When is $90 million not enough for a weekend movie? When it's the fourth in a series of blockbusters, and the previous episode grossed nearly $155 million. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which returns Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow and gives him luscious Latina Penlope Cruz as his profiteering damsel, earned a gaudy but underperforming $90.1 million — what blogger Nikki Finke described as a "yo-ho-hum" number — in its first weekend in North ...

These days, the battle for the Indian Ocean seems to be all about the dread pirates of Somalia. On Wednesday, the U.S. briefly became a direct player in the ongoing drama, with news that those pirates had hijacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship, the Maersk Alabama, and taken 20 American citizens prisoner. But the crew regained control of the ship, except for the captain, who remains on a lifeboat in the hands of the pirates. But a drama ...

Somali Pirates Seize a Yacht, the Quest, with Four People in america on Board Yacht, the Quest, Taken by Pirates in Indian Ocean off Oman; U.S. Forces Alerted U.S. officials confirm that a yacht with 4 People in the usa aboard has long been seized by Somali pirates within the waters with the Indian Ocean. The advocacy group Ecoterra International says its monitoring of regional maritime activity off the coast of East Africa signifies four People in the usa aboard the yacht S/V ...

Korean Destroyer Shadows Pirates SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) — A South Korean navy destroyer has caught up with a supertanker hijacked by pirates  that was cruising toward the Somali coast with a cargo of crude oil worth as much as $170 million, an official said Tuesday. The South Korean-operated, Singapore-owned Samho Dream, which can carry more than two million barrels of crude, was seized Sunday en route from Iraq to the United States, in the latest sign the sea gangs are seeking ...

A British couple kidnapped by pirates off Somalia has been moved to a hijacked Spanish ship that pirates have stocked with more supplies and armed men, a pirate source said Friday.The Chandlers set off from the Seychelles on October 21 bound for Tanzania, according to their blog. A distress beacon was activated on October 23, according to naval officials. Britain's Foreign Office said it has been in close contact with the couple's family. Pirates have been very active off the ...

In some of the photos, the young children are wearing bibs and slight smiles can be seen on their chubby faces.International military forces have been treating the case as a "potential hijacking," Lt. Ian Jones of Britain's Royal Navy told CNN Tuesday. "We have no confirmation that anything has been pirated," he added. There are many possibilities, he said, adding he was aware of the reports of piracy but that hijacking was "far from certain." Britain's Foreign Office issued ...

Naval forces from several countries were searching Tuesday for a British couple and their missing yacht, which may have been hijacked by pirates off the coast of Africa, military sources told CNN.

The first nine months of this year has seen more pirate attacks than all of last year. And more than half of those attacks were carried out by suspected Somali pirates, an international maritime watchdog group said Wednesday. "The increased activity in Somalia is the major reason for the spike," said Cyrus Mody, manager of the International Maritime Bureau, which monitors shipping crimes. From January 1 until September 30, pirates worldwide mounted 306 attacks, compared with 293 in all of ...

A Spanish fishing ship with 36 international crew members has lost contact with the shore after issuing distress calls saying pirates were attacking it off the coast of Somalia, the ship's owner, Echebastar Fleet, said Friday.

A Somali suspect in the hijacking of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama last month has been indicted on 10 counts including piracy, hostage-taking and firearms charges, officials said Tuesday. Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse faces life in prison if convicted of eight of the 10 counts, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York said. The U.S. Navy took Muse into custody April 12 after the hijacking in the Indian Ocean. He arrived in the United States on April 21. ...