* Pirates grab German ship with 17 crew * German authorities say investigating * Greek ship released after $1.9 mln ransom (Adds name of freed ship) By Helen Nyambura-Mwaura NAIROBI, April 25 (Reuters) - Somali pirates seized a 31,000-tonne German grain carrier in the Gulf of Aden on Saturday, a Kenyan maritime official said. Pirates 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 Programme. "I hear it was taken early this morning," he told Reuters. "It was hijacked in the eastern end of the Gulf of Aden." The ship's 17 crew members are unhurt, Mwangura said. The Foreign Ministry in Berlin could not confirm the German vessel had been seized but said it was investigating. A pirate told Reuters his comrades had also released a Greek ship but he could not give its name. "My friends have released the Greek ship after $1.9 million ransom was paid," said the pirate, identified only as Hussein. Mwangura named the ship as the Saldanha, captured on Feb. 22, and said it was now on the way to safer waters. Two other Greek ships are still in pirate hands -- the MV Irene E.M., with 22 Filipino crew members, and the Nipayiya. Pirate attacks off the eastern African coast have escalated in the past few weeks despite the presence of a flotilla of foreign navy warships in the region. Sea gangs are holding more than 250 hostages and have made millions of dollars through ransoms, driving up insurance costs. 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 (800 kms) from the Somali coast. (Additional reporting by Birgit Mittwollen in Berlin and Abdiqani Hassan in Bosasso; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki addresses a news conference after the International Somali donors conference in Brussels April 23, 2009. International donors pledged on Thursday to give Somalia more than $250 ...
