Save Our Seafarers is lobbying support from business leaders to increase international pressure on governments to take firmer action to combat Somali piracy. Since its launch in March the campaign has gained rapid support from the UK, Philippine and Georgian governments. The campaign website has attracted visits from 184 countries worldwide, leading to more than 26,000 individual letters from members of the public to the heads of state of more than 100 countries around the world.

The worsening violence and hostage-taking is costing the world economy an estimated $12 billion a year.

SOS SaveOurSeafarers Campaign Chair Giles Heimann, said:"These criminal gangs are holding the world economy to ransom. Hundreds of seafarers have been held hostage and the physical and mental ill-treatment they are forced to suffer makes horrifying reading. Sixty-five seafarers have died as a direct result of Somali piracy in the past five years, through torture, murder, suicide, malnutrition and disease. The potential economic impact of the crisis is hugely disturbing given the knife edge on which the global economy is currently perched.

"Any business or organisation that conducts trade though the Suez Canal and across the Indian Ocean to the Indian sub-continent and Asia and Australasia is at risk. That's about one-fifth of global trade. We feel that businesses which rely on these routes remaining safe will be keen to offer their support. They rely on the movement of manufactured goods, raw materials, food and fuel to operate.

"We need help from the world's business leaders who have the foresight to understand the future impact of this progressively escalating problem. In business parlance, the pirate gangs have discovered the meaning of scalability - their criminal 'business model' now extends across an area of ocean twice the size of Europe.

"If this situation continues, there is a real risk that the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea and the entire Indian Ocean could become restricted zones for shipping; that seafarers could simply refuse to sail into war-like attacks, captivity and the nightmare of suffering that follows; or that ship owners will not put ships and crews at risk. Using alternative routes will play havoc with costs and there is no alternative to sailing through the area for over 40% of all seaborne oil which originates from the Arabian Gulf region."

The campaign will be contacting such corporate luminaries as JCB's Alan Blake, Phil Clarke of Tesco, Ian Tyler of Balfour Beatty and UK Vodaphone chief, Guy Laurence.

"Part of the role of business leaders is to seek opportunities and identify threats, "says Heimann. "Shipping industry representatives are in a position to make direct contact with world business leaders. We see it as our duty to warn them of the threat to their businesses posed by severe restrictions to one fifth of the world's major sea trade routes.

"We hope that in turn, they will bring pressure upon their respective governments to eliminate the piracy threat."

]]> Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:56:40 AEST Madrid (AFP) Jan 21, 2012 - A group of Somali suspected pirates were in jail in Spain Saturday pending trial following an attack on a Spanish warship, authorities said.

The group of six men arrived in the country late Friday after they were arrested off the Somali coast January 12.

Spanish navy officials say the men had opened fire at the support-and-combat vessel Patino, which was taking part in a European Union security mission.

A high court judge on Saturday ordered five to be detained ahead of their trial. The sixth remained in hospital for treatment of foot wounds, though he too was expected to be placed in custody, officials said.

The men are charged with several crimes including attempted piracy and disobeying a warship. A trial date was not immediately set.

The five who were in court all denied having attacked the Spanish warship with grenades and assault rifles, insisting instead they were starving fishermen who had approached the Patino for help after spending three weeks without eating.

When the court was shown a military video of the men allegedly throwing weapons overboard, the Somalis said they were merely dumping garbage bags into the sea.

The Patino operates under the EU's Operation Atalanta, a multinational mission to protect ships in the perilous shipping route off the coast of Somalia, where hundreds of seamen have been taken hostage.

The Patino eventually returned fire against the Somalis, who said another in their group was killed.

]]> Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:56:40 AEST Brussels (AFP) Jan 16, 2012 - A NATO warship went to the rescue this weekend of an Iranian-flagged vessel whose engine broke down just days after its rescue from pirates by another NATO ship, the alliance said Monday.

An Italian ship, the ITS Grecale, offered the five Iranian and nine Pakistani crew food and water and worked through the night to fix the engine, but to no avail, NATO said in a statement.

"The engine was too badly damaged to repair at sea," the statement said.

"NATO offered to transfer the crew to the closest port, but they chose to stay with their vessel," it added. The ITS Grecale "is remaining in the area to monitor the situation, ready to provide further assistance if required."

The ship had been released from suspected Somali pirates on January 7 by a Danish warship, the HDMS Absalon.

That operation came days after a US warship, the USS Carney, intercepted the Indian-flagged dhow Al-Qashmi off the southwestern coast of Oman and freed its 20 Indian crew members.

The weekend assistance comes amid heightened tensions between the international community and Tehran.

]]> Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:56:40 AEST The Hague (AFP) Jan 17, 2012 - Dutch marines guarding a merchant ship have warded off an attack by pirates after it was accosted in the Arabian Sea south of Yemen, the Dutch defence ministry said Tuesday.

"Dutch marines warded off the attack when pirates approached the Flintstone", a ship that dumps rocks to protect oil and gas pipelines, at around 6:00 am (0500 GMT), it said in a statement.

The Flintstone's crew sheltered in a safe room as a fishing vessel launched a fast moving skiff towards the merchant vessel.

"The marines tried in vain to stop the fast-moving skiff, occupied by six men armed with an assortment of weapons including a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG), by firing tracers as a warning," the ministry said.

After one of the men aimed the RPG at the ship, the marines fired on the skiff, which turned around and joined the larger fishing vessel.

"It's not excluded that there may have been casualties among the attackers," the ministry said.

The Flintstone was underway from Singapore to Malta through the Suez Canal when the attack happened, it added.

Dutch marines teams of the Vessel Protection Detachment (VPD) are in certain instances put on board merchant ships on request from the ship's owners, the defence ministry said on its website.

Last year "heavily armed" VPD teams accompanied 11 ships through pirate infested waters, it added.

]]> Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:56:40 AEST Shanghai (AFP) Jan 15, 2012 - Unidentified attackers fired on a Chinese cargo boat on the Mekong River in Laos, China's police said Sunday, less than two months after Beijing began joint patrols to protect shipping.

Shots were fired at the Chinese ship Sheng Tai 11 on Saturday evening, but none of the crew was wounded, China's Ministry of Public Security said in a statement on its website.

The boat, which had five crew members, was carrying wood, Chinese state television reported.

China last month deployed more than 300 armed police to patrol the Mekong in boats in collaboration with Myanmar, Thailand and Laos after a deadly attack killed 13 Chinese sailors in October last year.

In the latest incident, the Chinese ship was returning to China from Thailand, the statement said.

After the attack occurred, patrol ships from both Laos and China responded and Laos was still pursuing those suspected of carrying out the shooting.

The Mekong flows through China's southwestern province of Yunnan into Southeast Asia, serving as a major trade route through several countries.

China reacted angrily to the October attack, sending patrol boats down the Mekong to retrieve 164 stranded Chinese sailors and 28 cargo ships and calling on diplomats from Thailand, Laos and Myanmar to speed up investigations.

Since then, police in Thailand have detained nine soldiers suspected of killing the Chinese sailors and are also thought to have links with a Myanmar drug kingpin.

In a separate incident earlier this month, an unidentified rebel group fired grenades targeting Myanmar soldiers on a patrol boat that was accompanying four Chinese cargo ships on the Mekong, but missed.

]]> Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:56:40 AEST Madrid (AFP) Jan 12, 2012 - A Spanish navy ship fought off a gun attack by pirates on the Somali coast Thursday, then chased and captured six of the attackers while one was reported killed, authorities said.

The support-and-combat vessel Patino, part of a European Union security mission, early Thursday "suffered an attack by a pirate skiff that led to the detention of six of the attackers," the Spanish defence ministry said.

The pirates opened fire on the Spanish ship, prompting it to respond with "light fire," the ministry said in a statement. When the pirates continued shooting, the ship responded with "neutralisation fire in self-defence".

The ship eventually sent out a helicopter to chase the pirates. The pirates threw their weapons overboard and surrendered when the helicopter caught up with their boat.

"Six pirates have been taken on board the Patino, of which five are injured," the ministry said. "Those detained said that another companion died in the incident and was thrown by them into the sea."

The Patino operates under the EU's Operation Atalanta, a multinational mission to protect ships in the perilous shipping route off the coast of Somalia, where hundreds of seamen have been taken hostage.

The EU force NAVFOR that patrols the region said in a separate statement that the Patino, the flagship of its mission, had been escorting a ship carrying food aid to Somalia for the World Food Programme.

Two of the injured pirates received medical treatment on board the Patino, NAVFOR said, adding that it was looking for signs of the pirate who was reported killed.

]]> Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:56:40 AEST Washington (AFP) Jan 10, 2012 - A US ship on Tuesday rescued six Iranian mariners in the Gulf after their boat broke down, the Pentagon said, in the latest such gesture despite soaring tensions between Washington and Tehran.

The United States, while pressing Iran over its nuclear program, has drawn attention to its assistance to ordinary Iranians twice in less than a week as US ships defy warnings from the Islamic regime not to enter strategic waters.

US officials said an Iranian crew used flares to seek help from the passing US ship after flooding in the engine room left their dhow unseaworthy before sunrise some 50 nautical miles (90 kilometers) southeast of the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr.

The Coast Guard cutter, the Monomoy, gave the Iranians water, blankets and meals made in accordance with Islamic law and provided medical care for one of the mariners who had suffered non-serious injuries, officials said.

A US military statement said that Hakim Hamid-Awi, the owner of the Iranian dhow named the Ya-Hassan, was thankful.

"Without your help, we were dead. Thank you for all that you did for us," the US statement quoted him as saying.

In the afternoon, US forces transferred the six mariners on inflatable boats to an Iranian Coast Guard vessel, the Naji 7, the statement said.

The captain of the Naji 7 also offered his regards to his US counterparts and "thanks us for our cooperation," according to the US statement.

The United States says that its forces routinely rescue sailors in distress regardless of nationality but officials have been eager to highlight efforts to assist Iranians amid the tensions at sea.

Last week, the US Navy rescued 13 Iranians held by pirates who were believed to come from Somalia. The operation was carried out by a warship escorting the USS John C. Stennis carrier, which Iran had warned not to return to the Gulf.

In rare praise for the United States, Iran welcomed last week's "humanitarian and positive act" but said it did not justify Western forces' deployment in the Gulf.

Iran has threatened to close off the Strait of Hormuz if the European Union moves ahead with a total ban on oil exports from Tehran.

The United States, which has had poor relations with Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, recently imposed tough sanctions aimed at foreign firms that buy from Iran.

Iran's threats have spooked oil markets as the strait is the sole waterway to the Gulf, the world's largest source of fossil fuels. But many analysts doubt that Iran has the military capability to block the strait.

Admiral Jonathan Greenert, the chief of US naval operations, said that he was focused on providing self-protection for forces in the Gulf.

"If you ask me what keeps me awake at night, it's the Strait of Hormuz and the business going on in the Arabian Gulf," he said, referring to the body which Iranians call the Persian Gulf.

"I want to make sure our folks have the right equipment to do the right thing," he said at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think-tank.

Western powers fear that Iran, an arch-enemy of the West and Israel, is developing nuclear weapons. Iran insists that its program is solely for peaceful purposes.

Tensions have kept spiraling after Iran started enriching uranium in a new underground bunker and the Islamic regime sentenced to death an American ex-Marine of Iranian descent accused of spying.

]]> Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:56:40 AEST Tehran (AFP) Jan 7, 2012 - The Iranian government on Saturday welcomed a US navy rescue of 13 of its nationals from pirates near the entrance to the Gulf, in a rare respite from months of rising tensions between Tehran and Washington.

But one Iranian media outlet, the Fars news agency, which is close to the hardline Revolutionary Guards, dismissed the incident as a suspect "Hollywood movie" meant "to justify the presence of a (US) aircraft carrier in Persian Gulf waters."

The rescue was carried out on Thursday by one of several warships escorting the carrier USS John C. Stennis -- which Iranian military chiefs early this week warned to stay out of Gulf waters or else face the "full force" of Iran's navy.

"We consider the actions of the US forces in saving the lives of the Iranian seamen to be a humanitarian and positive act and we welcome such behaviour," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told Iran's Arabic-language broadcaster Al-Alam on Saturday.

"We think all nations should display such behaviour," he added.

The US military on Friday that one of the vessels escorting the Stennis, the USS Kidd, rescued the Iranian fishermen from around 45 days of captivity at the hands of pirates thought to be Somalis. It said the Iranian captain of the dhow had asked the Kidd for help.

The pirates were taken into custody and the Iranian fishermen released to return home on their dhow, which was refuelled and restocked with provisions supplied by the US navy vessels.

"It is like you were sent by God," one of the Iranian fishermen, Fazel Ur Rehman, 28, was quoted as telling his US rescuers by the New York Times newspaper, which had a reporter and photographer travelling on the Stennis.

The US reporter boarded the Iranian fishing vessel, Al Mulahi, with US navy personnel and spoke with its crew, as well as with several of the Somali pirates arrested by the Americans.

The Iranian captain, Mahmed Younes, 28, told the New York Times the pirates had captured his vessel in late November and had since been using it as a mother ship for their operations around the region.

Photographs of the Iranian dhow and crew, and of the arrested pirates, were published on the New York Times website.

Iran's official IRNA news agency initially said a US warship had only "claimed" to have carried out the rescue, and that Iranian military leaders had not confirmed it.

The Fars news agency then reported that the rescue was nothing more than a "Hollywood movie" that was the object of a "media blitz" by the Pentagon.

"Iran's navy has on so many occasions rescued foreign ships from pirates, but they have never been praised and hailed by foreign media, not that Iranian navy officials were looking for propaganda," Fars said.

"There is suspicion and doubt about this American action, which seems to have been pre-organised," it said.

"It was more like a Hollywood film with a fixed location and specific actors," said Fars, highlighting that the US navy had provided video of the incident.

"This shows the Americans were looking at using it for propaganda advantage," it added.

In recent weeks, the United States and Iran have been sliding deeper into a showdown over the Gulf, and particularly the narrow Strait of Hormuz at its mouth, through which 20 percent of the world's oil flows.

Ramped-up Western sanctions have prompted Iran to threaten to close the waterway.

Last Tuesday, Iranian military leaders warned the Stennis, which is currently attached to the US Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain, to stay out of the Gulf.

The US military responded that it would continue to deploy its warships to the Gulf. It has also said it will "not tolerate" closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

]]> Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:56:40 AEST Jakarta (UPI) Jan 6, 2012 - The Indonesian navy has rescued a tug boat and its nine crew members hijacked in the Straits of Singapore, the International Maritime Bureau said.

The boat was recovered last Saturday off Indonesia, the IMB confirmed to United Press International. A naval aircraft later found the tug's barge, carrying heavy machinery and construction materials, floating in the heavily used sea lanes.

The IMB said the boat was en route from Malaysia to the island of Borneo when shipping authorities lost contact with the vessel.

Indonesian authorities issued no information on the event but the IMB warned ship owners of the dangers of piracy in all seas.

Last week another reported attempt in Indonesian territorial waters was logged with the IMB's Piracy Reporting Center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

A duty officer on a bulk carrier anchored off Samarinda on the southeast coast of Borneo noticed an intruder on board and sounded a general alarm. The intruder fled in a waiting boat along with two other suspected pirates, a report on the IMB Web site said.

Piracy rose to record levels last year, with Somali pirates behind 56 percent of the 352 attacks reported up to October when the IMB issued its annual global piracy report.

"Figures for piracy and armed robbery at sea in the past nine months are higher than we've ever recorded in the same period of any past year," IMB Director Pottengal Mukundan said.

Somali pirates are intensifying operations not just off their own coastline but further afield in the Red Sea -- particularly during the monsoon season in the wider Indian Ocean, noted the IMB, whose piracy center has been monitoring piracy since 1991.

"With unprecedented boldness, this August pirates also boarded and hijacked a chemical tanker at anchor in an Omani port, under the protection of coast state security."

Somali pirates were involved in 199 attacks in the first nine months of last year, up from 126 in the first nine months of 2010. But Somali pirates hijacked fewer vessels last year, taking 24 ships compared to 35 for 2010. Also, hijackings were successful in 12 percent of all attempts up to October 2011, down from 28 percent in 2010.

The IMB praised the work of Bangladeshi authorities in helping to reduce attacks in their territorial waters.

Indonesia remains an area of concern.

"Robbers are normally armed with guns, knives and or machetes," the report said. "Many attacks may have gone unreported. Pirates and robbers normally attack vessel during the night."

Also, attacks in the Straits of Singapore are increasing.

]]> Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:56:40 AEST Beijing (UPI) Dec 12, 2011 - Chinese boats have begun joint anti-smuggling patrols with Laos, Myanmar and Thailand along the Mekong River.

The first flotilla of 10 escorted cargo ships left Guanlei Port in southwest China's Yunnan province after an official launch of the four-country patrol that protected the vessels through to arrival Sunday in Chiang Saen, a Thai province.

Police and security representatives from the four countries made a show of solidarity at the official launch in Guanlei. The move is an attempt to make commercial shipping safer along the Mekong as the river passes though the four countries before entering Cambodia and Vietnam.

The patrol marks the reopening of shipping since closure by the Chinese after 13 sailors were killed in an attack on a Chinese ship in Thai waters in October. Many of the bodies -- two of them women cooks -- had their hands tied or handcuffed behind their backs, were blindfolded with adhesive tape or had been shot.

Thai police said they arrested nine soldiers believed to have been involved in the killings.

The reopening of shipping also comes as Thai police said they arrested five men on suspicion of smuggling hundreds of thousands of methamphetamine pills on a local bus.

Around 30 officers and security personnel were on board the ships that left Guanlei, the Chinese state news agency Xinhua said.

Ye Chao, owner of the Chinese ship Baoshou, welcomed the patrols. "We're reassured by the government stepping in," he said.

"We don't have to trade at the risk of our lives any more. Those gangs were fully armed and we had nothing to defend ourselves. We speak their language, so we survived. But for those who don't, anything could happen," Ye said.

The killings of the Chinese sailors on board their vessel galvanized politicians in the four countries into forming the joint patrol force. China will take a lead role in helping to train and equip the police forces, Xinhua reported.

The 3,050-mile Mekong River -- called the Lancang River in China -- is the world's 10th longest river and an important commercial and agricultural asset to the countries through which it runs.

The river flows from its source is high in Tibet through China's Yunnan province, briefly marks the border between Myanmar and Laos, then intermittently between Laos and Thailand. It enters Cambodia and finally Vietnam, forming the Mekong Delta and emptying into the South China Sea.

The six counties have a history of cooperating on agricultural Mekong River issues.

Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam set up the Mekong River Commission in 1995 to help manage flooding and agricultural issues in the river's massive flood plain, which encompasses most of Laos. China and Myanmar became "dialogue partners" of the MRC in 1996.

But the Mekong flows through the infamous Golden Triangle area of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar. The triangle is known for opium and heroin smuggling but also is increasingly known for an illicit trade in methamphetamines.

Many ships have been hijacked to quickly move millions of methamphetamine pills along the river as part of the transportation system that includes horse and donkey routes through mountains.

Thai police said three of the five men they arrested on the weekend had been traveling on a bus accompanied by several suitcases containing 1.7 million methamphetamine pills and around 65 pounds of crystal methamphetamine.

Police arrested two men who were waiting to receive the drugs and pay the couriers, a report in the Bangkok Post newspaper said.

]]> Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:56:40 AEST Subscribe to our daily selection of space, military, environment and energy newsletters responseText http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=0016gbbKsaiGSpQFojVO8ZoHw%3D%3D