TV show to track U.S. Navy's battles with pirates

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A day after the violent rescue of a U.S. ship captain from Somali pirates, a cable television channel on Monday said it will air a reality show about the U.S. Navy's mission to stop piracy off the coast of Africa.

Producers and the Navy have been in talks for three months about the show, which is titled "Pirate Hunters: USN" and is expected to air as a one-hour special in the fall on Spike TV.

The Navy will allow cameras from Spike and 44 Blue Productions to capture life aboard warships USS San Antonio and USS Boxer as their crews search for pirates.

On Sunday, Navy snipers shot dead three Somali pirates holding cargo ship captain Richard Phillips captive off the coast of Somalia. Pirates abound in the region, where civil conflict complicates efforts to control the age-old scourge.

"By all accounts it will get worse, pirates will get more deadly and certainly the Navy will try to counter that," said Rasha Drachkovitch, president of 44 Blue Productions.

So far, most of the known fatalities involving Somali piracy have involved the pirates themselves: hostages are by most accounts well-treated and released unharmed, usually after ransoms are paid.

If "Pirate Hunters: USN" is successful, it could return as a mini-series on Spike, Drachkovitch said.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Eric Walsh)

Somali pirates hijack German gas tanker, 13 crew

NAIROBI, Kenya – Somali pirates hijacked a German tanker loaded with liquefied petroleum gas Thursday off the Horn of Africa. The ship's 13-man crew was reported safe even though gunshots were heard over the ship's radio.

The MV Longchamp is the third ship captured this month in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

The Longchamp, registered in the Bahamas, is managed by the German firm Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, which said in a statement that seven pirates boarded the tanker early Thursday.

Spokesman Andre Delau said the ship's master had been briefly allowed to communicate with the firm and had said the crew of 12 Filipinos and one Indonesian were safe.

"We think that everything is in order, nobody is injured," he told The Associated Press.

No ransom demands have been made yet, the company said.

Lt. Nathan Christensen, a Bahrain-based spokesman for the U.S. 5th Fleet, said the ship was seized off the southern coast of Yemen, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) from the town of al-Mukalla, the capital of the Hadramaut region....More

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Odd News-Cruise Ship Attacked - Outruns Somali Pirates

Somalia - A luxury cruise ship carrying passengers between Rome and Singapore came under attack from Somali pirates as it sailed between Somalia and Yemen on Sunday.
The Nautica, an Oceania cruise ship, was carrying 690 American, British and Australian passengers and a 386-member crew when two small fishing boats tried to intercept it. More...