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Africa Horn
Pirates seize French cruise ship
2008-04-04
Pirates seized control of a French cruise ship Friday off the coast of Somalia, France's Foreign Ministry said.
Just where I'd want to go on a cruise of a lifetime, the coast of Somalia. What was the next port of call, Mog? Aden? Bandar Abbas?
A ministry official said details about the attack were scarce, and it was not clear how many crew members were on board the ship or if there were any passengers. The ship is in the high seas in the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Somalia in the Indian Ocean.

The official declined to identify the vessel or its owner. The ministry has set up a crisis center to deal with the situation, said the official.

Pirates seized more than two dozen ships off the Somali coast last year. The International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy, said in its annual report earlier this year that global pirate attacks rose by 10 percent in 2007, marking the first increase in three years.
Posted by:gorb

#12  DGSE on full alert I bet.
Posted by: OldSpook   2008-04-04 22:28  

#11  Whaddaya mean, sinse? Of course not. Never heard of "no more mister nice guy"?
Posted by: Spike Uniter   2008-04-04 21:43  

#10  sinse - what's the downside?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2008-04-04 21:41  

#9  frank but tHAT OULDN'T BE NICE OF US
Posted by: sinse   2008-04-04 20:16  

#8  Time to track the pirates back to a port and make it an unusable port. Bomb the f*ckers even further back to the stone age
Posted by: Frank G   2008-04-04 20:04  

#7  A French frigate, Le Commandant Bouan, was temporarily diverted from its role in the naval arm of Operating Enduring Freedom to track the yacht, military spokesman Cmdr. Christophe Prazuck said. A Canadian helicopter on the HCMS Charlottetown was also taking part, he said.
Posted by: tu3031   2008-04-04 17:15  

#6  Hey! Those aren't pirates, they're the UN Ambassadors from the EU!
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2008-04-04 16:59  

#5  Here ya go:

http://www.zeco.com/about/le-ponant.asp
Posted by: Chief Running Gag   2008-04-04 16:04  

#4  Yeah, she ain't no rust bucket.
This will piss some people off. Hopefully, people in a position to have something done about it.
Posted by: tu3031   2008-04-04 15:51  

#3  I believe the Legion has a base in Djibouti.
That would include choppers, and most warships can land at least one. At a time, I mean.
The anti-piracy forces there are multilateral.
So a Legion platoon might take US helicopters, stage from a Danish frigate, and get surface backup from the Brits.
Might be a problem of various forces trying to take cuts.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey   2008-04-04 15:47  

#2  it was just a matter of time
Posted by: sinse   2008-04-04 15:41  

#1  PARIS - Pirates seized control of a French luxury yacht carrying 30 crew members Friday in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia's coast, the French government and the ship's owner said.

Attackers stormed the three-mast Le Ponant as it returned without passengers from the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean, toward the Mediterranean Sea, said officials with French maritime transport company CMA-CGM.

"This is a blatant act of piracy," Prime Minister Francois Fillon told reporters while on a visit to Brussels. "The Defense and Foreign Ministries are mobilized to act as quickly as possible, I hope in the coming minutes or hours to try to win the freedom of these hostages."

He did not elaborate. France has considerable military resources in the region, including a base in Djibouti and a naval flotilla circulating in the Indian Ocean.

The ship was in the high seas in the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia's coast in the Indian Ocean, the ministry said. At least some of the crew members are French. The company declined to identify any other crew member nationalities.

"French authorities are handling the situation," Jean-Emmanuel Sauvee, managing director of La Compagnie des Iles du Ponant, told reporters in the southeastern city of Marseille, where his subsidiary of CMA-CGM is based. The company did not want to comment further so as not to endanger the crew members held hostage, he said.

According to the company's Web site, the 88-meter (288-foot) boat features four decks, two restaurants, and indoor and outdoor luxury lounges. It can hold up to 64 passengers.

Le Ponant was next scheduled to carry passengers as part of a 10-day, 7-night trip from Alexandria, Egypt, to Valletta, Malta starting April 19. Prices started at euro2,205 (US$3,465), not including air fare or taxes.
Posted by: tu3031   2008-04-04 15:16  

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