Piracy News

It has been a week since Somali pirates announced that they had taken a British couple hostage in the Indian Ocean.

Spain said Friday it would not free two captured pirates as demanded by their fellow hijackers who are holding a Spanish trawler and 33 crew members off the coast of Somalia.

The MSC Melody survived a Somali pirate attack earlier this year off Africa with the help of an on-board Israeli security team that exchanged fire with the attackers.

Beijing on Friday opened a two-day international conference on efforts to protect shipping in the Gulf of Aden from Somali pirates, the defence ministry said.

Rival pirate groups have reportedly fought over the custody of old British couple who were kidnapped nearly two weeks ago off the coast of East Africa and currently held near a Somali coastal town.

Japan Herald Friday 6th November, 2009 New Delhi, Nov 6 : Defence Minister AK Antony will be leaving for Japan on Saturday on an official visit at the invitation of his Japanese counterpart Toshimi Kitazawa to review the on-going defence related interactions between both the countries and to explore ways to enhance such exchanges to the mutual ...

Somali pirates seized a Greek-owned vessel full of wheat in the Indian Ocean on Thursday and threatened to hand three Spanish captives to the families of two suspected gunmen being held in Spain.

Somalian pirates have threatened to kill three crew members taken hostage from a Spanish fishing vessel if two suspected pirates held in Spain are not freed, the captain of the captured vessel said Friday.

A search has been launched for two East Coast Demerara fishermen who are missing after two Guyanese fishing boats were attacked by pirates in Suriname waters around 7 pm on Wednesday, the pirates taking the two men hostage while escaping.

With negotiators continuing to seek the release of 25 Chinese sailors held hostage by Somali pirates, China is today hosting representatives from many of the world's navies in the hope of better coordinating anti-piracy efforts off Africa.

Somali pirates announced on Saturday that a British couple taken hostage in the Indian Ocean have been transferred from the attackers' ship into central Somalia after a rift between two competing pirate gangs.

The EU Naval Force says it has handed over 43 Somalis abandoned at sea by their human smugglers to the United Nations refugee agency in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti.

Separately, pirates on Thursday captured a Greek-owned bulk carrier with 21 crew on board, according to an EU naval force fighting piracy in the Indian Ocean.

PIRATES have seized a Greek cargo ship with its Ukrainian and Philippine crew off the east African country of Tanzania.

The New York Times answers mil-blogger Michael Yon's allegations that they paid "millions" for the release of their reporter David Rohde and that the Times 's reporting is putting the British hostages in Somalia at risk: Several Web sites repeated Monday erroneous allegations that The New York Times had paid a ransom in the case of its reporter ...

A Spanish tuna trawler was attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia but was able to escape, its captain said Saturday, amid a wave of raids on fishing boats.

A British couple, captured last week by Somali pirates aboard their yacht near the Seychelles Islands, have been taken ashore and moved inland into Somali territory, making a rescue by foreign navies in the region more difficult.

Now the waiting, and the negotiation, begins. Ransom demands have dropped from a reported $7 million to around $150,000, apparently because the pirates have realized how little money Paul and Rachel Chandler actually have. Some pirates, not necessarily speaking on behalf of this particular pirate gang, have suggested that the Chandlers be exchanged for seven Somali pirates detained by foreign naval forces operating off the coast of Somalia.

MOGADISHU: Somalia's mobile phone business is booming despite the almost daily artillery fire that flies over expensive satellite dishes and the violence that has brought misery to the population of the Horn of Africa nation.

The European Union's anti-piracy force says a Norwegian warship has clashed with suspected Somali pirates.

KIDNAPPED Britons Paul and Rachel Chandler might be freed for much less than the seven million-dollar ransom demand, a hostage negotiator said yesterday.