The United Nations Security Council has extended its authorisation for countries to enter Somalia's territorial waters to stop acts of piracy.The 12-month extension allows nations with advance notice to use "all necessary means" to combat piracy in Somali waters.

Diplomats say the move is needed to control the rising number of pirate attacks on shipping off Somalia.

The council also backed an EU naval mission to tackle piracy in the region.
The European Union operation begins on December 8 and involves five or six warships patrolling Somalia's Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean waters. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin called the pirates' goals "ever-expanding". The 15-nation council has also taken steps to ensure pirates are brought to justice once they are captured, reports the BBC.

At sea it is often not clear which laws apply. The UN resolution urges nations to use the powers in a convention which obliges them to extradite or prosecute pirates once they are caught, our correspondent says. There have been almost 100 attacks on ships by pirates off east Africa so far this year. Pirates are still holding a Saudi tanker, the Sirius Star, and its cargo of two million barrels of oil off the Somali coast.
Meanwhile, a 30,000-ton luxury cruise ship outran pirates off the coast of Yemen this weekend, the ship's owner said Monday.

The Nautica was in an area patrolled by international anti-piracy task forces when two small skiffs appeared to try to intercept it, Oceania spokesman Tim Rubacky said. The ship took evasive maneuvers and accelerated to its full speed of 23 knots or 27 mph. One of the smaller craft closed to within 300 yards and fired eight rifle shots at the cruise ship, he said, but the ship was able to pull away.

It was the first report of a pirate attack on a passenger ship of its size this year, said Cyrus Mody of the International Maritime Bureau, which runs a piracy reporting center. "There have been a couple of passenger yachts hijacked, but they were much smaller," he said. It is "quite common" for pirates to target ships the size of the Nautica and even larger, he said, but they tend to be cargo ships, not passenger vessels.

The Nautica escaped without damage or injury to its 684 passengers and 400 crew, and arrived safely on schedule in Salalah, Oman early on Monday morning, Rubacky said. He emphasized that the ship was not off the coast of Somalia, which has become a base for pirates, but off the coast of Yemen. The International Maritime Bureau has issued piracy warnings for both areas. The Nautica was in a Maritime Safety Protection Area which is patrolled by international anti-piracy task forces, Rubacky underlined.