Teen Pirate Will Be Tried as Adult; Faces Life in Prison

Attempted takeover repelled by guards

(AP) - Somali pirates today attacked the Maersk Alabama for the second time in seven months, but guards on board the US-flagged cargo ship repelled the takeover attempt. When pirates attacked with automatic weapons early this morning about 350 nautical miles east of the Somali coast, guards on board the craft fired back, thwarting the attempted hijacking. A spokesman for the EU Naval Force called it "pure chance" that the Maersk Alabama had been targeted twice. More»

(NEWSER) - The Navy is questioning the crew of the Maersk Alabama and members of its own SEAL unit about $30,000 that went missing from the hijacked cargo ship, the New York Post reports. The money was taken by the pirates during the hijacking attempt but was not recovered after they were killed or captured. “We don't comment on the details of an ongoing investigation,” said a spokesman from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. More»

She says he may have needed money

(NEWSER) - He’s at the center of the first piracy trial the US has seen in more than a century, but Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse’s mother says he’s a victim. “He was brainwashed,” she tells the AP. “People who are older than him duped him.” Muse, the lone surviving pirate from the hostage-taking of an American ship captain, is now in custody in New York, but his mother remembers a book-loving boy “wise beyond his age.” More»

(AP) - Shipping captain Richard Phillips is back in his home state, a week and a half after being taken hostage by pirates. The plane carrying Phillips, who was rescued by Navy SEAL snipers, landed in Burlington, Vt., late this afternoon. "I'm not a hero," Phillips, from nearby Underhill, said on the tarmac. "The military is." More»

(AP) - The shipping captain held hostage by Somali pirates will return to the US with his crew tomorrow. Maersk Line said today that Richard Phillips and the crew of the Maersk Alabama are expected to arrive at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland late tomorrow, where they will reunite with loved ones in a private reception. They are taking a chartered flight from Mombasa, Kenya. More»