Across the World: Somalia

Two tankers hijacked

The European Union said on Thursday that two European-owned chemical tankers had been hijacked off the Somali coastline in the past 24 hours. A statement by the bloc's naval headquarters in Northwood, Britain, said a 9,000-ton Greek-owned vessel with 19 crew members was attacked approximately 450 miles (720 km) east of the coast Wednesday afternoon. It said that a 23,000-ton Norwegian-owned vessel was seized 250 miles east of Somalia on Thursday morning.

(China Daily 03/28/2009 page11)