NATO's military planners and legal experts are developing a comprehensive operation plan for a new anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden, with an anticipated launch date in June, a senior NATO source told Jane'sDefenceWeekly.
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The U.N. Security Council does not think conditions are yet right to send a peacekeeping force to Somalia but will step up support for African Union (AU) troops there, a senior Western envoy said on Saturday.
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U.S. military forces will not deploy to Somalia despite reports Eritrea is supplying arms to opponents of the Somalian government, a top U.S. diplomat said. "This is an internal Somali matter," Johnnie Carson, the Obama administration's top official on Africa, told the BBC in a story aired Saturday.
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Iran has sent two warships to the Gulf of Aden to protect oil tankers and other vessels from the world's fifth-largest crude exporter against attacks by pirates off the coast of Somalia, state radio said on Thursday.
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Japan on Friday ordered its navy to dispatch two aircraft to watch out for pirate activity off Somalia. Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada ordered the two P-3C surveillance planes to assist Japan's two Maritime Self-Defence Forces destroyers patrolling off the coast of Somalia in their anti-piracy mission.
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The South Korean destroyer ROKS Munmu the Great and the US-American cruiser USS Gettysburg launched helicopters in response to a distress call on Wednesday from the MV AMIRA in the Gulf of Aden, a US- Navy statement said.
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Tuvalu’s Transport Minister is seeking the support of other countries in the Pacific to put pressure on the Government of Somalia to release twelve Tuvaluan sailors being held hostage by pirates, Radio New Zealand Intl. reports.
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Five passengers survived and 10 died in a tragic boat accident off Southern Somalia. Yesterday's accident of a dhow - a small wooden sailing boat belonging to Somali businessman Ahmed Rashid -, which was used as ferry to carry people and goods from Kismayo to Bur Gavo, caused the death of eight women and two children, coastguards and authorities from the local government confirmed.
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Youth aged 15 to 24 held nearly 40% of all employee jobs in the tourism industries in 2007, twice their share in the economy overall, while women held 56%.
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The United States has been elected to a seat on the UN Human Rights Council for the first time. The council had been shunned by the Bush administration, which accused it of admitting states with poor rights records and having an anti-Israel bias. But the Obama administration has reversed its predecessor's policy of boycotting the Geneva-based body.
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