The capacity of Indian ports was 1245.30 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) in 2013, but the target for 2014 is to increase the port capacity to 2493.10 MTPA. The country’s major ports will account for about 50 per cent of this capacity. In the year 2013-14, 30 projects have been targeted for award involving an additional capacity of 282 MTPA.

In the year 2013-14, the Ministry has been focusing on new capacity augmentation projects and mechanization projects which are critical to improving the competitiveness of the major ports. satellite map To achieve the capacity targets, work on two new major ports, one at Sagar Island in West Bengal and the other at Durgarajpatnam in Andhra Pradesh is already underway. These two ports will add additional capacity of around 100 MTPA.

From the 1st of January 2014, the European Union will assume for one year the chairmanship of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS) with Maciej Popowski, Deputy Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS) as EU chairperson. The chairmanship of the Contact Group is a joint endeavor of the EEAS and the European Commission and will continue the work carried out in 2013 under the chairmanship of the United States.

While the number of hostages has gone down from more than 700 in 2011 to around 50 today, the European Union is strongly committed to bringing this number down to zero: zero ships and zero seafarers in the hands of Somali pirates.

High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy / Vice-President Catherine Ashton said: “Pirate attacks over the past year have dropped by 95%, but the fight against piracy is not yet won. It is vital that the international community continues to work together to stamp out piracy and consolidate the gains we have already made”.

The EU looks forward to working with all stakeholders in the region and with the international community to bring the fight against Somali piracy to an end. This aim reflects the strategic framework and broader objectives set out during the Conference on a New Deal for Somalia in Brussels on 16 September 2013. The eradication of piracy will only be achieved on Somali soil and by the Somali people but the international community needs to keep focus and maintain momentum. As chair of the CGPCS the EU will not lose sight of the humanitarian cost of piracy. Hijacked crews and seafarers that have been taken hostage have suffered the most.

The Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS) was established on 14 January 2009 pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1851 (2008) to facilitate the coordination of actions among more than 60 states and organisations to fight piracy off the coast of Somalia. Since its creation, the CGPCS through increased coordination and information sharing among states, private sector (e.g. shipping industry, insurance companies) and non-governmental organisations has contributed to a marked reduction in the number of pirate attacks and hijackings.

BP Plc has failed to persuade a federal judge to require businesses seeking to recover money  over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill to provide proof that their economic losses were caused by the disaster.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans said the British oil company would have to live with its earlier interpretation of a settlement  agreement over the spill, in which certain businesses could be presumed to have suffered harm if their losses reflected certain patterns.

Barbier said BP could not now take a new position on causation of damages, and reverse an interpretation that it had once termed “more than fair,” even if this resulted in the substantially higher payouts that the oil company feared.

BP’s view “is not only clearly inconsistent with its previous position, it directly contradicts what it has told this court,” Barbier wrote. “The court further finds that BP’s change of position was not inadvertent.”

Geoff Morrell, a BP spokesman, said, “Awarding money to claimants with losses that were not caused by the spill is contrary to the language of the settlement  and violates established principles of class action law. BP intends to seek appropriate appellate remedies to correct this error.”

BP had originally projected that its settlement  with businesses and individuals harmed by the spill, would cost $7.8 billion.

As of late October it had boosted this estimate to $9.2 billion, and said this sum could grow “significantly higher.”

The company has complained that payments were being inflated by “fictitious” claims, and because court-appointed settlement  administrator Patrick Juneau has paid out too much and compensated businesses and individuals who were not harmed.

Earlier this month, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ordered Barbier to take a second look at Juneau’s methodology.

In his 38-page decision, the judge concluded that changes were needed.

He directed Juneau to “implement an appropriate protocol or policy for handling businesseconomic loss claims in which the claimant’s financial records do not match revenue with corresponding variable expenses.”

As of Monday, about $3.81 billion has been paid out to 40,371 spill claimants, according to Juneau’s claims website.

The April 20, 2010, explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and rupture of BP’s Macondo oil well killed 11 people and triggered the largest U.S. offshore oil spill.

Barbier also oversees litigation to allocate blame and financial responsibility for the disaster.

The case is In re: Oil Spill by the Oil Rig “Deepwater Horizon” in the Gulf of Mexico, on April 20, 2010, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, No. 10-md-02179.

BY JONATHAN STEMPEL (C) Reuters 2013.