Word: ransoms
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Pirates operating off Somalia's lawless coast have taken in more than $100 million in ransom payments since 2007, and this year their attacks became ever more brazen. Somali pirates targeted close to 100 ships in 2009, ranging from supertankers to fishing boats. In April, a raiding party seized the U.S. cargo ship M.V. Maersk Alabama--the first American ship to be successfully hijacked since the 1800s--but all the pirates were killed or captured in the ensuing standoff with a U.S. Navy destroyer. The navies of more than two dozen nations now patrol the Gulf of Aden, and cargo...
...Turkish communities on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus share an islander's love of conspiracy theories. But the macabre theft of the remains of a hard-line Greek Cypriot President from his grave on Friday has even the most far-out pundits stymied. Was it politically motivated? For ransom? Was a mysterious gang of Romanian grave robbers involved...
JOSE LUIS RODRIGUEZ ZAPATERO, Spain's Prime Minister, after his nation paid a $3.3 million ransom to Somali pirates in exchange for the release of a Spanish tuna boat and its 36 crew members, who had been held hostage on the Indian Ocean for more than six weeks...
...ships to be attacked in the Gulf of Aden through September of this year, the Alakrana and its three dozen crew have been held hostage off the coast of Somalia for the past six weeks. The pirates have demanded a ransom of $4 million, far more than the $1.2 million reportedly paid to release another Spanish trawler that was hijacked in April 2008. There have been reports - though no confirmation - from Echebaster, the firm that owns the Alakrana, that the company would be willing to pay the amount. But for the moment, their willingness is largely irrelevant...
...simplest option would just be to cede to the pirates' demands, pay the ransom and return the two detainees," says Echeverria. "That would solve the humanitarian crisis, but it would also invite other pirates to start making similar demands...