Pirate attacks around the world rise by 20%
Today in Digg I found this article about real life piracy by Gethin Chamberlain for the Telegraph.co.uk
They may no longer dress like characters from the Disney film Pirates of the Caribbean, but the buccaneers of the 21st century have lost none of their taste for a bloodthirsty boarding.
Mariners are being warned of a growing threat from pirates around the world after attacks on shipping rose by 20 per cent over the last year.
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The International Maritime Bureau’s latest report reveals the first rise in pirate attacks since their previous peak in the mid 1990s. In one particularly savage incident in the Philippines in March, pirates shot dead the captain of a passenger boat and two of his crew before tying them to their anchor and tossing it overboard. They then shot the two remaining crew members and escaped in a motor boat.
The sharp rise in pirate attacks is blamed in large part on the collapse of law and order in Somalia and political unrest in Nigeria. The seas around the two African countries are now regarded as some of the most dangerous in the world.
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To read the rest of the artcile, please go here.
