Friday, April 25, 2008

From the AP:

The U.S. Navy has led international patrols to combat piracy along Somalia's 1,880-mile coast, the longest in Africa and near key shipping routes connecting the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean...

The U.S. and France are drafting a U.N. resolution that would allow countries to chase and arrest pirates off Somalia's coast, responding to a spate of attacks, including this week's hijacking of a Spanish tuna boat.

France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Maurice Ripert, said the resolution would authorize foreign governments to pursue pirate vessels into territorial waters, make arrests and prosecute suspects.

"We want to do it fast, but it could take one or two weeks because it has to be by consensus — it's not confrontational," he told the AP...

The push by key U.N. Security Council nations to tackle the issue follows an alarming increase in piracy by well-armed bandits, prompting international demands for better protection of the world's shipping lanes.

Interesting that none of this makes the news in Spain.

From the Daily Telegraph:

"The ministry of defence has alerted Nato and contacted France, Britain, and other allied countries with a military presence in the area," said Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the prime minister.

"Other allied countries with a military presence in the area," huh?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It´s easy to understand the omission in Zapatero's speech: among all those glittering European corvettes and patrol boats, one should be forgiven if one failed to notice something as inconspicuous as an American nuclear aircraft carrier or a Marine expeditionary unit.