Somali pirates have hijacked the MV Sirius Star, the largest oil tanker yet to be seized by gangs operating off the off the Horn of Africa.
The Saturday assault occurred 450 miles (724 km) southeast of Mogadishu, Somalia, in the Indian Ocean, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
One of the world’s largest oil tankers and owned by Aramco, the Sirius Star is 1,800 feet long, or about the length of an aircraft carrier, and can carry about 2m barrels of oil.
Last week, pirates hijacked three chemical tankers off the Horn of Africa and 
freed another. On Sunday pirates freed the Hong Kong-flagged Stolt Valor and its crew after a $1.1m (€880,000) ransom was paid, according to Reuters.
Odfjell, one of the largest shipping groups in the world, responded to the attack by suspending its routes through the Gulf of Aden in favour of the longer journey around the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of South Africa, raising the prospect that one of the world’s busiest trade routes could be sidelined unless global action is taken to combat the pirate menace.
There have been 77 attacks on vessels in the Gulf of Aden this year, with 31 
hijacked, according to the International Maritime Bureau, which monitors piracy. Efthimios Mitropoulos, secretary general of the International Maritime Organisation described the crisis in the region – the gateway to the Suez Canal – as among the most severe facing the world.
West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark for oil prices, rose $1.40 to $58.44 a barrel in early trading. Brent, the European benchmark, climbed to $55.33, up $1.10 on Monday 17th November.
November 18th, 2008|
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The NASA device does look a bit cheap and one big complaint is the useless manual and the lack of any form of lights on the device to tell you it has power or is receiving or transmitting anything on the NMEA bus. Very frustrating when you are trying to troubleshoot connections. If you are particularly adept you may want to follow 
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Alarmed at the growing number of attacks off Somalia, international merchant shipping is edging closer to doing the unthinkable in peace time: by-passing one of world’s most vital trade routes. Somali pirates have been plundering ships off
Nairobi, Nov 19 (DPA) A Greek ship has become the third vessel seized by Somali pirates since they took control of a Saudi supertanker over the weekend in their most daring raid yet, a maritime official said Wednesday.Andrew Mwangura of the
Indian Navy stealth frigate INS Tabar has successfully repulsed an attack by pirates off the Somali coast and sunk their ship. See the map Another ship with Indians, hijacked off Somalia Podcast on Indian Navy’s attack Somali pirates