Obama and Netanyahu meet to defuse tensions On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with U.S. President Obama in his first White House visit since October 2014. Relations between the two allies have been rocked by tensions between the two leaders, as well as sharp divisions over settlement policies and the Iran nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1. The visit will likely serve as an attempt to mend fences, particularly as the Iran nuclear deal has already entered…

A fleet commander in the Indonesian Navy has said that about 90 percent of piracy cases in the Malacca Strait area turn out to be bogus claims related to insurance fraud or business competition. “The number of criminal cases in the Malacca Strait has declined. However, we believe there to make the Malacca Strait the most dangerous strait in the world,” Rear Admiral Achmad Taufiqoerrochman told reporters. The Jakarta Post reports that both Indonesian citizens and other nationalities have been…

The High Risk Area (HRA) is an area within the UKMTO designated Voluntary Reporting Area (VRA) where it is considered there is a higher risk of piracy and within which self- protective measures are most likely to be required. For the purpose of BMP the High Risk Area is an area bounded by: In the Red Sea: northern limit: Latitude 15ºN In the Gulf of Oman: northern limit: Latitude 22ºN Eastern limit: Longitude 065ºE Southern limit: Latitude 5ºS It should…