Recent World Wide Alerts

Nairobi - Foreign navies and armed guards on boats have badly dented the cutthroat capabilities of marauding Somali pirates, but ending the scourge requires land-based solutions, analysts warn. Somalia's pirates remain a fearsome force prowling far across the Indian Ocean seizing ships for ransom, costing the world billions of dollars each year and now branching out to increasing land-based attacks. "Success rates have plummeted, and pirates have a hard time capturing ships," said Stig Jarle Hansen, a Norwegian academic and Somalia expert, noting increased assaults by foreign navies on vessels used as pirate "motherships". One reason for the decline in successful attacks has been the increased use by shipping of armed guards and other security measures, said J Peter Pham, of the Atlantic Council think tank. "Most of the credit actually belongs to the shipping industry... whose adoption of defensive "best practices" and increased deployment of private armed security has effectively hardened vessels against seizure," Pham said. But as successful attacks decline, ransom prices have risen: the average pay climbed to $5m in 2011 from $4m in 2010, according to the US-based Oceans Beyond Piracy monitoring group. Somali attacks cost the world about $7bn in 2011, including more than $2bn for military operations, armed guards and equipment to protect ships, the group estimated in a report earlier this month. Multiple pirate gangs hold a grim trophy haul of at least 34 vessels and over 400 hostages, according to the monitoring group Ecoterra, many seized by the use of small skiffs, grappling hooks and rocket-propelled grenades. However, while such "aggressive levels" of foreign naval patrols have thwarted attacks, such tactics provide no long-term solution, said Rashid Abdi, a long-time Somalia expert.

Argentina (Security threat level - 2): A commuter train coming into the Once station in central Buenos Aires, the capital, slammed into the end platform on 22 February 2012. Local sources reported that the train was traveling at approximately 12 mph/20 kph when the mishap occurred, crushing the engine and several leading cars on the train. As of last report, the casualty toll stood at 340 people injured. However, rescue operations are currently underway and this number may change; there are concerns of possible fatalities in the wreckage. Injured passengers have been moved to the Once station's platforms, and medical helicopters and ambulances along with security forces and rescue workers are on the scene. The area around the station has been cordoned off and there are significant travel disruptions in the area at this time.

Colombia (Security threat level - 4): The U.S. Department of State issued the following updated Travel Warning for Colombia on 21 February 2012: "The Department of State reminds U.S. citizens of the dangers of travel to Colombia. Security in Colombia has improved significantly in recent years, including in tourist and business travel destinations such as Cartagena and Bogota, but violence by narco-terrorist groups continues to affect some rural areas and large cities. This replaces the Travel Warning for Colombia issued July 22, 2011, to update information on recent security incidents and terrorist activity. "Terrorist activity remains a threat throughout the country. On June 16, 2011, a satchel bomb exploded at a local monument in uptown Bogota, resulting in some damage to adjoining buildings, but no fatalities or injuries. On October 5, 2011, a grenade was thrown at a cafe in the Chico neighborhood of Bogota, injuring four bystanders. Three members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia’s (FARC) Jorge Briceño Suarez Bloc were later arrested for the incident. Small towns and rural areas of Colombia can still be extremely dangerous due to the presence of narco-terrorists. While the Embassy possesses no information concerning specific and credible threats against U.S. citizens in Colombia, we strongly encourage you to exercise caution and remain vigilant. "The incidence of kidnapping in Colombia has diminished significantly from its peak in 2000, and has remained relatively consistent for the past two years. Nevertheless, terrorist groups such as FARC, the National Liberation Army (ELN), and other criminal organizations continue to kidnap and hold civilians for ransom or as political bargaining chips. No one is immune from kidnapping on the basis of occupation, nationality, or other factors. Kidnapping in rural areas is of particular concern. "In 2011, one U.S. citizen was kidnapped in a rural part of the country and held for ransom before being rescued, and another was abducted from in front of a hotel in Medellin and later found murdered. Although the U.S. government places the highest priority on the safe recovery of kidnapped U.S. citizens, it is U.S. policy not to make concessions to or strike deals with kidnappers. Consequently, the U.S. government's ability to assist kidnapping victims is limited. "U.S. government officials and their families in Colombia are permitted to travel to major cities in the country, but normally only by air. They may not use inter- or intra-city bus transportation, or travel by road outside urban areas at night. U.S. government officials and their families in Colombia must file a request to travel to any area in Colombia that is outside of two general vicinities. The first vicinity is outlined by the cities of Bogota, Anolaima, Cogua, and Sesquile. The second vicinity is on the Highway 90 corridor that connects Cartagena, Barranquilla, and Santa Marta. All U.S. citizens in Colombia are urged to follow these precautions and exercise extra caution outside of the aforementioned areas."

Marie Colvin's final dispatch, published just three days before she and a French photographer were killed by shell and rocket fire, came from a bleak cellar packed with women and children cowering in the besieged Syrian city of Homs. Relating the stories of those sheltering in what she called 'the widows' basement', Colvin explained how she had made her way to the pulverised city by crossing into Syria from Lebanon via a secret smugglers' route. The forces of president Bashar al-Assad had opened fire twice with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades on the car she used to get there, she said. But the focus of her final article in Britain's Sunday Times newspaper was not her own fate, but that of the Syrian people. "The scale of the human tragedy in the city is immense," she wrote. "Everyone in the cellar has a similar story of hardship or death." On all the Syrian civilians' lips around her, she added, was the searing question: "Why have we been abandoned by the world?" Born in Long Island, New York, in the mid 1950s, Colvin was famous among her peers for her determination. A graduate of Yale University, she made it her cause to try to cover every war zone in the world during the last quarter of a century and, if possible, to get there first. She also had a reputation for exceptional bravery and for taking calculated risks.