Somalia Pirate Standoff Continues

(11 Apr 09 - RV) Pirates seized a U.S.-owned and Italian-flagged tugboat with 16 crew on Saturday in the latest hijacking in the busy Gulf of Aden waterway.

Earlier, pirates on a German ship with 24 foreign hostages said they had returned to
the Somali coast after failing to locate the scene of a standoff involving an American captive on a drifting lifeboat.

The pirates had hoped to use the hijacked 20,000-tonne container vessel, Hansa Stavanger, as a "shield" to reach fellow pirates holding an American ship captain far out in the Indian Ocean.

We have this report...