Somali Pirates Seize Cargo Ship With 24 Aboard

Published October 30, 2010

| Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya-- The European Union's anti-piracy naval force says Somali pirates have seized a cargo vessel with 24 crew members aboard.

The owners of MV Polar confirmed early Saturday that pirates control the ship, the EU force said in a statement.

Pirates seized the Liberian-owned ship some 684 miles east of the Indian Ocean island of Socotra. It belongs to Yemen but is close to the tip of northeastern Somalia.

The ship has 24 crew members: one Romanian, three Greek nationals, four Montenegrins and 16 Filipinos.

Somali pirates usually seize ships using the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest waterways.

They earn multimillion dollar ransoms with little risk because Somalia has not had an effective government for 19 years.

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Somali Pirates Seize Cargo Ship With 24 Aboard

Published October 30, 2010

| Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya-- The European Union's anti-piracy naval force says Somali pirates have seized a cargo vessel with 24 crew members aboard.

The owners of MV Polar confirmed early Saturday that pirates control the ship, the EU force said in a statement.

Pirates seized the Liberian-owned ship some 684 miles east of the Indian Ocean island of Socotra. It belongs to Yemen but is close to the tip of northeastern Somalia.

The ship has 24 crew members: one Romanian, three Greek nationals, four Montenegrins and 16 Filipinos.

Somali pirates usually seize ships using the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest waterways.

They earn multimillion dollar ransoms with little risk because Somalia has not had an effective government for 19 years.

View the original article here

Somali Govt Asks Pirates to Release British Couple

Published October 22, 2010

| Associated Press

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Somalia's government is calling for the release of a British couple kidnapped by pirates, as the one-year anniversary of their capture approaches.

Minister of Information Abdirahman Omar Osman says the continued captivity of Paul and Rachel Chandler is "inhuman and un-Islamic."

The retired British couple have been in pirate custody since their yacht was hijacked off the Seychelles on Oct. 23 last year.

Osman also called on the international community to put more into the struggling government, which he says is incapable of fighting piracy on its own off the coast of the lawless East African country.

Somalia has been a failed state for nearly 20 years, and piracy is one of few opportunities to make money.

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Sheriff: Pirates shoot US man in Mexican waters

SAN ANTONIO –  An American tourist was shot in the back of the head in Mexican waters on Thursday after being ambushed by armed boaters, a Texas sheriff said. It happened near the U.S. boundary of a lake where run-ins with pirates already had fishermen and Texas officials on alert.

Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez said a 30-year-old man and his wife were riding personal watercrafts back from Mexico when about six gunmen approached in two boats. Gonzalez said the man was shot as the couple sped away at the sight of the boaters.

What happened to the man was unclear. Gonzalez said the man's wife tried circling back to get him, but retreated back to U.S. waters after being fired upon again.

"They saw them approaching and started revving it up back to the U.S. side," Gonzalez said. "The guys just started shooting at them from behind."

Gonzalez said he has contacted the Mexican consulate and asked them to look for the man. He said there was nothing else he could do.

One of the boats may have crossed the U.S. side of the lake to fire at the woman, said Mike Cox, a spokesman for the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. The shooting renewed warnings of pirates on Falcon Lake, which is about 60 miles down the border from Laredo and is popular with water skiers and bass fishing.

Earlier this year, several fishermen were robbed at gunpoint on the lake's Mexican side. In those holdups, authorities say the gunmen traveled in the low-slung, underpowered commercial Mexican fishing boats that are familiar in the area. They asked for money, drugs and guns, and took what cash was available, but no one was hurt.

Gonzalez has previously chalked up the dangerous waters as the product of fighting between rival Mexican drug gangs.

"I would think that, right now, the prudent boater would want to stay on the Texas side," Cox said Thursday.

Gonzalez said the couple shot at Thursday never spoke the gunmen. He said the couple lived in McAllen, Texas, and had ridden over to Mexico for sightseeing and to take photos of a famous church in Old Guerrero.

That is identical to what five boaters did in April when authorities say they were approached by men who identified themselves as "Federales" and asked for drugs. Those boaters handed over $200 before the pirates chased them back to U.S. waters.

Authorities said Thursday's shooting happened about 2:45 p.m. Gonzalez said the woman raced her watercraft to the shores of the first lakeside homes she could reach and asked for help.

Gonzalez said the man who was shot worked in the oil business. He said the couple is originally from Colorado and had planned to move back there in a few weeks.

Violence on the Mexican side of the lake has been climbing for several months, as a fractured partnership between the region's dominant Gulf Cartel and its former enforcers, the Zetas, plunged many of the area's Mexican border cities into violence.

Falcon Lake is a dammed section of the Rio Grande that straddles the border. The border is marked by 14 partially submerged concrete towers that mark the Rio Grande's path before the lake was created in 1954.

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Associated Press Writer Terry Wallace in Dallas contributed to this report.

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