Pirates, shipowner at impasse over ransom

Pirates, shipowner at impasse over ransom Negotiations between Somali pirates and the owner of a Dutch ship are at an impasse over the size of the ransom the pirates are demanding, Radio Netherlands reports.
   It quotes a mediator as saying the ship's nine-man crew are in good health, but the pirates are demanding 700,000 euros or more than $1 million, and the Dutch company Reider Shipping offering to pay 450,000 euros ($698,796), Radio Netherlands reported Wednesday.
   The freighter Amiya Scan is at anchor off the port of Bargal in northern Somalia. It was seized by the pirates May 26.
   The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on piracy on Monday, authorizing countries to carry out antipiracy actions in Somalian waters.
   That action was hailed by International Maritime Organization Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos, who said it was “a positive step in the right direction.”
   Under terms of resolution, which was adopted unanimously, the Security Council decided that, following receipt of a letter from Somalia to the UN Security Council president giving the consent of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG), states cooperating with the TFG would be allowed, for a period of six months, to enter the country’s territorial waters and use “all necessary means” to repress acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea, in a manner consistent with relevant provisions of international law.