Piracy on the 'igh Seas

Following up on this story about a vessel full of U.N. food aid being hijacked by Somali pirates, here's another story... About Somali pirates!

Pirates who seized a UN-chartered ship carrying tsunami aid to Somalia have issued fresh ransom demands, the owners of the vessel say.

The MV Semlow and its crew were due to be returned earlier this week.

But a director of the Mombasa-based Mokatu shipping agency, Karim Kudrati, said the hijackers had made new demands, which it could not pay.

The ship was captured at the end of June east of the capital, Mogadishu, as it sailed from Mombasa in Kenya.

It was carrying food for victims of last year's Indian Ocean tsunami, near the port of Bossaso.

Yeah, trying to negotiate with pirates was a great idea. The only way to deal with pirates is to smite them. If you meet their initial demands, they'll just demand more, every time.

I said it before, and I'll say it again. The U.N. - is there anything it can do?