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A supertanker carrying about $200m (£125m; 146m euros) worth of crude oil has been hijacked off the coast of Oman, the vessel's Greek operator says. Athens-based shipping company Enesel said they had lost communication with the Irene SL. The vessel was on its way from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Mexico when it was attacked. Although the incident happened hundreds of miles from Somalia, pirate gangs are known to operate there. "This morning the vessel was attacked by armed men," said Enesel in a statement quoted by Reuters. "For the moment there is no communication with the vessel."

ROME, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- An Italian oil tanker has been hijacked by pirates in the Indian Ocean, news reports here quoted the Italian coast guard as saying Tuesday. According to the Italian Marine Corps, the captain tried to evade capture by speeding up, suddenly changing gear and firing powerful water jets on the priates' skiff. At least five pirates fired rockets and machine guns at the 266-meter Savina Caylin and they were believed to have seized control of the tanker, said Cosimo Nicastro, captain of an Italian coast guard frigate. No one was injured in the attack, which took...

Ships transiting the pirate-infested waters off the coast of Somalia will have firepower at their sides later this year if an escort patrol developed by an insurance broker is able to navigate a few more legal and financial obstacles. Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group P.L.C. has spent the past two years developing the Convoy Escort Program, a separate, nonprofit company that will operate 16 armed patrol boats in the Gulf of Aden with crews consisting mainly of ex-military personnel who are trained to intercept pirates before they can hijack merchant ships. JLT expects funding for the company to be in place...

Malaysia says its navy commandos have foiled an attempted hijacking of a ship in the Gulf of Aden, rescuing 23 crew and capturing seven Somali pirates. It says the commandos injured three pirates during a gun battle on board the Malaysian-flagged MT Bung Laurel chemical tanker on Friday. The navy was alerted by a distress signal from the vessel's crew. Kuala Lumpur is now considering whether the pirates should face trial in Malaysia. "We will determine what we should do, whether we are going to bring them here to be tried or take any other appropriate action," Malaysian Prime Minister...

Can you believe there was a time when we caved to the communists of North Korea and let them capture, beat and torture some of our sailors? This weekend marks the 42nd anniversary of one of the most shameful episodes in recent United States history. And I doubt if the mainstream media will contain a single word about it. Several years ago, my youngest son and I were watching a program on the History Channel when the program’s narrator mentioned the capture of a U.S. Naval vessel by Communist North Korea back in 1968. “That didn’t really happen, did it,...

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korean special forces stormed a hijacked freighter in the Arabian Sea on Friday, rescuing all 21 crew members and killing eight assailants in a rare and bold raid on Somali pirates, South Korea said. The military operation in waters between Oman and Africa, which also captured five pirates and left one crew member wounded, came a week after the Somali attackers seized the South Korean freighter and held hostage eight South Koreans, two Indonesians and 11 citizens from Myanmar. "We will not tolerate any behavior that threatens the lives and safety of our people in...

Pirates took a record 1,181 hostages in 2010 as ship hijackings in waters off Somalia escalated, a global maritime watchdog said Tuesday. Attackers seized 53 vessels worldwide last year — all but four off the coast of Somalia — according to the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur. The number of hostages and vessels taken "are the highest we have ever seen" since the center began monitoring attacks in 1991, its director, Pottengal Mukundan, said in a statement. "The continued increase in these numbers is alarming," he said.

NAIROBI, Kenya — Somali pirates hijacked a Greek-owned bulk carrier on Monday after releasing a Greek-owned tanker the day before, the European Union Naval Force said. The cargo ship MV Eagle was hijacked early Monday by pirates who had fired small arms and grenades, according to a press statement from the EU Naval Force. There are 24 Filipino crew onboard, it said. ... The MV Motivator was taken on July 4 and released on Sunday. The average period of captivity is getting longer as pirates negotiate for higher ransoms.

NAIROBI — Puntland, an autonomous Somali region home to pirates who threaten shipping in the Indian Ocean, said Sunday it was breaking with Somalia's transitional government until a legitimate federal authority is in place in Mogadishu. The decision was made during a special cabinet meeting in the Puntland capital Garowe, said a government statement received by AFP in Nairobi. It said the Mogadishu government "does not represent Puntland in international forums" and called on "the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) to reconsider its position and support for the TFG at the expense of other Somali stakeholders".

SEOUL — Suspected Somali pirates hijacked a South Korean-operated cargo ship with 21 crew on board in the Indian Ocean on Saturday, South Korean and European officials said. ... The hijacking came about two months after a supertanker used by the same South Korean shipping company was released by Somali pirates, having been held for seven months. The 300,000-tonne Samho Dream and its 24 crew -- five South Koreans and 19 Filipinos -- were released only after a ransom reported as a record $9 million was given to the pirates in a helicopter air drop.

The crew members of a Danish weapons ship boarded but not hijacked by pirates in the Indian Ocean have been kidnapped, TradeWinds can reveal. In what represents a major departure from Somali pirates' usual modus operandi, the six seafarers have been snatched and moved to a seized Taiwanese fishing vessel which is operating as a morthership [sic]. It had been hoped that a search of the 1,780-dwt Leopard (built 1989) by members of the Turkish Navy would turn up the two Danes and four Filipinos who had hid in a citadel when they came under attack west of the Gulf...

New Delhi, Jan 12 (IANS) The Indian Navy's elite marine commandos will this month be armed with Israeli assault and rifles that will enhance their operational capability as a force trained for special operations. A consignment of over 500 TAR-21 Tavor assault rifles and another 30 Galil sniper rifles worth over Rs.15 crore ($3.3 million) and Rs.2 crore respectively was delivered to the MARCOS (marine commandos) in December 2010, a defence ministry official told IANS here. A team from the Israeli Military Industries (IMI), the manufacturer of the specialist weapons, will be in India to carry out joint inspection of...

SHABWA, Jan 08 ( Saba) - Somalia pirates have attacked a Yemeni fishing boat off the southeastern province of Shabwa, firing on it and taking its engine, security officials have said. "About 7 pirates attacked the boat while fishing off Bir Ali. They fired on it but the fisherman, 24, onboard was not hurt," they said, adding that the pirates just took the engine of the boat to use it for carrying out more attacks, and ran away. In recent years, Somali pirates have stepped up their attacks on Yemeni fishing boats and local, regional and international vessels passing off...

NAIROBI, Jan. 2 (Saba)--Somali pirates have hijacked Algerian flagged and owned ship in the Indian Ocean with 27 crew members, European Union anti-piracy taskforce said on Sunday. EU Naval Force spokesman Paddy O'Kennedy said MV Blinda was seized by pirates on Saturday afternoon, approximately 150 nautical miles South East of the port of Salalah, Oman. "MV Blida has a crew of 27 (Algerian, Ukrainian and Philippino) and is carrying a cargo of Clinker," O'Kennedy said in a statement on Sunday. The 20,586 tonne Bulk Carrier was on her way to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from Salalah in Oman at the...

Somali pirates have freed a German-owned chemical tanker, reportedly after a $5.5m (£3.6m) ransom was paid. The Marida Marguerite, with a crew of 19 Indians, two Bangladeshis and one Ukrainian, was seized in May by pirates armed with rocket-propelled grenades. Kenya-based officials said a ransom was paid, but there was no independent confirmation. Pirates now hold 25 vessels and 587 hostages after they seized another German-owned ship on Monday.

Dhaka, Dec 24 (bdnews24.com)--The US government has suggested that the government should negotiate with the Somali pirates by paying ransom for the release of 26 Bangladeshis on board the hijacked ship MV Jahan Moni. The state department also told Dhaka that the Somali pirates would be interested in releasing the captives with comparatively less amount of money as it's a "lean season" for the captors. Washington also revealed that "money was the sole objective" behind the hostage taking. The state department made the suggestions as Bangladesh government sought US support for the release of the hostages. On Dec 15, the...

TEHRAN, Iran -- A common fight against piracy brought U.S. and Iranian navy commanders together in a meeting with other participants earlier this month, the Iranian state news agency reported Thursday. The report revealed the rare meeting only obliquely by relating the attendance of acting Iranian navy chief Admiral Gholam Reza Khaem Bigham at an international anti-piracy meeting earlier this month in Sri Lanka attended by 22 countries, including the United States. ... The report did not say whether there were any face-to-face encounters between the two countries' military officials at the conference.

According to a Eurogamer report, game publisher Ubisoft has implemented a novel security measure - which largely involves the use of the South African vuvuzela horn - in its forthcoming Nintendo DS game "Michael Jackson: The Experience." Going by the report, the continuous buzzing of vuvuzela horns - which became immensely popular during this summer's World Cup - will virtually drown Michael Jackson's cult tunes for people who try to play the hacked version of the game via a downloadable ROM. In addition, as part of its anti-piracy measures, Ubisoft has removed the on-screen prompts on illegally downloaded ROMs of...

WASHINGTON — Somalia's breakaway Puntland state has hired a private security firm to fight piracy but Washington is concerned about the program's funding, aims and scope, a Pentagon spokeswoman said Friday. "The US is aware Puntland authorities are contracting with a private security company to assist them in counter-piracy," Lieutenant Colonel Tamara Parker told AFP. ... The US and other navies have deployed dozens of warships to patrol the region's waters but have failed to stem piracy, one of the few thriving businesses for coastal communities in Somalia, a country devastated by war and poverty. Over the past two years,...

A controversial animal-rights group preparing to embark on its annual harassment campaign against Japanese whalers has stepped up its effort this season by enlisting the aid of ... Godzilla. The swift and ominous-looking interceptor vessel has the moniker Gojira, named after the ferocious monster in the legendary Japanese film, which in English means Godzilla. The 115-foot boat was launched by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society on Monday in Fremantle, Australia, and has joined the larger vessels, Steve Irwin and Bob Barker, in Hobart. At midweek all three will begin their journey to Antarctic waters, where their crews will await the...