SOMALIA

The Northern state of Somalia has jailed nine Somali pirates for 15 to 20 years by a court in the breakaway northern state of Somaliland, an official said on Sunday, the AFP reported.

NATO said Friday it would extend a month-long anti-piracy mission off Somalia until June 20 and cancel port visits to Singapore and Australia.

EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel said Thursday that international donors pledged more than $250 million to boost security for Somalia and try to stop the rampant attacks by pirates in recent months.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Somalia's president urged international donors on Thursday to give the east African country more money to fight piracy and restore order after two decades of anarchy.

Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon recommended Wednesday the Security Council not to deploy UN force for Somali. He said such a deployment could exacerbate the country's conflict.

The mother of a teenager facing trial in the United States for piracy off Somalia wants President Barack Obama to pardon her son because he was misled into joining a sea gang.

The European Union pledged at least 60 million euros ($77.54 million) on Wednesday to support security forces in Somalia and African Union peacekeepers based in the conflict ridden region.

Somali pirates freed a chemical tanker and its 23 member Filipino crew Tuesday after holding them hostage for more than five months, the shipped owner and officials said.

A teenager Somali pirate arrived to face court hearing Tuesday in New York what are believed to be the first piracy charges in the United States in more than a century.

Piracy incidents nearly doubled across the globe in the first quarter of 2009 almost entirely due to an upsurge in attacks by gangs off the Somali coast, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said on Tuesday.

Somali pirates released a hijacked ship and its 19-man crew after they found out it was picking up food aid for their hungry countrymen, a Somali clan elder said Monday.

Somali Prime Minster said Thursday they needs more help to fight against pirates and would be willing to share the pirates’ information with other countries.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Wednesday for a coordinated international effort to fight piracy off the Horn of Africa and said she would send an envoy to a Somali donors conference to pursue new anti-piracy steps.

The French Navy detained 11 suspected pirates in a raid off the coast of Kenya Wednesday, the French Ministry of Defense announced.

A French frigate captured 11 pirates off the coast of Somalia after foiling an attack on a Liberian-flagged merchant ship, the French defense ministry said on Wednesday.

Pirates attacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship off the coast of Somalia with rockets and automatic weapons on Tuesday but failed to board the craft, the ship's owner and the U.S. military said.

Somali pirates hijacked two more cargo vessels and opened fire on a third on Tuesday in attacks that showed their determination to continue striking shipping in the area's strategic waterways.

The crew of a U.S. ship attacked off Somalia called on President Barack Obama to lead the battle to stamp out piracy on Monday, after U.S. forces freed the ship's captain to end a five-day hostage drama.

U.S. congressman Donald Payne flew into Mogadishu flanked by six bodyguards on Monday, making what is believed to be the first visit to the Somali capital by a senior American politician since 1994.

U.S. Navy special forces freed an American ship's captain and killed three Somali pirates holding him hostage in a lifeboat, ending a five-day standoff but drawing vows of revenge from pirates.

Somali pirates holding an American hostage on a drifting lifeboat want $2 million for his release, a fellow pirate onshore said on Friday.