WORLD BRIEFING / SOMALIA

Pirates seized a British-owned ship after taking three vessels over the weekend, marking a jump in the number of hijackings in the perilous waters off Somalia this year.

In the first three months of 2009, only eight ships had been hijacked in the busy Gulf of Aden and the eastern Indian Ocean off the Somali coast, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

Last year, heavily armed gangs from the lawless Horn of Africa nation hijacked dozens of vessels, taking hundreds of sailors hostage and obtaining millions of dollars in ransom.

Foreign navies rushed warships to the area and reduced the number of successful attacks. But there are still near-daily attempts and the pirates have begun hunting farther afield near the Seychelles archipelago.

The British vessel, the Malaspina Castle, has 16 Bulgarians aboard, according to Nikolai Apostolov, head of Bulgaria’s Maritime Administration Agency.