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PIRATES FREE ITALIAN BOAT

ROME — An Italian tugboat and its crew of 16, seized by Somali pirates off the Gulf of Aden in April, have been released, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said yesterday.

Frattini told Sky Italia TV he had been given the news by the Somali prime minister. The ship’s release was the result of “exceptional work” on the part of Somali authorities and the Italian intelligence service, he said.

The pirates hijacked the Buccaneer on April 11 with a crew of 10 Italians, five Romanians and one Croatian, and took it to a point close to Las Qoray, in a disputed area of northern Somalia.