U.N. Security Council extended the stay of peacekeepers in Sudan's western Darfur region by another year on Friday

The U.N. Security Council extended the stay of peacekeepers in Sudan’s western Darfur region by another year on Friday, telling the force to focus primarily on protecting civilians and aid deliveries.The 15-nation council unanimously approved the extension in a resolution that also condemned a recent upsurge of violence in Darfur and called on Khartoum to stop hindering the work of the joint African Union/U.N. peacekeeping force, or UNAMID.

The force, which currently stands at some 21,700 troops and police, has been struggling for three years with the Darfur crisis, which erupted when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003, accusing Khartoum of neglect.The government responded by mobilizing mostly Arab militias accused of a campaign of rape, murder and looting which created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. U.N. officials say up to 300,000 have died, while Khartoum says 10,000.

Extending UNAMID’s mandate until July 31, 2011, the Security Council called on it to give priority to protection of civilians and ensuring “safe, timely and unhindered humanitarian access” to an estimated 2 million refugees.It instructed U.N. officials in Sudan to develop a “comprehensive strategy” to achieve those targets.

Western diplomats said the force should put those goals ahead of reconstruction projects or a direct role in attempts to negotiate a political settlement, which they said UNAMID had been straying into and which Sudan’s government favored.Peace talks between Khartoum and Darfur rebels are going on in Qatar, but have made little progress in the absence of the two main rebel groups.

PERMANENT CEASEFIRE SOUGHT

The renewal of UNAMID’s mandate came as violence has risen in Darfur, a region the size of France. Eight people were reported killed and dozens injured this week at fighting in refugee camps between supporters and opponents of peace talks.UNAMID reported earlier this month that 221 people had died in tribal fighting and other violence in Darfur in June after nearly 600 deaths in May. UNAMID itself has lost 27 troops and police since it first deployed.The Security Council called on all parties to the conflict in Darfur to immediately end the violence and commit themselves to a “sustained and permanent ceasefire.”

The council was to discuss the violence in closed-door consultations later on Friday, diplomats said.The council also urged all parties to let UNAMID do its work and called on Khartoum to carry out promises to the United Nations on flight and equipment clearances and remove all obstacles to the use of the force’s aircraft.

In a report this month, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accused both Khartoum and rebel groups of restricting access to areas where there had been fighting. Sudan’s U.N. Ambassador Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem said his government had placed “no restrictions whatsoever” on UNAMID.Aid group Oxfam agreed with the Security Council that UNAMID should focus on security and stay out of reconstruction. “Mixing the work of blue helmets (peacekeepers) with aid groups will confuse Darfuris,” El Fateh Osman, Oxfam’s country director in Sudan, said in a statement.

Separately, U.N. Under-Secretary-General Susana Malcorra told reporters that the United Nations was preparing to expand its presence in semi-autonomous South Sudan to help prepare for next year’s referendum on possible secession for the South.She said U.N. personnel would also help with training of local security forces and monitoring for the referendum.(Reuters)

Somali Pirates plants to Blow the Ship Oil for $ 20 million

Nairobi  Somali pirates on Wednesday threatened to blow up a ship hijacked the majors unless the ransom was paid $ 20 million, and hijack a Panamanian-flagged merchant ship. South Korea sent a destroyer to ambush dream Samho carrying two million barrels of crude oil with a crew that includes five South Koreans and 19 citizens of the Philippines, after the ship was seized this month.

“We are demanding $ 20 million ransom for the release of South Korean ship,” said Hashi, leader of the pirates that controlled the ship was owned by a Singapore company. “The ship and its crew safe. We know that a number of warships to attack plan, but told them that the ship will be detonated if they attack us,” said the pirate nest in Hobyo.

Meanwhile, Andrew Mwangura, officials of the East African Seafarers Assistance Programme based in Kenya, said the Panamanian-flagged vessel MV VOC controlled pirate Daisy at dawn at the site some 190 kilometers southeast of the port Salalah in Oman. The ship was manned by 21 Filipinos.

He said the big ship sailing from the United Arab Emirates to a port that is not mentioned on the Suez Canal when it was hijacked. It is unclear what brought the ship of goods.

EU naval patrols in the area confirmed the hijacking of ships weighing 47,183 tons of it in the news site. Three hijacked Thai fishing vessel at the weekend and a series of failed attacks launched since then.

Pirates operating off the coast of Somalia to increase piracy attacks on ships in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden in recent months despite a foreign navy held off the coast of the Horn of Africa . The waters off the coast of Somalia is home to most piracy-prone world, and the International Maritime Bureau reporting 24 attacks in the region between April and June 2008 alone.

The pirates attacked more than 130 merchant ships in that year, an increase of more than 200 percent of the attacks in 2007, according to the International Maritime Bureau. Pirate groups in Somalia, which operates in a strategic sea lane that connects Asia and Europe, making millions of dollars in ransoms from hijacking ships in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden.

Multinational naval patrols in the strategic sea route connecting Europe with Asia through the Gulf of Aden availability appears that only the bands of pirates operating expand their attacks deeper into the Indian Ocean.

Pirate the failed Horn of Africa country is currently holding a dozen ships and over 200 crew, including British couples ship hijacked off the Seychelles. Security Council has approved the operation of incursions into Somali territorial waters to fight piracy, but warships patrolling the area did not do much, according to Puntland Fisheries Minister Ahmed Saed Ali Nur.

the weak Somali transitional government, currently battling a bloody insurgency, is not able to stop the action of the pirates who hijack ships and demand ransom for the release of vessels and their crews. Pirates armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles, using speedboats to pursue their goal. Submerged Somalia since the lifting of energy and anarchism war commanders overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. In addition to piracy, kidnappings and deadly violence have also affected the country.( Reuters)