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Five hundred years ago, no one suspected the 16th-century vessel the Nao Victoria would become the stuff of legend. In 1519, a Portuguese consul called the Spanish carrack “very old and patched up” and unfit to even “sail … to the Canaries.” Nevertheless, the Nao Victoria was chosen for a five-ship expedition, crewed by 270 men, that would come to be known as one of the most significant journeys in the history of human exploration. The captain of this unprecedented adventure was Portuguese explorer Fernão de Magalhães, anglicized Ferdinand Magellan. On September 20, 1519, he set sail aboard the flagship...

Malaysia's military believes a jetliner missing for almost four days turned and flew hundreds of kilometers to the west after it last made contact with civilian air traffic control off the country's east coast, a senior officer told Reuters on Tuesday. --SNIP-- Malaysian authorities have previously said flight MH370 disappeared about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur for the Chinese capital Beijing. "It changed course after Kota Bharu and took a lower altitude. It made it into the Malacca Strait," the senior military officer, who has been briefed on investigations, told Reuters.

MALACCA: A baby shark being prepared for lunch gave a family here a big surprise -- an ancient artifact believed to be dated long before the Portuguese conquest of Malacca. Housewife Suseela Menon, from Klebang, made the priceless discovery while filleting the fish for lunch. It is believed to be a medallion worn by the Portuguese soldiers, presumably as a divine protection, during their conquests in this part of the world in the 16th century. One side of the medallion is a profile of a woman's head with a crown and encircled by a halo and an inscription that is...

The Secret Anti-China Message Behind Obama's Mission To Yemen Joe Weisenthal Jan. 9, 2010, 11:13 AM The war on terror is back, though the story has moved from Afghanistan (which is ostensibly now in nation-building mode) to Yemen, which up until recently, many Americans probably had never heard of. Asia Times has an excellent overview of the situation written by former Indian ambassador M K Bhadrakumar. What's most interesting is his analysis of Yemen through the lens of the broader tension between the US and China. Most important, however, for US global strategies will be the massive gain of control...

China is building up military forces and setting up bases along sea lanes from the Middle East to project its power overseas and protect its oil shipments, according to a previously undisclosed internal report prepared for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

JAKARTA: Indonesia will tell the United States not to meddle in regional anti-terrorism efforts when US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visits next week, Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono said on Thursday. Rumsfeld is due in Indonesia from June 6-8 and was to discuss security in the piracy-prone Malacca Straits, military cooperation and anti-terrorism efforts with senior Indonesian officials, Sudarsono said. “We will impress on the United States that the fight against terrorism in Indonesia and other ASEAN countries should be handled by respective countries and not based on the desire of the United States,” he said. “We will tell the United...

It was a scenario straight out of a Tom Clancy spy novel. The United States passed on intelligence to its allies that dangerous chemicals could be shipped from a Northeast Asian country to a port in the Arabian Gulf. Japan sent out information that some ships fitting the profile of the suspect vessels had been monitored heading for their destination via the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca.

When 35 pirates carrying machine guns and rocket launchers boarded a tanker laden with methane in the Malacca Strait in March, it sent a shudder through the crew, and a ripple of fear from Tokyo to Washington. It also served as a reminder of the risks to world trade, and of the potential for terrorism in the region. The attack on the tanker turned out to be routine highway robbery in the strait, whose waters are shared by Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. But in the nightmare scenario, terrorists using the methods of modern-day pirates seize a gas tanker and use...

A spate of pirate raids on ships in the Malacca Strait could tempt terrorists to stage a seaborne attack, the vice-commandant of the US Coast Guard said Friday. We have some concerns that what the pirates might be doing is showing the terrorists where opportunities exist," Vice-Admiral Terry Cross told reporters. Cross, who is on a tour of Asia to bolster maritime cooperation and port security, was speaking against the background of five pirate attacks on ships in the Malacca and Singapore straits in the past six weeks. The Malacca Strait is used by about 50,000 ships a year carrying...

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Gunmen armed with rocket launchers have stormed a chemical tanker in the Strait of Malacca at the weekend in an unusually daring attack, raising initial fears of a terrorist attack, an anti-piracy centre says. Thirty-five pirates boarded the MT Tri Samudra, laden with an unknown flammable chemical, on Saturday, briefly taking control of the ship before making off with the captain and chief engineer who were being held for ransom, the centre said. At the time of the attack, the Indonesian-owned ship was sailing for the Indonesian port of Belawan in the strait, one of the...

Three-nation patrols of the piracy-prone Malacca Straits are successfully reducing crime, naval officials said amid warnings that Jemaah Islamiyah militants had plotted to attack shipping. Indonesia naval commander Vice Admiral Didik Herupurnomo said Thursday the joint patrols involving his fleet and the navies of Malaysia and Singapore had begun squeezing pirates out of the busy waterway since they started last month. His report came as Indonesia's intelligence chief said that captured operatives of the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah had confessed to investigators they were considering whether to target the crucial seaway. "Senior Jemaah Islamiyah terrorists now in detention have admitted that...