A top UN maritime official said Tuesday that many countries would fail to enforce an anti-terror law by a July deadline. “The situation is not as rosy as we hoped,” said Efthimios Mitropoulos, secretary-general of the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO). Only about 23 percent of 5,578 ports worldwide have submitted security plans to meet tough new IMO standards by July 1, Mitropoulos said. Of those with plans, only about 5.4 percent or 301, had been approved, he added. “We are not happy. That’s why we keep asking governments and the industry to redouble their efforts,” Mitropoulos said. The United States, fearful of a seaborne al Qaeda attack against one of its ports, has said it will strictly enforce the code and expects other nations to do so. Singapore, the world’s largest container trans-shipment hub, says it is nearly 100 percent compliant and staged a mock terror threat exercise Tuesday to test the system. Full Story
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