Somali pirates capture tanker, attack UN ship

Nairobi, Oct. 12: Pirates seized a tanker and attacked a UN food ship that escaped, officials have said, the latest in a series of incidents off Somalia which have sparked worldwide concern. Mr Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur, said on Saturday that pirates boarded a Greek chemical tanker on Friday.

"Pirates attacked the ship flying a Panama flag using boats," he said, adding the tanker was hijacked in the notorious Gulf of Aden. Greece’s merchant marine ministry however denied the tanker was Greek, saying it had been informed that a Panamanian-flagged ship, carrying 17 Georgians and three Spaniards, had been boarded by pirates.

"We cannot completely rule out Greek involvement in the company that owns the ship, but for us it is not the case of a Greek vessel," the ministry’s spokesman said.

On Thursday, pirates tried to board a World Food Programme (WFP) chartered freighter, MV Al Salaam, after it had offloaded food aid in the Somali capital Mogadishu, but it escaped, the agency said.

"The ship outran the attackers (and) was then escorted by the Canadian frigate — Ville de Quebec — until it arrived in Mombasa on Friday," WFP spokesman said. Such attacks have surged even with US warships and navies from other nations currently shadowing hijacked Ukrainian ship. —AFP

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Castro: A miracle Obama is still alive

Havana, Oct. 12: Former Cuban President Fidel Castro charged that American society was marked by "profound racism" and that it was a "pure miracle" that US presidential hopeful Barack Obama has not been assassinated.

"Profound racism exists in the United States," Mr Castro wrote in a commentary that appeared on the website Cubadebate on Saturday as he weighed in on the US presidential race ahead of the November 4 election. "Millions of whites cannot reconcile in their minds with the idea that a black man with his wife and children would move into the White House, which is called just like that — White," he wrote.

He added that it was a "pure miracle" the Illinois senator, who became the first black politician to win the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, had not been assassinated thus far. The ailing Cuban communist leader, who handed power to his brother Raul earlier this year, described Mr Obama as a politician who "has the habit of looking at his opponent with serenity."

—AFP