Nairobi - Somali pirates have release a Greek chemical tanker but three of its crew may have died in unknown circumstances, a Kenyan maritime official said Saturday.

"The MT Action was released last night," Andrew Mwangura, the head of the Kenyan arm of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"Three of the crew members appear to have died in fishy circumstances." The Panama-flagged MT Action, which had 20 crew onboard, was seized in early October.

Piracy has surged off the coast of Somalia this year as the security situation in the conflict-stricken Horn of Africa nation degenerates.

Nairobi, Kampala - Uganda on Friday confirmed that the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia will pull out should Ethiopia stick to its promise of withdrawing its troops before the end of the

Nairobi - UN-brokered peace talks between Congolese rebels and the government aimed at cementing a lasting ceasefire have been suspended and will resume on December 17, the UN's special peace envoy to the Democratic Republic of Congo has said.

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo said in statement late Thursday that "steady progress" was being made on agreeing ground rules for later substantive talks.

Tutsi rebel group the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) and DR Congo officials arrived in Kenyan capital Nairobi on Monday for the first direct talks aimed at resolving the conflict.

However, neither CNDP leader Laurent Nkunda nor Congolese President Joseph Kabila attended the meeting.

Nairobi - UN-brokered peace talks between Congolese rebels and government officials have failed after three days of discussions in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

UN peace envoy and former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo said late Wednesday that the talks hit a brick wall after the rebels asked to discuss all of the Democratic Republic of Congo and not just the east of the country, where fighting has been taking place.

Tutsi rebel group the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) and DR Congo officials arrived in Nairobi Monday for the first direct talks aimed at resolving the conflict.

Nairobi - UN-brokered peace talks between Congolese rebels and government officials c

Nairobi - All warring parties in Somalia have committed war crimes against civilians including rape, murder and the use of people as human shields, a human rights' body said Monday.

"The combatants in Somalia have inflicted more harm on civilians than on each other," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

A bloody insurgency began in the Horn of Africa nation early 2007 after Ethiopian forces helped kick out the Islamic Courts' Union (ICU) - a hardline Islamist regime that was in power for six months.