Word: ransoms
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...Once a ship is captured, the risk to crew and cargo of mounting a military raid to free it from pirate hands is considered too great - in most cases, the vessel's owners simply pay a ransom. Yet the threat of falling prey to pirates has not deterred shipping companies. Though some have changed their routes to avoid the Gulf of Aden, with the global economic downturn threatening to drive down demand for their services, they appear willing to risk the occasional ransom payment in order to stay in business. Nor are they transferring the cost to customers. Tony Mason...
...cargo of more than $100 million worth of crude oil. This occurred despite the attention of navies from the U.S., NATO and others that were patrolling the area to protect shipping. (The Ukrainian vessel, MV Faina, remains one of 11 captive vessels currently moored off pirate ports as ransom negotiations continue...
...piracy has grown, so have the ambitions of the pirates, who have begun to home in on tankers and bigger cargo vessels in the hopes of fetching larger ransom payments. Usually, a Somali pirate attack involves two or three speedboats, each carrying up to five armed men, but NATO officials say the number of boats involved is going up, suggesting that the pirates are getting more men and equipment...
...biggest ship ever seized by the pirates. U.S. Navy officers say the ship appears to be heading toward the Somali port of Eyl, a harbor where the pirates often park their plunder while negotiations proceed. Meanwhile, pirates are holding 14 other vessels and their crews hostage for ransom off the coast of Somalia...
...coastal Somali towns, have basically turned the heavily plied route through the Gulf of Aden and into the Indian Ocean into a toll road. But as the pirates are becoming more brazen, the international community's patience is running out. "Right now, it's just cheaper to pay the ransom," says Zinni, who led the pullout of U.N. troops from Somalia in 1995. "But just wait until a cruise ship gets taken down and there's some sort of miscalculation and a bunch of people get killed...