Budapest  - NATO is to deploy up to seven warships off the Somali coast to defend UN ships delivering food aid from attacks by pirates, alliance officials said Thursday.

The decision, taken by NATO defence ministers meeting in Budapest, follows a specific request from United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and a similar initiative agreed by the European Union last week.

"There will soon be NATO military vessels off the coast of Somalia, deterring piracy and escorting food shipments," NATO spokesman James Appathurai told reporters.

Mogadishu- Somali Islamist insurgent group al-Shabaab, which
last month ordered the closure of Mogadishu's main airport, said
Thursday it may allow air traffic to once again land.

"Our decision to close the airport is not Holy Koran verse; we can
change our decision to close the airport if the people come to
negotiate," Sheikh Muktar Robow told reporters in a teleconference.

Al-Shabaab last month vowed to shoot down any plane that landed

Nairobi- The freight manifest of a Ukrainian ship hijacked by Somali pirates suggests that its cargo of tanks and other weapons is bound for South Sudan, contradicting statements by the Kenyan government, reports said Tuesday.

The MV Faina, which was seized almost two weeks ago, is currently surrounded by international warships off the coast off Somalia as negotiations to secure its release continue.

Nairobi  - A coalition of 52 aid agencies Monday said they were extremely concerned about the humanitarian crisis unfolding in conflict-stricken Somalia and accused the international community of failing Somali civilians.

Almost daily battles have blighted the Horn of Africa nation since Ethiopian troops invaded in 2006 to kick out the Islamist regime and put the transitional federal government back in power.

Islamist insurgents have since fought back, but civilians have borne the brunt of the fighting.

Almost 10,000 are believed to have died since the insurgency began in early 2007.

Nairobi - Tensions are rising at the sprawling Dadaab refugee camp complex in North-West Kenya as a massive influx of Somali refugees fleeing a brutal insurgency across the border stretches the facilities to breaking point, a UN official said Thursday.

The complex, made up of three separate camps stretching over 50 square kilometres, now hosts 215,000 refugees - the vast majority of them Somali. It was set up 16 years ago to hold only 90,000.

Local residents, who have long been unhappy with the impact of the camp on the community, are losing patience with the seemingly endless stream of refugees.

They have been staging demonstrations and have handed over an official letter of protest to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).

Nairobi  - Three warships are hemming in Somali pirates who hijacked a Ukrainian cargo ship carrying tanks and other military supplies, a US Navy official said Monday.

"There are now three ships in the vicinity," Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, Deputy Spokesman for the US Navy's fifth fleet, told Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa.

The MV Faina, along with its cargo of 33 T-72 tanks, armoured personnel carriers and munitions, was seized late Thursday off Somalia as it headed for the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

The USS Howard was the first warship to make visual contact with the seized vessel, which is anchored off the Somali coast near the port of Hobyo.