Pirates on the offensive

The pirates are mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more.

After a relative lull in pirate activity charactized by a spate of pirate arrests, the pirates are at it again. Check out their activity in the last 3 days:

- Pirates nab a Pakistani ship carrying goods for Somali traders (about 60 miles from the Somali coast)

- Pirates captured a Greek ship with a Ukranian crew carrying soya beans

- They also seized a Maltese ship with a Ukranian crew (it's a bad week to be a Ukranian crew member, apparently)

On the plus side:
- a French frigate captured 11 suspected pirates who mistook them for a merchant ship. Those probably weren't the smartest pirates afloat. The French have actually decided to detain them for now, rather than release them as a Portuguese warship had done earlier this week.

- Seychelles coast guard arrested 3 suspected pirates. Interestingly, they'd been held and interrogated by the French previously. So much for catch and release.

- And 23 Philippino crewmen returned home after almost 5 months in captivity. Ransom: $2.5 million. Good haul for the pirates and further inducement for them to do it all over again.