Hundreds missing after boats capsize off Yemeni coast

September 20th, 2009 SKorean destroyer rescues 5 Yemeni fishermenSEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's military says one of its destroyers has repelled pirates pursuing cargo ships off the coast of Yemen and rescued five Yemeni fishermen. The Joint Chiefs of Staff say the destroyer dispatched a helicopter Saturday after learning that pirates were chasing the three cargo ships off Yemen's southern coast.

July 10th, 2009 Coast Guard cutter makes drug bust off GuatemalaALAMEDA, Calif. — The Coast Guard says a cutter based in Alameda has seized two speedboats, recovered a bale of cocaine and detained four suspected smugglers off the coast of Guatemala.

July 3rd, 2009 4 Mich. fishermen missing on Lake ErieMONROE, Mich. — The U.S.

April 26th, 2009 SANA'A - Yemeni navy and coast guard forces killed two pirates and injured three in a clash after Somali pirates seized a Yemeni oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden Sunday, coast guard sources said. The sources told DPA that two navy ships were sent to aid coast guards gunboats involved in a gunfight with the pirates.

April 6th, 2009 SANAA - Somali pirates hijacked a Yemeni tugboat in the Indian Ocean and held its seven-member crew hostage Sunday, the interior ministry of Yemen said. Armed pirates took over the al-Ghaith boat with seven Yemeni sailors on board and took it to an unknown destination, the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

March 31st, 2009 ROME - At least two boats carrying hundreds of African refugees sank off the Libyan coast, with 21 bodies and 23 survivors recovered and hundreds more missing, Italian media reported early Tuesday. One boat was carrying a reported 257 people and the second had 340 on board.

March 31st, 2009 GENEVA - Up to three boats capsized off the coast of Libya, having set sail with hundreds of migrants in the direction of Italy over the past few days, many of whom are missing and feared dead, humanitarian officials said Tuesday. Officials with the United Nations' refugee agency UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said these boats tend to be generally severely overcrowded.

March 24th, 2009 PORBANDER - The Coast Guard have cautioned the Gujarat customs against inadvertently straying into Pakistani waters, an error that hundreds of Indian fishermen commit while operating close to the country's maritime boundary. 'We have been conveying a cautionary note to the field formations of Gujarat customs personnel patrolling on boats not only to be wary of their co-ordinates (position) while patrolling about 30 nautical miles off Jhakhau's coastal waters close to the Gulf of Kutch but also report on any boat of the Pakistani Maritime Agency spotted far into the Indian side,' a senior Coast Guard official told IANS.

March 22nd, 2009 SANA'A - A French Navy ship rescued around 100 African migrants, mostly Somalis, on a drifting boat in the Gulf of Aden Saturday, a Yemeni coastguard source said. The source told DPA that the boat was 65 miles from the southern Yemeni port of Aden when it drifted after an engine failure.

March 1st, 2009 SANA'A - Forty-five Africans drowned after a boat carrying them from Somalia across the Gulf of Aden capsized in deep waters off Yemen, the country's interior ministry said Saturday. The boat, carrying 46 would-be migrants from Somalia and Ethiopia, capsized Friday night about 95 km off the southeastern Yemeni port of Mukalla, the ministry said in a statement.

February 1st, 2009 AHMEDABAD - A day after the Indian Coast Guard apprehended four Pakistani fishing boats off the Gujarat coast, the 26 crew members were Monday handed over to police for interrogation, an official said. Wing Commander Satish Menon told IANS that the Coast Guard vessel 'Tarabai' had apprehended the four Pakistani fishing boats - 'al Imran', 'al Basheer', 'Bismillah' and 'Abdullah' - Sunday evening off Jakhau coast following a tip-off about the boats being in Indian waters.

January 17th, 2009 SANA'A - At least 130 passengers managed to swim ashore after a ship with around 300 Somali and Ethiopian migrants capsized off the coast of Yemen Saturday, Yemeni coast guard officials said. A coast guard official in Red Sea port of Houdieda said 130 people managed to swim ashore or were rescued by coast guard teams and local fishermen.

January 14th, 2009 AHMEDABAD - The Indian coast guard Thursday evening seized two Pakistani boats with 17 Pakistanis onboard off the Gujarat coast for straying into Indian waters, the police said. The boat was seized at Jakhau.

January 3rd, 2009 KATHMANDU - At least two people were confirmed killed and more than 20 missing after a passenger boat capsized on a river in eastern Nepal, officials said Sunday. The boat carrying more than 40 people was crossing the Koshi river when it capsized Sunday morning in Sunsari district, about 400 km southeast of the capital Kathmandu.

January 1st, 2009 SANAA - Somali pirates have released a second Yemeni fishing ship without ransom, more than two weeks after they hijacked the two ships in the Gulf of Aden, the commander of Yemen's coast guard force said in remarks published Friday. Brigadier General Ali Ahmed Rasi told the state-run al-Thawra daily that the pirates freed the MV Qana'a without receiving any ransom.