Until a month ago, no one in the Bush administration showed the least bit of interest in the piracy off the coast of Somalia. Now that's changed and there's talk of sending in the Navy to patrol the waters off the Horn of Africa.

A new report from Human Rights Watch asks the United States, the European Union, and other major powers to redefine what it calls their "flawed" approach to the crisis in Somalia and urges them to support efforts to bring greater accountability to the offenders.

(CNN)  -- The United States and other Western powers have "exacerbated Somalia's downward spiral" and must revise their policies in the east African country, a Human Rights Watch report has warned.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A U.S. human rights group said Monday that failed policies by the United States and other foreign governments are exacerbating the crisis in Somalia as the country endures a deadly Islamic insurgency and rampant piracy.

Somalia’s hardline Shebab Group took over the southern port of Merka, giving Islamist militants control of most of Somalia.

In light of the development of several critical issues that include U.S. economic volatility and the new political direction it's likely to turn towards, it's not farfetched to predict that Washington-supported Ethiopian occupation of Somalia will soon come to an end.

These days, Somalia's coastline is fast turning into a major theatre of military activity from disparate quarters. Citing grave threats to maritime commerce in the region, the UN Security Council had called, on October 6 this month, "on States with naval vessels and military aircraft operating off the Somali Coast to use the necessary means against acts of piracy". Few weeks back, EU Foreign Ministers had approved plans "for a possible EU military naval operation" in the Horn of Africa "to crack down on pirates".

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Fairfax, Virginia, USA, 15 October 2008: Though the United Nations Security Council (SC) welcomed the August 9 signing of the Djibouti Agreement reached last June by Somalia's Ethiopian-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and a faction of the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS), that international body has failed to make good on its promise to enforce the agreement and deploy a replacement peace keeping force in Somalia.