Somali pirates hijack British-owned ship

Pirates seized a British-owned ship on Monday after taking three vessels over the weekend, marking a jump in the number of hijackings in the perilous waters off Somalia this year.
In the first three months of 2009, only eight ships had been hijacked in the busy Gulf of Aden linking Europe to Asia and the eastern Indian Ocean off the Somali coast, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB).
Last year, heavily armed gangs from the lawless Horn of Africa nation hijacked dozens of vessels, taking hundreds of sailors hostage and earnings millions of dollars in ransoms.
Foreign navies rushed warships to the area and reduced the number of successful attacks. But there are still near-daily attempts and the pirates have begun hunting further afield near the Seychelles archipelago.
"A 32,000-tonne bulker was seized early this morning. It is UK-owned but operated by Italians. The crew is mixed but we are not sure of their nationalities," said Andrew Mwangura of the Mombasa-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme.
The British vessel was named as the Malaspina Castle.
"I hear they have also captured a Taiwanese fishing vessel near the Seychelles," he told Reuters.
Over the weekend, pirates seized a French yacht, a Yemeni tug and the Hansa Stavanger, a 20,000-tonne German container vessel, despite the presence of foreign warships that have been sent to the region to deter the pirates.
Mwangura said the German container ship was taken 400 nautical miles (740 km) off the southern Somali port of Kismayu, between the Seychelles and Kenya.
Germany's Foreign Ministry confirmed the hijack on Monday. Spokesman Jens Ploetner said there were several German citizens on board and a crisis centre had been set up at the ministry.
The pirates typically use speed boats launched from "mother ships", which means they can sometimes evade foreign navies patrolling the busy shipping lanes and strike far out to sea.
They then take captured vessels to remote coastal village bases in Somalia, where they have usually treated their hostages well in anticipation of a sizeable ransom payment.
Pirates stunned the shipping industry last year when they seized a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of crude oil. The Sirius Star and its 25 crew was freed in January after $3 million was parachuted onto its deck.
Last September, they also grabbed world headlines by seizing a Ukrainian cargo ship carrying 33 Soviet-era T-72 tanks. It was released in February, reportedly for a $3.2 million ransom.
Before the latest spate of hijackings, the IMB said 9 vessels with 153 crew were being held and that 59 pirates had been captured this year.