Somali pirates have hijacked a Marshall-flagged chemical tanker carrying 18 Filipino sailors in the southern Red Sea, the EU anti-piracy mission said in a statement on Monday.
The MT Motivator reported coming under small arms fire from pirates early Sunday in the northern Bab-Al-Mandeb area, the strait between the Arabian peninsula and the Horn of Africa, the EU NAVFOR mission said in a statement.
“After notification of this attack, attempts were made to make contact with the Motivator but to no avail. The hijack was confirmed early on 5 July,” the statement said. The ship, with a deadweight of 13,065 tonnes, is a chemical products tanker loaded with lubricating oil.
Since 2008, an international flotilla of warships has been patrolling the Gulf of Aden, one of the globe’s busiest maritime trade routes, to stop Somali pirates from hijacking commercial vessels.
Heavily armed pirates using speedboats operate in the Gulf of Aden where they prey on ships, sometimes holding vessels for weeks before releasing them for large ransoms paid by governments or ship-owners.
The waters surrounding Somalia are known to be among the world’s most dangerous.
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Umberto to publish new novel
Rome : Umberto Eco, the Italian author who gained international success with his best-selling book, The Name of the Rose, has written a new novel. Eco’s new book, entitled The Prague Cemetery, is a story of espionage and political intrigue, set in the Czech capital in the 19th century.
Eco, a noted expert in medieval history and a semiotician, is president of the Scuola Superiore di Studi Umanistici, at the University of Bologna and has written several novels and academic texts.
The Name of the Rose, his historical mystery set in a 14th-century monastery, was published in 1980 and translated into several languages It was later made into a popular film, starring Sean Connery and F.Murray Abraham.
Eco’s second novel, Foucault’s Pendulum, was published in 1988 and was also sold around the world.
The book is expected to be published in Italy in October.
By arrangement with AKI