World Digest

Somali pirates hijack ship, free ship

NAIROBI, Kenya - Somali pirates seized control of a chemical tanker in the Gulf of Aden yesterday and a NATO helicopter gunship, too late to prevent the hijacking, picked up three security guards who jumped into the sea.

The ship hijacked yesterday was the Liberian-flagged MV Biscaglia, operating out of Singapore. Both France and Germany, which have ships in the area as part of an international anti-piracy coalition, sent the aircraft after receiving a distress call just after dawn. But in the 15 minutes it took to get to the site, the pirates had already boarded and had taken the...