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A search is under way for a cargo ship which may have travelled through the English Channel after apparently being hijacked by pirates. Coastguards fear the Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea, carrying 15 Russian crew, was hijacked in the Baltic sea. UK authorities made contact before it entered the Strait of Dover but the Russian navy told the Itar-Tass agency it was now looking for the ship. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the situation was "bizarre". Spokesman Mark Clark said: "Who would think that a hijacked ship could pass through one of the most policed and concentrated waters in the world?...

The Persian Gulf States have launched efforts to protect their territorial waters amid tension with neighboring Iran and threats from Al Qaida. Over the last two years, several Gulf Cooperation Council coast guards or navies have acquired or ordered fast patrol boats. They included Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Officials said the Gulf Arab countries were investing to expand their coast guards. "There is concern that terrorists could sneak into the area and carry out a major attack on energy installations," a GCC source said. The enhanced maritime security has resulted in confrontations between fishermen and...

Somali pirates have captured two ships with 45 crew off the East African coast, officials say. A UK-flagged chemical tanker, the St James Park, was reportedly captured in the Gulf of Aden on Monday while on its way to Thailand from Spain. Its 26 crew hail from Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Georgia, India, Turkey and the Philippines. The Navios Apollon, a Panamanian-flagged Greek cargo ship with 19 crew, was hijacked north of the Seychelles. The 50,000-tonne carrier - which had been sailing from the US state of Florida to India - was boarded on Monday by 10 men in...

Pirates probably hijacked a merchant ship which disappeared after sailing through the English Channel last month, its operator said on Wednesday.

A court convicted 15 Yemeni militants on terror charges including the 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker and plotting to kill the US ambassador. One man was sentenced to death for killing a Yemeni police officer and seven received 10 year prison terms. Six of the defendants plus the one man tried in absentia, who received the longest prison terms, 10 years, were found guilty of participating in the October 2002 bombing of the Limburg oil tanker, which killed one Bulgarian crew member and spilled 90,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Aden. The conviction of one of...

NORFOLK--The Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group will deploy Monday with nearly 7,500 sailors in support of maritime security operations. The strike group is commanded by Rear Adm. William E. Gortney, according to a Navy news release. Leaving from Norfolk will be the carrier Harry S. Truman, Carrier Air Wing Three, the guided missile destroyers Oscar Austin and Winston S. Churchill, the guided missile cruiser San Jacinto and the submarine Montpelier, the release said. The guided missile cruiser Hue City and the guided missile destroyer Carney will leave from Mayport, Fla. Also, the fast combat support ship Arctic will deploy...

N.Korea claims capture of U.S. submersible By KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 36 minutes ago North Korea claimed it has captured an unmanned U.S. submersible and put it on display in Pyongyang, a pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan said Monday. The U.S. dismissed the report. The small vessel was captured during a reconnaissance mission in waters off North Korea's eastern city of Hamhung, said the Choson Sinbo newspaper, which is published by a pro-North Korean association linked to the Pyongyang government. The newspaper report on its Web site, which is monitored in Seoul, was accompanied by a picture...

<p>Adam Housley reports a ship from Guatemala had written in the hold "This Nitro is for you George Bush."</p>

Scare at the Sub Base GROTON -- Police and fire units have set up a perimeter at the Groton Sub Base. Bomb-sniffing dogs have been also called out to the scene. Navy authorities are providing very limited information as to what happened Monday morning. Crystal Lake Avenue and the military highway road along the river have been blocked off by local police. This provides access to Gate #1 where the incident involving a truck took place. A spokesperson for the sub base tells Eyewitness news that at 6:30 a.m. Monday a Navy dog trained to sniff for explosives sensed something...

Terrorists are threatening to blow up Alaska oil pipelines. Via Foxnews Alert. Fox said they were going to take guns and shoot them?

Plans to 'top' 9/11 strikes 23/12/2005 20:13  - (SA)   Related Articles Pullout 'will lead to attacks' US at risk for more attacks US had 'bomber' in their hands Why is Osama so quiet?    Rome - Three Algerians arrested in an anti-terrorist operation in southern Italy are suspected of being linked to a planned new series of attacks in the United States, interior minister Giuseppe Pisanu said Friday. The attacks would have targeted ships, stadiums or railway stations in a bid to outdo the September 11 2001 strikes by al-Qaeda in New York and Washington which killed about 2 700 people, Pisanu...

The mainstream U.S. media outlets have failed to report a major terrorist plot against the U.S. - because it would tend to support President Bush's use of NSA domestic surveillance, according to media watchdog groups. News of a planned attack masterminded by three Algerians operating out of Italy was widely reported outside the U.S., but went virtually unreported in the American media. Italian authorities recently announced that they had used wiretaps to uncover the conspiracy to conduct a series of major attacks inside the U.S. Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said the planned attacks would have targeted stadiums, ships and...

27 militants held in raid  BAQUBA: Iraqi forces seized 27 Islamic militants in Baquba, 60km north of Baghdad, yesterday along with weapons and leaflets linked to the Al Qaeda network, the army said. "Sixteen of the arrested, including two Egyptians, are wanted by authorities for crimes they are believed to have been committed," said Colonel Ismael Ibrahim. "Large quantities of weapons were seized ... and leaflets of the Jordanian Islamist Abu Musab Al Zarqawi urging militants to carry out attacks against US and Iraq forces were found too." The defence ministry said it had also arrested 49 suspects in raids...

Two weeks ago, Turkish police arrested an Islamist with ties to many upper tier al-Qaida members. The man not only tried to get asylum in Germany, but claims to have known about the London bombings beforehand and to have helped the 9/11 pilots. The Turkish interrogators in Istanbul's high-security prison wanted to be polite; they wanted to show respect for Islam. They offered their prisoner, an Islamist named Luai Sakra, 31, a chance to pray during a pause in questioning. They'd done the same thing with earlier suspects. The move was supposed to establish trust. But this prisoner reacted a...

The Bush administration, facing a series of recent provocations from North Korea, is debating a plan to seek a United Nations resolution empowering all nations to intercept shipments in or out of the country that may contain nuclear materials or components, say senior administration officials and diplomats who have been briefed on the proposal. The resolution envisioned by a growing number of senior administration officials would amount to a quarantine of North Korea, though, so far at least, President Bush's aides are not using that word. It would enable the United States and other nations to intercept shipments in international...

AN Australian port could be attacked or a ferry hijacked by terrorists to transport weapons of mass destruction, because of gaps in the maritime border security net. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute has found a lack of awareness from states and the federal Government about the specific threats posed from the sea. "A determined and expert terrorist is still likely to have little difficulty in entering Australia by sea, and will probably only be defeated by advance intelligence of his movements," the institute says in a report titled Future unknown: the terrorist threat to Australian maritime security. "We have high...

Chinese academics are suggesting that an oil pipeline should be constructed from Burma to China in order to reduce the country's dependence on oil imports shipped through the Strait of Malacca. "Most of China's oil imports come from the Middle East and Africa. Given the current situation in the Malacca Strait, we feel that we should come up with a suitable alternative," Professor Li Chengyang, a co-author of the proposal noted. One of the problems is that southeastern Asia is home to the world's most pirate-infested waters, with 79 attacks in the first quarter of this year, according to the...

VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA, Panama (NNS) -- Naval forces from eight countries begin PANAMAX 2004 in August, a maritime exercise in which the multinational forces plan and coordinate a coalition response to a security threat against the Panama Canal. PANAMAX is conducted under the direction of Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Southern command and involves personnel, aircraft and ships from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Panama, Peru, and the United States and observers from Ecuador. The participants organized into Task Force 138 will conduct the week-long exercise, which includes operations on the high seas, coast and land. “The great interest...

Achille Lauro What happened during the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985? AP Photo Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro, 1985 On October 7, 1985 four heavily armed terrorists representing the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro, with some 100 mostly elderly passengers on board, in Egyptian waters. The hijackers demanded that Israel free 50 Palestinian prisoners, and to prove their determination, they shot and killed a disabled American tourist, 69-year-old Leon Klinghoffer, and threw his body overboard with his wheelchair. After a two-day drama, the Egyptian government, unaware that Klinghoffer...

<p>WASHINGTON — Terrorist strikes from the sea could be even more catastrophic than those from the air, intelligence officials say. They fear a hijacked oil tanker could be rigged with explosives or a radioactive dirty bomb could be smuggled ashore in a shipping container.</p>