Pirates anchor $100M supertanker off Somalia

Yesterdays big story was about the hijacking of the multi million dollar super oil tanker of Saudi by pirates. Today they the pirates seems to anchor it somewhere in Somalia.

Pirates are believed to have anchored a hijacked supertanker carrying up to $100 million worth of crude oil off Somalia Tuesday, its operator has said.

An undated photo of the Sirius Star in South Korean waters.

The 25-man crew of the Sirius Star -- including British, Croatian, Polish, Filipino and Saudi nationals -- are reported to be safe, according to Dubai-based Vela International Marine.

"Our first and foremost priority is ensuring the safety of the crew," said Vela President Salah Kaaki. "We are in communication with their families and are working toward their safe and speedy return."

The Saudi-owned vessel, the largest vessel seized to date in an escalating regional piracy crisis, was seized on Saturday more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya in what Saudi Arabia's foreign minister called "an outrageous act."

The U.S. Navy said the tanker was now anchored off Haradhere, a village reported to be a piracy hub, 300 kilometres (180 miles) north of Mogadishu.

The incident is the latest in a series of major acts of piracy around the Gulf of Aden that have cost the international shipping industry millions of dollars and threatened a key global trade route.

A Hong Kong cargo ship was hijacked Tuesday in the Gulf of Aden near the Yemen coast, China's Xinhua news agency said, citing the maritime search and rescue center of China.

The report said there were 25 crew members aboard the Delight, which had been hauling 36,000 tons of wheat toward the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. The center said none of the crew hailed from Hong Kong or China's mainland.

Nur Hassan Hussein, the prime minister of Somalia's transitional government, told CNN Tuesday that shipping companies should stop paying ransom to pirates. It is not known if Vela is in talks to pay a ransom for the hijackers of the Sirius Star, although money has been paid by other companies in the past.

Hussein added that international navies operating off the coasts of Africa and the Arabian peninsula need to use force against the pirates who have been hijacking vessels.

The U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet said it was not expecting to send ships to intercept the Sirius Star. NATO also said it would not divert any of three ships currently in the Gulf of Aden, The Associated Press reported.

Oil industry insiders say a tanker of the Sirius Star's size can carry up to 2 million barrels of oil, and the ship's operator says it is fully laden.

South Korean officials said on Sunday that armed gunmen hijacked a Japanese freighter and its 23-member crew off the coast of Somalia. The hijacking came as the Korean government was considering sending a warship to join those of other countries to combat piracy in the area.

A Russian patrol ship also thwarted an attack on a Saudi vessel.

Eleven vessels are currently being held by pirates hoping to secure ransoms for their release, according to AP. They include the MV Faina, which was hijacked along with 20 crew and a cargo of weapons and T-72 tanks.

Ninety percent of ships in the area are using a guarded corridor and there had been no hijackings inside the zone since it was set up on August 22, Danish Commodore Per Bigum Christensen told AP last week.

Around 20,000 oil tankers, freighters and merchant vessels pass along the crucial shipping route each year.

Meanwhile, a Norwegian shipping firm has ordered its vessels to avoid the waters off the Horn of Africa and criticized governments for failing to curb the wave of piracy.

The decision by the maritime company Odfjell SE means its 90-plus ships will take the additional time and expense to sail around the southern tip of Africa instead of going through the Suez Canal, a

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, speaking during a visit to Athens, condemned the hijacking, saying: "piracy, like terrorism, is a disease which is against everybody, and everybody must address it together," according to AP.

U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet Cmdr. Jane Campbell said the tanker -- flagged in Liberia and owned by the Saudi Aramco company -- weighed more than 300,000 metric tons and was more than three times the size of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier.

A multinational naval force including vessels from the U.S., the UK and Russia has been patrolling the Indian Ocean waters seas near the Gulf of Aden, which connects the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, following a sharp increase in pirate attacks in the region.

The burgeoning piracy crisis has flourished in lawless Somalia where almost two decades without a central government has left a country wracked by conflict, chaos and poverty.

"It was attacked more than 450 nautical offshore of Mombasa. This means that the pirates are now operating in an area of over 1.1 million square miles. This is a measure of the determination of the pirates and ... a measure of how lucrative piracy could become," Campbell said.

Campbell said the Navy does not expect to dispatch a vessel to aide the super tanker because it does not have dangerous weapons aboard like the MV Faina, a Ukrainian ship loaded with arms that was seized by pirates on September 25.

Pirates attacks Saudi 'super tanker' and captures it

A large, Saudi-owned crude oil carrier has been captured by pirates in the Arabian Sea, according to the US Navy.

Pirates in the Arabian Sea have hijacked a Saudi-owned oil tanker with 25 crew aboard, according to the Bahrain-based U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet.

The Sirius Star -- a crude "super tanker" flagged in Liberia and owned by the Saudi Arabian-based Saudi Aramco -- was attacked more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya, the statement said. The crew include British, Croatian, Polish, Filippino and Saudi nationals.

The UK Foreign Office confirmed two Britons were aboard and said it was seeking more information about the incident.

Naval vessels from the U.S., the UK and Russia have been patrolling the seas near the Gulf of Aden following a sharp increase in pirate attacks in the region. On Sunday pirates seized a 20,000-ton Japanese cargo ship off the coast of Somalia. A Russian patrol ship also thwarted an attack on a Saudi vessel.

"Our presence in the region is helping deter and disrupt criminal attacks off the Somali coast, but the situation with the Sirius Star clearly indicates the pirates' ability to adapt their tactics and methods of attack" said U.S. Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, commander of the Combined Maritime Forces.

"Piracy is an international crime that threatens global commerce. Shipping companies have to understand that naval forces can not be everywhere. Self protection measures are the best way to protect their vessels, their crews, and their cargo."

Breaking News! Tsunami Alert after two strong earthquakes struck indonesia

Indonesia has issued a tsunami warning after two strong earthquakes struck in the area of northern Sulawesi, the country's meteorological agency has said.

A magnitude 7.7 quake struck in the Gorontalo area of Sulawesi island at a shallow depth of 10 km (6.2 miles), the agency said.

It said a second 6.0 magnitude quake struck shortly afterwards in northern Sulawesi.

The US Geological Survey said the second quake, at 5.34pm GMT, was 5.6 magnitude at a depth of 9.9 km (6.2 miles), 83 miles northwest of Gorontalo.

Indonesia launched a new hi-tech system on Tuesday aimed at detecting a potential tsunami and providing faster alerts in a region battered by frequent earthquakes.

The sprawling archipelago of some 17,000 islands lies in the seismically-active 'Pacific Ring of Fire'.

It was hit by a devastating tsunami four years ago that left an estimated 170,000 people dead or missing in Aceh province.

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Congo rebel leader 'backs cease-fire'

The leader of Congo's main rebel group agreed Sunday to back a United Nations-brokered cease-fire amid efforts to bring an end to a fresh wave of violent unrest and deal with a worsening humanitarian crisis in the conflict-devastated country, according to a U.N. special envoy.

U.N. special envoy Olusegun Obasanjo, left, poses with Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda after talks.

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo said rebel leader Laurent Nkunda had promised to support the cease-fire and U.N. peace iniatives following a two-hour meeting in Jomba, a rebel-held town near Congo's eastern border with Uganda, The Associated Press reported.

"Today is a great day for us because we were losing many men and material. Now we have a message of peace. We should work with this mission," Nkunda said, according to AP.

Fighting between government forces and Nkunda's rebels has displaced more than 250,000 people -- adding to roughly 800,000 already driven from their homes by previous violence, according to United Nations figures.

Obasanjo's meeting with Nkunda followed talks with Congolese President Joseph Kabila in the capital, Kinshasa. Obasanjo said Kabila had expressed willingness to meet Nkunda but added that negotiations were still at an "exploratory stage."

He said he would tell Nkunda that the international community expected the warring sides to agree to a "durable cease-fire to address the issue of humanitarian crisis and tragedy," followed by a "durable peace and political stability."

The conflict in Congo has been complicated by ethnic tensions, the presence of a myriad of rebel factions and by the involvement of neighboring countries including Rwanda and Angola. Explainer: Behind Congolese conflict

Nkunda, a Tutsi, has repeatedly blamed the Congolese government for failing to protect Tutsis from attacks by Rwandan Hutus who fled over the border following the 1994 genocide that left hundreds of thousands of Tutsis dead.

On Friday Obasanjo met Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, who told him there were no Angolan troops operating in the country, AP said. Obasanjo is next due to meet Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

Fresh fighting broke out Sunday in the town of Ndeko, 90 kilometers (50 miles) north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, according to a spokesman for U.N. peacekeepers.

Col. Jean-Paul Dietrich said the fighting was "heavy" and had begun early in the morning. It was unclear who was involved, AP said.

On Saturday, the U.N. said it was considering relocating a refugee camp for up to 70,000 people near Goma to avoid the inhabitants getting caught up in the renewed fighting.

U.N. official Leila Zerrougui said there was a "real chance" that fighting could break out at Kibati, 10 kilometers north of Goma. She said Congolese soldiers had also visited the camp and threatened to steal from the refugees.

"We have already set up what's required for the refugees but that does not mean sending them back home," said Zerrougui. "We want to move them to another camp we will arrrange for them so they're not caught up in fighting. But all of that is under review."

On Friday, the U.N. World Food Program started distributing several tons of food to rebel-held areas for the first time since October, a food program spokesman said.

Peter Smerdon said a dozen trucks, escorted by a U.N. peacekeeping force, brought in food to distribute in the towns of Rutshuru and Kiwanja, north of Goma.

Red Cross Secretary-General Jacques Katshitshi said conditions in refugee camps in the region were "extremely difficult, " according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.