Somali pirates on Saturday released an Italian-operated, British-owned cargo ship that was seized last month, two maritime watchdog organizations said.
“The MV Malspina Castle was freed by her captors at around 5:30pm local time ... after a ransom had been delivered,” said Ecoterra International, an environmentalist group that monitors piracy and other illegal marine activities in the region.
Andrew Mwangura, who runs the East African Seafarers Assistance Program, also confirmed the vessel had been freed.
The 30,000-tonne bulk carrier, ferrying iron ore with a crew of 24, was seized in the Gulf of Aden on April 6, the same day a Taiwanese vessel was taken near the Seychelles.
The pirates first held it near Garaad and later moved it to Eyl in Somalia’s northern breakaway region of Puntland.
“The crew is said to be all right,” Ecoterra said.
It included 16 sailors from Bulgaria, four Filipinos, two Ukrainians, a Russian and an Indian.
At least 19 ships are still being held by Somali pirates along with several hundred mariners.
In the first quarter of this year, 102 piracy incidents were reported to the International Maritime Bureau, nearly double the number during the same period last year.
Foreign naval ships, including from NATO and the EU, have thwarted several hijacking attempts and made dozens of arrests.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Saturday that the problem of piracy would be one of the themes of the G8 summit that he will host in July.
“We will discuss piracy, a phenomenon which has recently appeared on an unprecedented scale,” he said.
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama met on Saturday with a US cargo ship captain who was held hostage by Somali pirates last month before a dramatic high-seas rescue by US Navy snipers.
Obama hosted Maersk Alabama captain Richard Phillips and his wife, Andrea, in the Oval Office for a visit that had not been publicly announced by the White House.
Phillips was also due to attend Saturday’s White House Correspondents Association dinner, an annual meet of Washington’s press corps elite, politicians and celebrities.
When the ship was attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia, Phillips gave himself up as a hostage to save his crew and their ship, the Maersk Alabama.
His bloody rescue by elite US Navy SEAL commandos made global headlines. Three pirates were killed in the operation and a fourth was flown to New York, where he faces trial for piracy.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
RSS