Pirates seize oil tanker with British crew members

Pirates have seized the Sirius Star, an oil tanker with British crew members, in the Indian Ocean and are holding it near the Somali coast. Other crew members are from Croatia, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia. The tanker is carrying 2 million barrels of oil and is said to be the pirates "most audacious" attack for some time. The double shock in this is the size of the prize and the fact it was seized some way outside the usual pirate operation areas and shows the sophistication of the modern day pirate. No more peg-legs and hard tack, more like GPS navigation and satellite phones me hearties.



Eagle1's blog has excellent coverage of this and similar issues and you can check out a live piracy map here.