2008 September | FendyBt2 Official Website

Somali pirates warn off rescuers

September 27th, 2008 by FendyBt2

Article Source: FendyBt2 Official Website

File photo of assailants who attacked a cruise ship off the coast of Somalia in 2005

Pirates who seized a Ukrainian ship off the coast of Somalia have warned against any attempt to rescue the vessel’s crew or cargo.

One of the pirates said they would speak to Kenyan authorities about a ransom for the ship, which is carrying 33 battle tanks destined for Kenya.

Pirates have seized dozens of ships near Somalia’s coast in recent months.

A Russian Navy vessel is heading to the region and the US says it is monitoring developments in the area.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Yury Yekhanurov earlier confirmed 33 Russian T-72 tanks and “a substantial quantity of ammunition” were aboard the captured cargo ship, called the Faina.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry said the ship had a crew of 21 and was sailing towards the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

The ship’s captain had reported being surrounded by three boats of armed men on Thursday afternoon, it said.

‘Global security problem’

Earlier reports suggested that the cargo had been destined for south Sudan, but Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua confirmed the tanks were heading to Kenya.

“The cargo in the ship includes military hardware such as tanks and an assortment of spare parts for use by different branches of the Kenyan military,” he said.

Security analyst Knox Chitiyo told the BBC the latest incident showed the waters off Somalia’s coast had become a “global security problem”.

“Piracy has become big business and there seems to be no concerted response to the problem,” said Mr Chitiyo, from the London-based Royal United Services Institute.

Authorities in Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland say they are powerless to confront the pirates, who regularly hold ships for ransom at the port of Eyl.

Battles and looting in Mogadishu

Life in Somalia’s pirate town

map

Senior UN officials estimate the ransoms pirates earn from hijacking ships exceed $100m (Â£54m) a year.

Pirate “mother ships” travel far out to sea and launch smaller boats to attack passing vessels, sometimes using rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs).

Last week, France circulated a draft UN resolution urging states to deploy naval vessels and aircraft to combat such piracy.

France, which has troops in nearby Djibouti and also participates in a multi-national naval force patrol in the area, has intervened twice to release French sailors kidnapped by pirates.

Commandos freed two people whose boat was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden earlier this month and in April, six arrested pirates were handed over to the French authorities for trial.

Russia announced on Friday it would start carrying out regular anti-piracy patrols in the waters off Somalia to protect Russian citizens and ships. A warship had been sent to the area earlier this week, it said.

Somalia has been without a functioning central government for 17 years and has suffered from continual civil strife

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation

Father ‘had threatened suicide’

September 24th, 2008 by FendyBt2

Article Source: FendyBt2 Official Website

Ellie, Isobel and Kerry Hughes

A man believed to have killed his two young daughters before killing himselfhad already told their mother he would commit suicide, a friend says.

David Cass and the girls’ mother, named as Kerry Hughes, split up after a “stormy” relationship, Emma Timberlake has said.

Ms Timberlake said Ms Hughes, 20, told her Mr Cass would kill himself but said nothing about harming the girls.

Police found the bodies of Mr Cass, 33, and the girls in Southampton on Sunday.

The girls have been named locally as Ellie, three, and 12-month-old Isobel.

"[Kerry] still loved him and she wanted to make a go of it for the sake of the children but there had always been problems"
Emma Timberlake, friend of girls’ mother

Hampshire police believe Mr Cass killed his daughters before hanging himself at Paynes Road Car Sales, Freemantle.

Police are not looking for anyone else in connection with the deaths.

Twenty-year-old Ms Timberlake, who said she was a previous girlfriend of Mr Cass, explained he was “mentally unstable” and had lied about having large sums of money and a number of houses, rather than living in the caravan the bodies were found in.

“I spoke to Kerry on Friday and she told me that Dave had said he was going to kill himself,” she said.”But he didn’t say anything about harming the children.

“But when we were together and we broke up he has said the same thing to me, so I said to her ‘Don’t listen to him, darling’, but then this happened.

Police at the scene in Freemantle

“She still loved him and she wanted to make a go of it for the sake of the children but there had always been problems.”

Family friend Val Frazier said she phoned 999 to alert police to what was happening.

Ms Frazier said: “[Ms Hughes] had a phone call [from Mr Cass] and he apparently said to her, ‘The children have gone to sleep forever and now I’m going to hang myself’.

“She phoned straight here screaming and I just ran straight around and sorted it out with the police.

“It just won’t go into my head that a man can take his own kids.”

‘Devoted to girls’

Formal identification of the bodies is expected later, following post-mortem examinations at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester.

Forensic science officers have been examining both the caravan and the inside of the garage, which was cordoned off just before 1900 BST on Sunday.

Mr Cass’s manager at the garage, John Martin, told BBC News that the MOT tester was devoted to his daughters.

He said: “That’s all he talked about in here. He didn’t want to live without his girls, I suppose, but I just took it as Dave being a little bit down.

Pakistan in sovereignty warning

September 20th, 2008 by FendyBt2

Article Source: FendyBt2 Official Website

Breaking News

Newly elected Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has said he will not allow Pakistan’s sovereignty to be violated by foreign powers fighting terrorism.

In a key speech to MPs, Mr Zardari, however, vowed to “root out terrorism and extremism wherever and whenever they may rear their ugly heads”.

Pakistan has been a key ally of the US in its “war on terror”, but relations have become strained over tactics.

Mr Zardari replaced Pervez Musharraf in August after he stepped down