Six African nations are in the top 10 of an annual failed-state index, including Somalia, which heads the list for the fifth straight year after continued struggles with lawlessness and piracy.

Somalia tops the 2012 Failed States Index because of “widespread lawlessness, ineffective government, terrorism, insurgency, crime, and well-publicized pirate attacks against foreign vessels,” the list’s compiler, Washington-based nonprofit Fund for Peace, said on its website Monday.

The group’s eighth annual list, which ranks instability risks of 177 nations based on 12 social, economic and political indicators, was published Monday by Foreign Policy magazine. Nations ranking high on the list aren’t necessarily failed states, but are facing enormous pressure stemming from factors such as uneven development, economic decline and human-rights issues, according to Fund for Peace.

Foreign Policy magazine notes that Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, is enjoying a period of relative peace. CNN has reported that African Union troops last year pushed Al-Shabaab, an Islamic militant group affiliated with al Qaeda, out of central Mogadishu after years of bitter urban fighting.

But battles between the groups continue elsewhere in Somalia. And last week, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama for the first time publicly stated that U.S. military forces are engaged in direct action against suspected terrorists in Somalia.

The biggest shifts happened outside the top 10 - mostly rankings of countries that experienced uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East last year. The worst decline was in Libya, which went from well outside the top 60 to No. 50 "as a result of civil war, a NATO-led campaign of airstrikes and the toppling of the (Gadhafi) regime," the Fund for Peace said.

Syria, where an uprising has endured for more than a year, registered the fourth-greatest single-year jump in the index's history (from No. 48 in 2011 to No. 23 in 2012).

Haiti, which jumped to the top 10 last year after 2010's devastating earthquake, is the list's sole Western Hemisphere representative in the top 10.

Other notable rankings: Pakistan, No. 13; North Korea, No. 22; Iran, No. 34; United States, No. 159. Finland was considered the most stable, at No. 177.

The top 10 nations on the 2012 Failed States Index are:

1) Somalia

2) Democratic Republic of Congo

3) Sudan

4) Chad

5) Zimbabwe

6) Afghanistan

7) Haiti

8) Yemen

9) Iraq

10) Central African Republic

【新闻快讯】

美国政治杂志《外交政策》6月19日发布了一份特别榜单，即全球“失败国家”排行榜，非洲国家索马里连续第五年占据榜首，成为世界上“最失败国家”，其它前10名的国家包括刚果、苏丹、乍得、阿富汗、伊拉克等。在榜首排名、意即比较稳定的国家则大多来自北欧和北美。中国在这份榜单上排名76，比去年靠后，“稳定性”有所增加，俄罗斯则排名83，美国居第159。

美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）6月19日报道称，这是《外交杂志》发布的第8份“世界失败国家”榜单，它根据12个社会、经济和政治指标，对全球177个国家进行“不稳定风险”评估，并于6月18日在网站上公结果。

索马里因“普遍的无法可依、低效政府、恐怖主义、武装叛乱、犯罪和对外国车队的公然袭击” 以114.9分第五年位居榜单之首。其次是刚果（111.2分）、苏丹（109.4分）、乍得（107.6分）和津巴布韦（106.3分）。第6到10名分别是阿富汗（106分）、海地（104.9）、也门（104.8分）、伊拉克（104.3）、中非共和国（103.8）。此外，巴基斯坦排名13，朝鲜第22，伊朗第34。

中国以78.3分排名第76，得分和排名均较去年有所下降，意即稳定性有所增加。俄罗斯第83的位置也较去年下降。而美国则以34.8分排名159.

受“阿拉伯之春”的影响，埃及、利比亚、叙利亚、突尼斯的情况大幅恶化，尤其是利比亚，从一直居于60名之外前进到今年的第50名，叙利亚则从2011年的48名上升到23名。

负责编撰榜单的美国非盈利组织“和平基金”在其网站上称，排名靠前的国家并非“必然是失败的，但是面临着巨大的压力，需克服诸如不平衡发展、经济衰退、人权等问题”。在榜首上排名的国家也是世界上比较稳定的国家，新西兰排171，挪威排173，丹麦排175，瑞典和荷兰是排名的两位。