PIRATES chased and shot at a US cruise liner with more than 1,000 people on board but failed to hijack the vessel as it sailed along a corridor patrolled by international warships, a maritime official has said.

Pirates near Somalia chased and shot at a US cruise liner with more than 1,000 people on board but failed to hijack the vessel, a maritime official said today.

Three British guards sailing on a tanker escaped Somali pirates by jumping overboard today.

THE pirate “mother ship” sunk last week by the Indian navy was actually a Thai fishing trawler seized hours earlier by pirates, a maritime agency said yesterday.

The pirate “mother ship” sunk last week by the Indian navy was actually a Thai fishing trawler seized hours earlier by pirates, it emerged today.

Tanker owners from around the world today called for a anti-pirate military blockade along the coast of Somalia.

An Indian warship sank a pirate boat after it refused to stop and be searched in the latest encoutner in the Gulf of Aden where piracy has been described as 'out of control'.

Pirates have hijacked a Thai fishing boat with 16 crew members off the coast of Somalia – the eighth ship seized in the area in the past two weeks.

Armed pirates in speedboats hijacked a Greek chemical tanker with 20 crew members in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia, a maritime official said today.

A heavily armed US destroyer was stationed off the coast of Somalia today, making sure that pirates there don’t remove tanks, ammunition and other heavy weapons from a hijacked Ukrainian cargo ship.

Pirates have seized a Greek chemical tanker with 19 crew members off Somalia’s coast, continuing an audacious string of hijackings near the war-torn African country, an international anti-piracy watchdog said today.

Pirate attacks worldwide in the first nine months of 2004 dropped to their lowest levels in five years, helped by declines in hotspots such as Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nigeria, a maritime group said today.