Oh Those Goofy Pirates: Comedy on the High Seas

I pray that video footage of this surfaces.

This is the dramatic moment a ransom of $3million was paid to Somali pirates to end the world's biggest ship hijacking.

The canister full of cash was parachuted onto the Sirius Star - observed by the U.S. Navy who provided these images - and the two-month ordeal of the 25 crew, including two Britons, was finally over.

However things went badly wrong for the pirates soon after the drop - they squabbled over how to split the money and then a wave washed off their getaway boat and drowned five of them.

The pirates originally wanted more than £16 million to release the boat and its £65 million load of oil. Eventually they accepted the offer of $3million (around £2million).

But as they made off they continued to row about the payout.

'Two of them swam and survived. One is still missing.

We got five dead bodies and we are still searching for the missing one. The waves were disastrous,' said Farah Osman, an associate of the gang.

It is not known what happened to the money or those who survived.

Chinese Sailors Fight Off Pirates with Beer Bottles and Molotov Cocktails

Imagine if they had had guns:

Keeping low to avoid being shot, a sailor lights a Molotov cocktail before throwing it at Somali pirates trying to board his ship.



He and his crewmates were expecting trouble and had prepared dozens of the makeshift grenades to repel an invasion.

Their cargo vessel was attacked in the Gulf of Aden by pirates using speedboats and armed with heavy machine guns and rocket launchers.

The attack occurred a day after Beijing said it was considering sending warships to the area to help battle piracy.

Despite their best efforts the nine pirates clambered aboard after tying up alongside.

Read more here.

Indian Navy Official Not Ruling Out Somali Pirate Roll in Mumbai Attacks

An Indian Navy official is not ruling out that the Mumbai attacks were in retaliation for the Indian Navy's sinking of a Somali pirate boat earlier this week.

A top Indian naval official has said that he would not rule out the role of Somali pirates in the terror strikes in Mumbai in view of the
recent action by the Navy against the sea bandits in the Gulf of Aden.

Asked whether there can be any connection between the pirates and the attacks in Mumbai, Vice Admiral Sunil K Damle, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Naval Command, said such a thing cannot be ruled out.

"I cannot say but I will not rule it out. I cannot say whether there is connection or not. All I am saying is that we very strongly suspect such a thing can happen," he told reporters on board the INS Tir.

"It is a fact that our action against the Somali pirates in the recent past has got the Indian Navy into focus particularly in that area", he said, adding this also brought in a danger...Indian Navy being targeted by these people also in addition to the terrorists," he said.

"These bad elements unfortunately have a fair amount of illegal money at their disposal. Even if Somali pirates were not taking direct action against us, there is every possibility of them pumping in the money into such organisations which are capable of taking terrorist action against us", he said.

On reports that the attackers had sneaked in to Mumbai through sea routes, he said "we have already started investigating the vessels which are considered suspicious on the west coast, particularly in the vicinity of Mumbai".

He said the Navy has stepped up security not only as a result of what is happening in Mumbai. "We have already taken security measures because we feel they could be target of those who feel threatened by the naval action. We have tightened various kinds of security measures", he said.