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American captain rescued, pirates killed, U.S. official says — (CNN) — The captain of the Maersk Alabama was freed Sunday after being held captive since Wednesday by pirates off the coast of Somalia, a senior U.S. official with knowledge of the situation told CNN.
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Obama twice approved force to rescue hostage — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama twice authorized the military to rescue a U.S. captain who was being held by Somali pirates and whose life appeared to be at risk, administration officials said after Sunday's rescue.
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U.S. Captain Held by Pirates Is Freed — Richard Phillips, the captain of an American cargo ship held hostage by armed Somali pirates for more than four days, was freed on Sunday after three of his captors were killed, government and shipping officials said.

How the rescue happened — I just finished listening to the press conference w/ ADM Gortney about the rescue of Captain Phillips. At the time it happened the USS Bainbridge was towing the lifeboat to calmer waters as the sea state was deteriorating. One of the pirates was on board …
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Ship Captain Rescued From Somali Pirates — American sea Captain Richard Phillips was safely rescued Sunday from four Somali pirates, who had been holding him for days in a lifeboat off the coast of Africa, a U.S. intelligence official said. — Three of the pirates were killed …
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Official: US sea captain freed in swift firefight … MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) - An American ship captain was freed unharmed Sunday in a U.S. Navy operation that killed three of the four Somali pirates who had been holding him for days in a lifeboat off the coast of Africa, a senior U.S. intelligence official said.
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U.S. Ship Captain Rescued From Pirates by Navy Seals — Mombasa, Kenya, April 12 — An American captain being held by Somali pirates was freed unharmed Sunday in an operation carried out by U.S. Navy Seals, U.S. military officials said. Three of the pirates were killed and the fourth was captured.


Rescued merchant ship captain grateful to US Navy
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Michelle Malkin


Amazon Follies — On Amazon.com two days ago, mysteriously, the sales rankings disappeared from two newly-released high profile gay romance books: “Transgressions” by Erastes and “False Colors” by Alex Beecroft. Everybody was perplexed. Was it a glitch of some sort?
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Amazon de-ranks so-called adult books, including National Book Award winner — One of these books has been removed from Amazon's sales rankings because of “adult” content; the other has not. — “American Psycho” is Bret Easton Ellis' story of a sadistic murderer.


Warning that Pakistan is in danger of collapse within months — PAKISTAN could collapse within months, one of the more influential counter-insurgency voices in Washington says. — The warning comes as the US scrambles to redeploy its military forces and diplomats in an attempt …


Obama girls name their new puppy ‘Bo’ — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - Bo? It's no jest. — The first family has settled on a first pet — a 6-month-old Portuguese water dog that the Obama girls are naming Bo.
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Tense standoff ends: Obamas finally settle on a dog
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Why We Don't Condemn Our Pirates — Guest Post by K'naan — As the first pirate attack of a U.S. ship in 200 years comes to a climax, I'm re-posting an essay I solicited and received several weeks ago from K'naan, a Somali-Canadian singer and activist. A video of a performance by K'naan …
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The Moderate Voice

The Pentagon's Bionic Arm — 60 Minutes: Pentagon Is Working To Develop A Life-Changing, High Tech Prosthetic Arm — Page 1 of 4 — (CBS) When Americans are wounded in Afghanistan or Iraq, no expense is spared to save their lives. But once they're home, if they have suffered an amputation …

China Slows Purchases of U.S. and Other Bonds — HONG KONG — Reversing its role as the world's fastest-growing buyer of U.S. Treasuries and other foreign bonds, the Chinese government actually sold bonds heavily in January and February before resuming purchases in March, according to data released this weekend by China's central bank.
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naked capitalism


Dobson concedes that the far right has ‘lost’ the culture war. — In a farewell address to the staff of Focus on the Family, James Dobson conceded that evangelical conservatives had lost most of the recent so-called “culture war” battles. Attributing the right's recent failures to the …
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Townhall.com, The Daily Dish, PoliGazette, Buck Naked Politics, Pam's House Blend and Newshoggers.com
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Awake and Sing! — “I am pronouncing the depression over!” declared CNBC's irrepressible Jim Cramer on April 2. The next day the unemployment rate, already at the highest level in 25 years, jumped yet again, but Cramer wasn't thinking about the 663,000 jobs that disappeared in March.
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