The Panama-registered ship was taken 450 miles from Somalia’s south coast.On Saturday pirates hijacked the 31,000-tonne German grain carrier Patriot and its crew of 17 in the Gulf of Aden.(Reporting by Abdiqani Hassan, writing by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura) World. MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Rough seas in the coming months in the strategic waterways linking Europe and Asia may cut pirate attacks as the monsoon season’s choppy waters trounces their tiny skiffs, analysts and pirates say. WorldSea gangs have upped assaults on ships passing through the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean since February when better weather allowed them to hijack more vessels and take more hostages despite foreign navies patrolling off Somalia.”The sea is calm now, but it will be terrible to sail especially in the Indian Ocean by May,” pirate Farah Hussein told Reuters by telephone. Pirates have made millions of dollars seizing ships and taking crews hostage. After a brief lull earlier this year, gunmen continued their onslaught.”Once we go into June, the south west monsoons will come in and that affects the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea, and we may see a reduction in attacks,” said Pottengal Mukundan, director of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB).Weather analysts say the June-July-August season has the worst weather for pirates while December-January-February is less extreme, but still bad.”The rest of the year is generally okay, but occasionally we have (bad weather),” said Peter Ambenje, acting deputy director at Kenya’s meteorological department.Pirates usually operate smaller, lighter vessels, maximising their advantage of speed, agility and weapons to capture much larger ships. But that exposes them to the vagaries of weather as their craft usually cannot handle rough seas.Sea gangs on average allow 30 to 45 minutes to try and attack a vessel, according to the IMB. They have become better equipped, using satellite navigation systems and operating from mother ships to increase their range.FARTHER AFIELDSome observers and pirates say bad weather may only push the buccaneers further afield in their hunt for booty.”As the monsoon season kicks in, the potential effect of that is that attacks are likely to be pushed further south,” said Tudor Ellis, sales and business development manager with UK-based global business risk consultancy Drum Cussac.Pirate Farah said: “Our attacks on ships will probably decrease in the coming month.

But we might go to the Gulf of Aden to carry out our mission.”The London-based IMB watchdog said piracy incidents nearly doubled in the first quarter of 2009 almost entirely due to Somalia. There were 18 attacks off Somalia in March alone.”There seems to be a limit on how many ships can be held by the pirates at any one time — so the pattern has tended to be to ’stock up’ when the weather is good and run down ’stocks’ when the weather is bad,” said a spokesman for Intertanko, whose members own the majority of the world’s tanker fleet.(Additional reporting Jonathan Saul in London and Jack Kimball in Nairobi; Writing by Jack Kimball; Editing by Richard Balmforth) World.  The midfielder for the Brazilian national team and Milan, Kaka, was chosen on Thursday by Time magazine as one of the most influential people in the world today He is the only football player to make the list. The only other South American to make the prestigious list was Bolivian president, Evo Morales. In the article on Kaka, the American goalkeeper, Kasey Keller, stated that Kaka is known not only for his many achievements on the field, such as the title for the League of Champions and for being selected as the world's best footballer by FIFA, but for his actions off the field as well.

Keller said, “In 2004, Kaka became the ambassador to the UN in the battle against world hunger He is also very devoted to his faith. Kaka has admitted publicly that he would like to become a priest after he retires from the sport. After having won the title as the world's best player, he lifted up his shirt and showed another shirt beneath reading 'I belong to Jesus.' I question whether or not a soccer stadium is the best place to promote religion, however, in a day where athletes are more concerned with cars, women and polemic issues, it is refreshing to see someone who is trying to have a positive influence on those people around him,” said the goalie in favor of Kaka being selected. Other sports figures to make the list are the ex-tennis star, Andre Agassi, the ex-cyclist Lance Armstrong, the women's golf pro from Mexico, Lorena Ochoa, and the South African paraplegic Olympic athlete, Oscar Pistorius. Kaka was given the 29th position out of the top 100 and is considered to be the most influential footballer on the planet.. NAIROBI (Reuters) – Somali pirates seized a 31,000-tonne German grain carrier in the Gulf of Aden on Saturday, a Kenyan maritime official said. WorldPirates also released the Greek vessel, MV Saldanha, after they were paid $1.9 million in ransom, a pirate source said.The Malta-flagged, German-owned MV Patriot belongs to Patriot Schiffahrts and is managed by Blumenthal JMK of Hamburg, Germany, said Andrew Mwangura, director of the Mombasa-based East African Seafarers Assistance Program.”I hear it was taken early this morning,” he told Reuters.

Some shipping lines now opt to use a longer and more expensive route around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid capture.Hijackings rose nearly 200 percent to 111 in 2008. So far this year, there have been about 40 incidents.In the latest high-profile hijacking, pirates attacked a U.S. ship, the Maersk Alabama, earlier in April.Its crew of 20 fought back and the pirates were forced to flee with the ship’s captain, Richard Phillips, in a lifeboat After a standoff with the U.S. Navy, Phillips was rescued and three pirates were shot dead by snipers.The U.S. action could force the gangs to take more drastic action, including executing some of their hostages, some analysts say.The pirates have so far avoided deliberately harming captured crew members and in 2008 secured some $100 million in ransom payments for crews and vessels.The pirates have reinvested some of their takings in bigger weaponry and widened their reach to 500 miles from the Somali coast.(Additional reporting by Birgit Mittwollen in Berlin and Abdiqani Hassan in Bosasso; Editing by Angus MacSwan) World. With one place in the Championship race for promotion virtually settled, we now know that some of the brightest talents of the Football League will be gracing the top flight in the navy blue and white of West Brom. The new talents in the form of Ishmael Miller and Chris Brunt, alongside well-known Premiership players like Kevin Phillips and Zoltan Gera, have shown the football world that exciting, creative play is not solely reserved for the glamour of the Premier League.