Word: vessel
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...Pulled aboard the coast-guard vessel one by one, each man looks around, eyes wide with fear, shivering from the cold. One of the Greek sailors, who wears plastic gloves and a headlamp, speaks to the men in broken English. "Where you from?" he asks. Eventually, one softly responds. "Afghanistan," he says, and the others repeat the word. None have identity documents. It's past 1 a.m., and the coast-guard captain estimates the raft left the Turkish coast four hours earlier. The men have rowed more than halfway across the strait, a few hundred yards into Greek territorial waters...
...Somalia Pirates Aim Higher With their capture of a colossal Saudi oil tanker on Nov. 15, Somali pirates seized their largest vessel yet amid a torrent of other hijackings in the Gulf of Aden, where there have been at least eight attacks in just the past two weeks. Pirates currently hold an estimated 17 vessels and some 300 crew for ransom. Some shipping firms are resorting to the long, costly route around Africa to avoid the gulf's dangerous waters...
...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...
...Western military deployments are certainly having an impact in the area. Last weekend British marines attacked a Yemeni-flagged fishing vessel that had unsuccessfully attacked a Danish container ship. Eight pirates were arrested and turned over to the Kenyan authorities in what Britain's Armed Forces Minister Bob Ainsworth said was a "strong message to pirates that their activities are unacceptable and that the global community is united in its efforts to deter and disrupt them...
...British raid only underscored the difficulty facing international military efforts to police the shipping lanes of East Africa. The vessel attacked by the marines was nothing more than a rickety old fishing dhow, and the eight men arrested are likely to be quickly replaced by hundreds of other pirates - not to mention the thousands desperate to join their ranks and get a piece of the lucrative action. The pirates have thrived in a situation of negligible government authority on land, where the Somali state barely exists. And they are further emboldened by the jurisdictional difficulty of figuring out where...