Somali pirates extend deadline for ransom delivery

In an exclusive interview with News Trends, Citizens-Police Liaison Committee chief Ahmed Chinoy said that the Somali pirates have extended the deadline for the release of the Pakistani hostages.

Ahmed Chinoy said that negotiations with the Somali pirates for the releases of hostages are underway. He said that the all settlements would be finalised by Monday.

Ahmed Chinoy said that due to non-cooperation by India an extension had to be taken and in-detail discussion are being held with the Somali pirates.

Greek-operated vessel hijacked off Somalia

NAIROBI: Pirates hijacked the Greek-operated cargo ship MV Lugela off Somalia shortly after it transited through the Gulf of Aden, the European Union’s anti-piracy task force and a maritime official said on Monday.

“She has been taken by pirates. She was expected off the Somali coast in the early hours of this morning,” Andrew Mwangura, head of the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, told Reuters.

EU NAVFOR said the Panama-flagged vessel sent a distress alert to its Greek operator early on Saturday and had not been heard from since.

“The vessel was in the Somali basin, approximately 900 nautical miles east of Eyl, Somalia. A short while later, the vessel altered course to sail towards the Somali coast,” EU NAVFOR said on its website.

The MV Lugela, which has a dead weight of 4,281 tonnes, had a crew of 12 Ukrainians on board and was sailing

Uganda ready to send extra 2,000 troops to Somalia

KAMPALA: Uganda is ready to send an additional 2,000 peacekeeping troops to Somalia despite threats from hardline Somali Islamists of more attacks if peace keepers are not withdrawn, an army spokesman said on Friday.

“If we”re called on to contribute a stronger force in Somalia, we”re ready to send an extra 2,000,” spokesman Felix Kulayigye told foreign news agency by telephone.

Regional allies have promised to send an extra 2,000soldiers to Somalia by mid-August.

Faisal Shahzad’s detention challenged

NEW YORK: A New York defense lawyer has demanded that the suspect in the botched car bombing in Times Square be brought to court.

Ron Kuby sent a letter to a chief judge Tuesday that accused authorities of violating the rights of Faisal Shahzad by “squeezing information” out of him in secret.

The 30-year-old Shahzad has been held at an undisclosed location since his May 3 arrest on charges he abandoned a bomb-laden SUV in Times Square.

Authorities say he has voluntarily waived his rights to an initial court appearance while he cooperates.

Kuby said he wasn”t representing Shahzad. But he argued that since the suspect hasn”t appeared in court yet, it was impossible to know if his rights are being protected.

Somali man pleads guilty in US to seizing ship

NEW YORK: A Somali man pleaded guilty Tuesday in New York to seizing a US ship in the Indian Ocean last year, but will escape life imprisonment after prosecutors dropped a formal piracy charge.

Islamic militants attacked Somalia’s parliament

At least 20 people were killed and 60 others wounded in shelling in the Somali capital. Islamic insurgents attacked a building in the Somali capital where parliament was meeting for the first time this year the militants pounded the area with mortars.
According to reports no lawmakers were killed or wounded during the attack, Most of those killed were civilians. Previous sessions of parliament had been postponed since December because of threats from al-Shabab, an al-Qaida-linked militant group in the lawless Horn of Africa nation. A number of lawmakers have fled the 550-member parliament in Mogadishu and resettled in neighboring countries because of insecurity.
It is pertinent to note that Somali forces have been battling Al-Shabaab, the al Qaeda proxy in the country. The militants are waging a war against the government in an effort to implement a stricter form of Islamic law, or sharia.

Rescuers ordered to enter China”s flooded mine

BEIJING: Rescuers at a colliery in China have been ordered to enter a flooded mine shaft where 153 workers have been trapped for six days, state-run television reported Saturday.

The order came after rescuers at the Wangjialing coal mine heard a tapping sound coming up a pipe on Friday, bringing a glimmer of hope that some of the missing in the northern province of Shanxi had survived the flood on Sunday.

There have been no further signs of life since rescuers heard the tapping sound, state television said.

State media said divers were preparing to enter the flooded mine but did not say when they would go down the shaft.

At least 3,000 rescuers have been racing against time to pump water out of the vast coal mine and reach the missing workers.

Authorities had maintained a faint hope that some workers may have survived if they were working on platforms above danger levels, and Friday”s news from the mine indicated this might have been the case.

Rescuers had inserted a pipe into the shaft as part of the rescue effort. When they took it out, an iron wire had been attached to it, apparently by one of the trapped, a local news agency quoted a rescue official as saying.

They have sent a bucket down the narrow hole with food provisions, pens, paper and communication equipment, the news agency said.

20 civilians killed in Somali capital

MOGADISHU: At least 20 people were killed Friday after an intense battle between government forces and Islamic insurgents in the Somali capital, medical officials said. Friday”s fighting follows a lull of about two weeks, since scores of civilians were killed in two days of violence in the capital.

Military spokesman Col. Ibrahim Kalmoy said the fighting started when insurgents attacked government soldiers in southern Mogadishuin the Taleh area. He said three soldiers were wounded during the fighting.

`The enemy was forced to disappear,”” said Kalmoy. African Union troops, deployed in Mogadishu to guard key government installations, backed the government troops during the fighting.

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