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A South Korean warship has caught up with a super-tanker that was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. The South Korean foreign ministry said the destroyer had arrived in waters near the tanker and would remain at a safe distance. The 300,000-ton Samho Dream, which was on its way from Iraq to the United States, has 24 crew and is laden with crude oil. Its owners said the pirates had not yet made any demands. When the crew of the South Korean operated super tanker first raised the alarm the navy destroyer, already on duty in the Gulf...

A South Korean warship is rushing to the area where Somali pirates hijacked a South Korean oil tanker with 24 crew members aboard, the military says. The 300,000-tonne Samho Dream was seized on Sunday on its way from Iraq to the US state of Louisiana with a crew of five South Koreans and 19 Filipinos. A South Korean destroyer, which was in the Gulf of Aden on anti-piracy operations, has been ordered to move to waters off Somalia, a Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman told AFP. "The destroyer is sailing in a hurry to catch up with the hijacked ship,"...

When I wrote in this column three weeks ago that "the Somali pirates have hardly been cowed by the international naval presence" in the Gulf of Aden and "have simply shifted their operations to areas which they know are not being patrolled, with strikes increasing taking place on the high seas," little did I know how quickly events would confirm my analysis. On April 8, four pirates hijacked the Norfolk, Virginia-based MV Maersk Alabama, while the boat was some 240 nautical miles of the Somali coast en route to Mombasa, Kenya, with humanitarian supplies for Kenya, Somalia, and Uganda. Although...

The Reuters headline put it this way: “Pirates Pose Annoying Distraction For Obama.” So many distractions, aren’t there? Only a week ago, the North Korean missile test was an “annoying distraction” from Barack Obama’s call for a world without nuclear weapons and his pledge that America would lead the way in disarming. And only a couple of days earlier the president insisted Iraq was a “distraction” — from what, I forget: The cooing press coverage of Michelle’s wardrobe? No doubt when the Iranians nuke Israel, that, too, will be an unwelcome distraction from the administration’s plans for federally subsidized daycare,...

As the US Navy moves additional ships to the Indian Ocean to attempt to free the American captain held hostage by pirates, some are criticizing Washington's tactics and calling for strikes on the Somali pirates' land bases. The Daily Telegraph reports that the US is sending additional naval vessels to join the USS Bainbridge, which has been in a standoff with the pirates who took an American captain hostage Wednesday. But experts say that an increased US naval presence will not solve the ongoing issue of piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the western Indian Ocean, writes The Wall...