– The Economist – Better deterrents are putting the Somali pirates’ business under strain.

– Daily Telegraph – Pirate attacks off Somalia dropped to zero for the first full month since the menace emerged more than five years ago, new figures show.

– Associated Press – Sea piracy worldwide fell by 54 percent in the first half of 2012, led by a dramatic drop in Somali piracy, an international maritime watchdog said Monday.

– The National – A private navy costing US$70 million (Dh257m) is being set up to escort merchant ships through the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden. It will comprise a fleet of 18 ships, based in Djibouti, and will offer to convoy merchant vessels along the Internationally Recognised Transit Corridor (IRTC).

– BBC – EU naval forces have conducted their first raid on pirate bases on the Somali mainland, saying they have destroyed several boats.

– New York Times – C.J. Chivers writes that the many navies involved in counterpiracy patrols off Africa’s northeastern shore have learned the pirates’ habits and sharpened interdiction efforts. Hijackings have declined sharply in the past year. But where interdiction ends, an enduring problem begins: what to do with the pirates that foreign ships detain?

– AP – Sea piracy worldwide dropped slightly in 2011 for the first time in five years but Somali pirates have intensified attacks and remained the greatest threat, a global maritime watchdog said Thursday.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Two executives and a consultant in the long-range unmanned surface vessel (USV) industry detail how the new platforms can police the high seas.

– New York Times Magazine – One couple’s 388-day ordeal — and their unlikely saviors.

– Time – In the past eight months, acts of piracy have spiked in the waters off West Africa. The wave of violence seems partly inspired by the Somali pirates and partly a result of the mixed blessings that come, countries in the region are finding out, with discovering vast oil reserves.

– Virginian Pilot – The Navy is turning to modern online gaming technology to help solve one of the most ancient scourges on the high seas: piracy.

– BBC – Piracy off the Somali coast costs the international community up to $8.3bn (£5.1bn) a year, a new report from the Geopolicity consultancy estimates.

– The Economist – Piracy off the coast of Somalia is getting worse. Time to act.

– The Economist – For all the efforts to combat it, Somali piracy is posing an ever greater threat to the world’s shipping.

– Defense Technology International – If the U.S. Navy has it way, it will soon be able to predict pirate attacks against civilian ships by combining wind, wave, and water current data with human and surveillance intel, and feeding the mix into algorithms that take into account pirate tactics, the time of day they normally attack, and the range of their vessels.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – They pose little threat. But there is peril in comparing them to Barbary brigands. That muddies the debate – clouding our perspective on what truly is in our national interest.

– Virginian Pilot – For the first time in nearly 200 years, a jury in a U.S. court returns a guilty verdict in a piracy case, convicting five Somali nationals of piracy in the April 1 attack on the Norfolk-based frigate Nicholas.

– Virginian Pilot – For the first time since the 19th century, piracy suspects will go on trial in a federal court in a case that legal experts see as precedent-setting.

– CNN – U.S. Marines boarded and seized control Thursday of a German-owned vessel that had been captured by pirates the day before off the coast of Somalia. The incident marks the first time U.S. military forces off Somalia have staged an action to board a commercial vessel where pirates were on board with hostages.

BBC – Somali pirate admits attacking US warship

A Somali man has admitted attacking a US warship in April after mistaking it for a merchant vessel.

Wall Street Journal – Who’s a Pirate? It’s Not So Simple

Prosecuting pirates is the modern world’s approach to the scourge of Somali piracy, but there’s a problem: Nobody seems able to say, legally, exactly what a pirate is.

US Naval Institute Proceedings – Two Faces of High-Seas Crime

Maritime piracy and maritime terrorism must be tackled with a unified effort.

Canadian Press – Warships intensifying hunt for pirates at sea, but pirate bosses on land remain elusive

While the European Union Naval Force is more actively hunting pirates than ever before on the high seas, their financiers and organizers remain out of reach on land. Officials complain that not enough is being done to gather intelligence on them and their assets even as law enforcement agencies cite problems with co-ordinating the collection of information and legal barriers in sharing it.

Washington Post – Lack of prosecution poses challenge for foreign navies that catch Somali pirates

For six weeks, two Navy warships have been cruising the Indian Ocean with some unwanted guests: 10 accused Somali pirates the U.S. government doesn’t know what to do with.

BBC – Somalia criticises US for putting pirate on trial

A Somali official has criticised the US for prosecuting a man over a piracy incident off the Horn of Africa.