Somali Pirates’ Big Plunder

The pending capture of Mogadishu by Islamist rebels should probably dominate the small amount of attention that the media reserves for Somalia, but we can’t resist: Somali pirates have seized an oil tanker three times the size of an aircraft carrier. The capture represents a number of Somali pirate firsts: It’s the first time they’ve seized a Very Large Crude Carrier, the biggest ship used for oil, and, at about 450 nautical miles, it’s also the farthest pirate attack from shore. The ship was owned by the Saudi Arabian Oil Co.