Pirates, Updated

Somali pirates have taken yet another ship in the Gulf of Aden, this time a Yemeni cargo ship. Iran is now calling for a confrontation with the pirates. These are but two developments in the bizarre ascent of modern day pirates.

New reports suggest that the Indian Navy may have sunk a Thai fishing boat and not a Somali pirate ship last week (the Indian Navy disputes this report). Pirates continue to hold the Saudi oil tanker captured last week off the shore of Kenya, though apparently the hostage crew is being treated "quite well" (surely that's a relative judgment). With brazen irony, the pirates have called for "honest" negotiations.

Now some are wondering, "Are Pirates the Problem, or the Solution?" (h/t Andrew Sullivan).

Background on the pirate crisis here.