BRUSSELS, Oct 27 (Reuters) - NATO ships have begun anti-piracy operations off Somalia, the alliance said on Monday. NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said a NATO ship was escorting a U.N. World Food Programme vessel due to dock in Mogadishu on Tuesday. Another had escorted a ship talking supplies to Burundian peacekeepers in the country. "The operation is moving well," de Hoop Scheffer told a news briefing. Somali pirates have been causing havoc in one of the world's busiest shipping areas connecting Europe to Asia and the Middle East, taking millions in ransoms, hiking insurance costs, and threatening humanitarian supplies. Responding to a U.N. request, the 26 NATO allies authorised ships from a force of two destroyers, four frigates and one auxiliary ship from six NATO states to join an international naval effort against the pirates. In an interview with Reuters on Sunday, a regional maritime official said international naval patrols may deter piracy off Somalia, but the kingpins remain untroubled enjoying the fruits of this year's rash of hijackings in cities around the world. Andrew Mwangura, whose East African Seafarers' Association monitors piracy, said that while the patrols should calm the situation, the problem needed to be dealt with at its roots.
A Palestinian police officer pours olives out of a bucket as he helps farmers to pick olives during the harvest season in the village of Abu Qash, near Ramallah October 21, ...
