Pirates Free Ukrainian Ship; Crew Safe (AP)

[Up2Late]

(More Pirates! What the h*ll is going on? Arrrrgg!)
Nov 27, 9:20 PM EST

Pirates Free Ukrainian Ship; Crew Safe

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Pirates freed a Ukrainian cargo ship seized nearly 40 days ago off the coast of Somalia, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said Sunday.

The Panahia's 22 crew members were safe after being freed late Saturday, and by noon Sunday the ship was 90 miles away from Somalia's east coast, the Foreign Ministry said.

It was not immediately clear if the $700,000 ransom demanded by the pirates had been paid, although earlier officials in Kiev had said the unidentified Ukrainian company was ready to pay. No one at the Foreign Ministry could be reached to comment Sunday. The ship was carrying iron ore from South Africa to Turkey when it was seized on Oct. 18.

Piracy is rampant off the coast of Somalia, which is torn by renewed clashes between militias fighting over control of the troubled African country of 7 million. Many companies resort to paying ransoms, saying they have few alternatives.

<http://staging.hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/UKRAINE_SOMALIA_PIRATES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-11-27-21-20-54>
(more at link above)

[daleo]

1. This makes it sound like pirates were the rescuers

Pirates Release Ship, would make more sense.

[sybylla]

2. That was my thought too.

Bad title.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

3. I just had this image

of Errol Flynn barging in with his ship of "nice" pirates to save the ship from the "bad" pirates, with much swinging from ropes and intense orchestra music.

[Up2Late]

4. LOL, well there you did it...

...you made me smile again. Now I have to wipe this silly grin off my face ad get back to work.

[Chovexani]

5. Maybe they were Blue Rogues. (n/t)