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Piracy on the high seas has reached record levels and Indonesian waters are the most dangerous in the world, an ocean crime watchdog said Friday. The International Maritime Bureau, or IMB, said the number of reported ship attacks leaped to 344 in the first nine months of this year, 26 percent more than the 271 recorded in the same period in 2002. "This is the highest number of attacks for the first nine months of any year since the IMB Piracy Reporting Center began compiling statistics in 1991," said IMB director Captain Pottengal Mukundan. Pottengal said there had also been...

Mansoor Ijaz was on Greta's show, he gave a detailed analysis about some very disturbing accounts on the various sea lanes. He mentioned that the Straits of Mollucca, between Singapore, Indonesia, and Maylasia have always been a hotbed of piracy, but recent events have raised alarms. It seems like many ships have been hijacked in the last few months by Islamic radicals but rather than stealing the cargo or kidnapping the crews these terrorists have just wanted to know how to steer the big ships! He compared this to the 9/11 terrorists going to the various flight schools only wanting...

US Navy boards ships in hunt for Iraqi arms Date: February 21 2003 London: The United States Navy is boarding an average of six vessels a day as it steps up patrols in international waters searching for Iraqi weapons rumoured to have been hidden on ships or smuggled overseas. Most of the operations have been in and around the Persian Gulf, where Western naval detachments are enforcing international sanctions against Iraq, ensuring there is no traffic in forbidden goods.UNMOVIC, the United Nations agency searching for hidden chemical and biological weapons, said on that Wednesday there had been a steady stream...

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