106.3 WORD TRAFFIC

Maritime piracy

FILE - In this April 30, 2017 file photo, released by an official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, center, inaugurates the Persian Gulf Star Refinery in Bandar Abbas, Iran. Five Iranian tankers likely carrying at least $45.5 million worth of gasoline and similar products are now sailing to Venezuela as of Sunday, May 17, 2020, part of a wider deal between the two U.S.-sanctioned nations amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington. Analysts say the gasoline they carry came from the Persian Gulf Star Refinery. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP, File)
May 17, 2020 - 1:14 pm

5 Iran tankers sailing to Venezuela amid US pressure tactics

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Five Iranian tankers likely carrying at least $45.5 million worth of gasoline and similar products are now sailing to Venezuela, part of a wider deal between the two U.S.-sanctioned nations amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington. The tankers'...
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December 23, 2019 - 7:19 am

1 killed, 4 Chinese abducted as pirates attack ship in Gabon

LIBREVILLE, Gabon (AP) — Authorities searched Monday for four Chinese crew members who were taken hostage by pirates in speedboats off Gabon's capital over the weekend. Government spokesman Edgard Anicet Mboumbou Miyakou confirmed Sunday that four vessels anchored in the bay off Libreville were...
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December 05, 2019 - 8:24 am

Pirates attack ship off Nigeria, take 19 of crew hostage

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Pirates boarded a Greek-owned oil tanker off Nigeria and kidnapped 19 Indian and Turkish crew members in what have become the world’s most dangerous waters for such attacks. A statement Wednesday by the owner and Hong Kong-based managers said the Nave Constellation ship was...
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November 12, 2019 - 4:36 pm

Apparent pirate attack on ship in Mexico wounds 2 Italians

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexican navy says two Italian crew members were wounded in an attack by armed assailants who boarded their ship in the Gulf of Mexico. The pirate attack was apparently carried out by several armed men who approached the Italian-flagged ship Rema in two fishing boats. The...
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This June 2018 photo provided by Rob McClelland shows Allie Kurtz aboard a sailboat. Kurtz, a 26-year-old scuba diving boat crewmember who loved the ocean and had just landed her dream job, is among multiple victims of a deadly fire that torched a dive boat off Southern California's coast, her family said on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019. Kurtz recently left a job in movie promotion with Paramount to follow her heart and work on the sea, said her grandmother, Doris Lapporte. (Rob McClelland via AP)
September 04, 2019 - 9:17 pm

Crew member who died in scuba boat fire fulfilled her dream

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — Allie Kurtz gave up a job in the movie industry to live her dream of working on the water, and when she landed a job as deckhand on a scuba diving boat, she was thrilled. She was on that boat, the Conception, when it caught fire and sank, the only crew member among the...
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April 01, 2019 - 10:35 am

US, Nigeria, other nations train navies in Gulf of Guinea

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — The United States Navy and 33 other countries recently carried out weeks of maritime training in the Gulf of Guinea, to improve safety against pirates and to improve the monitoring of the West Africa coastline. The Obangame Express training exercise, in its ninth year, this...
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Armed forces stand onboard the Turkish oil tanker El Hiblu 1, which was hijacked by migrants, in Valletta, Malta, Thursday March 28, 2019. A Maltese special operations team on Thursday boarded a tanker that had been hijacked by migrants rescued at sea, and returned control to the captain, before escorting it to a Maltese port. (AP Photo/Rene' Rossignaud)
March 28, 2019 - 3:54 pm

Rescued migrants safe in Europe after hijacking oil tanker

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — A group of migrants desperate not to go back to Libya made it safely to Europe on Thursday after commandeering the oil tanker that rescued them at sea in a dramatic series of events that underlined the contradictions in Europe's migration policies and could discourage future...
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Armed forces stand onboard the Turkish oil tanker El Hiblu 1, which was hijacked by migrants, in Valletta, Malta, Thursday March 28, 2019. A Maltese special operations team on Thursday boarded a tanker that had been hijacked by migrants rescued at sea, and returned control to the captain, before escorting it to a Maltese port. (AP Photo/Rene' Rossignaud)
March 28, 2019 - 10:43 am

The Latest: Aid groups say migrants acted in self-defense

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — The Latest on a ship seized by migrants in the Mediterranean (all times local): 3:40 p.m. Italy's hard-line interior minister has called migrants who temporarily took over a cargo ship "pirates" but aid groups reject that label, saying that the European Union's policy of...
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FILE - In this file photo dated Wednesday, March 20, 2019, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini at the Italian Senate, in Rome. Migrants hijacked a cargo ship in Libyan waters on Wednesday March 27, 2019, and have forced the crew to reroute the vessel north toward Europe, and Italian Interior Minister Salvini said the ship, was carrying around 120 migrants, but Italian authorities vowed they would not allow it into their territorial waters. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, FILE)
March 27, 2019 - 6:57 pm

Ship reported hijacked near Libya by migrants rescued at sea

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — Migrants hijacked a cargo ship in Libyan waters Wednesday and forced the crew to redirect the vessel north to Europe, according to Italian and Maltese authorities. As the vessel headed in a direction leading to the island nation of Malta and Italy's shores, both countries...
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September 23, 2018 - 6:21 am

Swiss-flagged cargo ship attacked off Nigeria, 12 kidnapped

BERLIN (AP) — A Swiss shipping company says that a bulk carrier has been attacked by pirates off Nigeria's coast and 12 of its 19 crew members have been kidnapped. Geneva-based Massoel Shipping said the MV Glarus was attacked early Saturday as it sailed from Lagos to Port Harcourt with a load of...
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