William Gortney, commander of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, told a news briefing in Bahrain.
"The games have changed for the pirates," Gortney said.
A naval force consisting of U.S. and British ships last week for the first time seized two groups of suspected pirates after receiving distress calls from merchant vessels in the Gulf of Aden.
NATO said it planned to send warships on a new operation against pirates operating off the coast of Somalia.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said after talks among defense ministers in Krakow, Poland, on Thursday, that details still had to be worked out, but the mission was expected to involve six ships.
"It's a considerable strengthening of the anti-piracy role," he told a news briefing. NATO spokesman James Appathurai said the operation was expected to be launched in the spring.
RANSOM PAYMENTS
Pirates have been seizing vessels in the Gulf of Aden, which connects Europe to Asia and the Middle East via the Suez Canal, hijacking dozens of ships last year and taking tens of millions of dollars in ransom payments.
Foreign navies, including those of Russia, China and European Union countries, have sent ships to help tackle the threat and the effort has reduced the number of hijackings.
Alarmed by the audacious capture of a supertanker last year, foreign navies patrolling the busy shipping lanes off the coast of Somalia have been taking a more robust approach to piracy for several months.
British forces handed over a group of pirates to Kenya in December and the French navy took gunmen it had captured to the semi-autonomous northern Somali region of Puntland in January.
Gortney said successful piracy attempts were significantly fewer this year as the shipping industry was increasingly using self-protection measures, such as speeding maneuvers and barbed wire.
There have been 21 piracy attempts this year, only three of which were successful, according to the U.S. Navy. This compares with 42 successful attempts out of a total of 120 attempts last year.
The suspected pirates captured last week were being held in a detention facility on board a U.S. vessel. Continued...
View article on single page
Share:
Del.icio.us
Digg
Mixx
My Web
Facebook
LinkedIn
Next Article:
Mugabe says court should resolve MDC Bennett's case
Also on Reuters
Slideshow
Slideshow: Barbie turns heads at NY Fashion Week
China's artificially induced snow closes 12 highways
Video
Video: Stanford clients swarm banks
More International News
Kyrgyzstan shuts U.S. base
| Video
Iran slows atom plant growth but fuel stockpile jumps
Netanyahu wins backing in Israeli PM contest
North Korea warns of war as Clinton heads for Seoul
Bush's "icy smile" enraged Iraq shoe-thrower
| Video
More International News...
Editor's Choice
Slideshow
A selection of our best photos from the past 24 hours. Slideshow
Most Popular on Reuters
Articles
Video
Latin Americans fret as Stanford crisis spreads
Allen Stanford probe widens | Video
Pope tells Pelosi: Catholics cannot back abortion
North Korea warns of war as Clinton heads for Seoul
China's artificially induced snow closes 12 highways | Video
California lawmakers pass long awaited budget plan
Privacy concerns frustrate Facebook
Venezuela seizes Stanford bank after online run | Video
Recession will be worst since 1930s: Greenspan
UBS tax deal is Swiss bank secrecy's Waterloo
Most Popular Articles RSS Feed
Video
Stanford clients swarm banks
Spaceship-like car to hit U.S. roads
China makes it snow
Chopper ditches off UK coast
Obama mortgage relief plan
Bernanke: No inflation threat
Duffy sweeps Brit awards
Business Update: Grim Fed
China-Russia friction over sunk ship
Afghanistan now Obama's war
Most Popular Videos RSS Feed
the great debate
Obama's foreign policy challenges
President Barack Obama’s toughest foreign-policy challenge will be in managing the sheer number of complex problems he’s inherited and their refusal to arrive in orderly fashion. Commentary
Reuters Deals
The global destination for corporate leaders, deal-makers and innovators
Knowledge to Act
Reuters.com:
Help and Contact Us |
Advertise With Us |
Mobile |
Newsletters |
RSS |
Interactive TV |
Labs |
Reuters in Second Life |
Archive |
Site Index |
Video Index
Thomson Reuters Corporate:
Copyright |
Disclaimer |
Privacy |
Professional Products |
Professional Products Support |
About Thomson Reuters |
Careers
International Editions:
Africa |
Arabic |
Argentina |
Brazil |
Canada |
China |
France |
Germany |
India |
Italy |
Japan |
Latin America |
Mexico |
Russia |
Spain |
United Kingdom |
United States
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.