Somali pirates fail to hijack US cruise liner

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.

The liner, carrying 656 international passengers and 399 crew members, was sailing in the Gulf of Aden when it encountered six pirates in two speedboats, said Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur.