The game publisher Konami stated today in a Japanese newspaper that they will not be releasing the game Six Days in Fallujah. The game is based on the Second Battle of Fallujah, a vicious battle between American and Iraqi forces.

"After seeing the reaction to the video game in the United States and hearing opinions sent through phone calls and e-mail, we decided several days ago not to sell it," Tokyo based Konami told the newspaper. “We had intended to convey the reality of the battles to players so that they could feel what it was like to be there."

The developer of the game, Atomic Games, received controversial feedback from families of dead soldiers stating the game's concept as "exploitative and distasteful", as paraphrased by the The Wall Street Journal.

An attempted hijacking of an Italian cruise ship carrying 1,500 passengers by Somali pirates was thwarted on Sunday by the vessel's security guards. Nobody was injured. The incident occurred about 290 kilometres north of Victoria, the Seychelles.

According to the captain of the ship, Ciro Pinto, six pirates in a speedboat approached the ship and started shooting, but were forced to flee after security started firing pistols and spraying water from hoses at them.

"One white small boat with six people on board approached the port side of the ship and started shooting," Pinto said, saying that two hundred rounds were shot. He continued that "our security started shooting in the air and also we started spraying some water" in an effort to stop the pirates.