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BRUSSELS (AP) — The alleged pirate kingpin thought he was going work in the movies. Instead he landed in jail. In a sting operation worthy of Hollywood, Mohamed Abdi Hassan was lured from Somalia to Belgium with promises of work on a documentary about high-seas crime that would "mirror his life as a pirate," federal prosecutor Johan Delmulle said Monday. But rather than being behind the camera as an expert adviser, Abdi Hassan ended up behind bars, nabbed as he landed Saturday at Brussels airport. "(He's) one of the most important and infamous kingpin pirate leaders, responsible for the hijacking...

The Los Angeles Dodgers' celebratory dip in the Arizona Diamondbacks' pool after clinching the NL West on Thursday isn't just the talk of the baseball world. It's got even one of the country's most famous politicians fuming. John McCain — the Arizona senator and 2008 presidential candidate — blasted the Dodgers on Friday via Twitter, saying much the same thing that many Diamondbacks fans were saying Thursday. Although, "spoiled brats" is particularly delicious....

The Official Talk Like a Pirate Personality Inventory (TOTLAPPI) Version 2.0 - completely revised for 2007! Arrrr! So, thar ye be, sittin' all a-lonesome on the poop deck. Comely lasses (or lads) don't notice ye, mates smite ye with thar belayin' pins ... not even a parrot to call ye "Bob." What's a pirate to do? Are ye the talk o' th'dock? Cock o' th'walk? Do the mates want to be like ye and the beauties want to be with ye - or vicey-versey? Well, thar, me Bucko, this simple little quiz will tell ye - and everyone else -...

Time to dust off the eye patches and pull out the gold earrings. Everybody grab a parrot and bottle of rum its time once more for Talk like a Pirate Day!

MichiganVotes.org has the details on a resolution to support "International Talk Like A Pirate Day" introduced last week by state Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw. Sen. Kahn playfully sported an eye patch while his proposal was discussed, but the moment of frivolity is bound to remind observers of how members of a full-time Legislature can be full-time mischief makers, whether they intend to or not. Another resolution introduced last week by Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker, R-Lawton, officially recognizes June — and no other month! — as the "official" start of summer. Another bit of lightheartedness, but really — haven't Michiganders successfully figured...

ATLANTIC BEACH, NC (WECT) – Divers trying to recover cannons from Blackbeard's flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge wreck site off the coast of North Carolina were successful in their efforts Thursday. Bad weather forced the team to scrub the previous two trips, but the conditions were just right the third time around. A group from Cape Fear Community College used inflation bags to float two cannons to the surface. This is the first time the cannons have been out of the water in almost 300 years. According to David Hardin with CFCC, the cannons are estimated to weigh 2,000 pounds...

A man named by the UN as a pirate kingpin has said he is renouncing crime, a community leader in Somalia has confirmed to the BBC. Mohamed Abdi Hassan, nicknamed "Afweyneh" meaning Big Mouth in Somali, told reporters after eight years in the business, he had agreed to stop. He made the announcement in Adado, a town in central Somalia where pirate hostages have often been held. Successful pirate attacks off the Somali coast fell sharply last year. Analysts say this is because of the increased use of private security guards on ships and better co-ordination between naval patrols in...

HOBYO, Somalia (AP) — The empty whiskey bottles and overturned, sand-filled skiffs littering this once-bustling shoreline are signs the heyday of Somali piracy may be over. Most of the prostitutes are gone and the luxury cars repossessed. Pirates while away their hours playing cards or catching lobsters.

By Abby Ellin Sep 22, 2012 9:19pm Former Owner of Pittsburgh Pirates Comes Out Email 10 Smaller Font Text Larger Text | Print (Image credit: Rich Pilling/MLB Photos via Getty Images) Kevin McClatchy, the former owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates, has an announcement: He’s gay. After years of soul searching and hiding his sexuality, McClatchy, now 49, came out to the New York Times. In the interview, McClatchy, who was the public face of the Pirates for 11 years, said that he felt obligated to go public. “I’ve spent 30 years — or whatever the number is specifically — not...

It was buried among the legal ads in a local newspaper this week, nary two paragraphs long amid public notices from municipalities and legal name changes. It was a federal court announcement, but no ordinary one, from a treasure hunter announcing to "modern day pirates" that he was laying claim to a previously undiscovered Civil War-era shipwreck buried off the coast of Asbury Park — the maritime equivalent of a wedding officiant asking "if anyone has reason for these two not to be wed, speak now or forever hold your peace." The "groom" is Allan Gardner, a Florida diver who...

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: What does -- well, let me talk about our ally in the region, Israel. How does Israel sort of fit into this whole dynamic of what's going on right now? NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have to break up laughing because I was watching "FOX and Friends" this morning, and it had a picture of the president meeting with a pirate who was... VAN SUSTEREN: It was dated from '09 or something. It was an old picture, I understand. GINGRICH: Sort of "dress like a pirate" day. And they were making the point...

J. Atkyn, James J. Strang, 1856, by one of the co-conspirators in his imminent assassination. Quarter-plate daguerreotype of Strang. Tarnished at perimeter. In oval brass cut-out mat and gilded-brass preserver frame. In original velvet-lined leather (pressed paper) floral case, mended separation at hinge, lacking one clasp. In a new half-leather and hand-marbled clamshell box. Michigan's most infamous personality has been rediscovered in one of the earliest extant photographs taken in the state. The photograph was not taken by just anyone, but by a man who later plotted his certain assassination; and it was not taken just anywhere, but on...

[All Hope Abandon, Ye Who Enter Here] But first ... enjoy our First Annual Talk Like A Pirate Day Sing-Along! (Video at Link)

A shipwreck discovered in Tonga is thought to be a famous pirate vessel that sank in the 19th century with a hold full of treasure. Legend has it that the Port-au-Prince was attacked by warriors near the South Pacific archipelago in 1806 and most of its British crew massacred on the orders of King Finau 'Ulukalala II. The British had captured the ship from the French and made into a privateer - meaning it had permission to attack and plunder boats belonging to rivals Spain and France.

To life, love and a legendary privateer’s lost fleet. U.S. archaeologists are continuing their search for real-life buccaneer Captain Henry Morgan’s lost fleet after the discovery of six cannons, a 17th century wooden shipwreck and even a barrel that may very well contain rum. Yo, ho ho indeed. Aptly backed by the Captain Morgan rum brand, a team of leading archaeologists led by Frederick “Fritz” Hanselmann of Texas State University hope to unlock the myth and mysteries of one of history’s most iconic sea captains. “We’re interested in telling the true story of Henry Morgan,” Hanselmann, who is a director...

from the momentum dept It really appears that The Pirate Party is no fluke in Germany. After winning 9% of the vote in the Berlin parliament elections, and then 7.4% in Saarland, the party has now received 8.2% of the vote in Schleswig-Holstein. These are each local "state" elections, and there's another big one next week, in Northrhine-Westphalia, where they're apparently polling in a similar range. It seems clear that The Pirate Party is certainly surpassing the German Green Party as the preeminent 3rd party -- and it seems to be having an impact. As we noted, the Greens have...

Anti-Day of Rest Protests for Good Friday. Pirate Party Dance Party banned in Frankfurt. Green Party Youth protest in Wiesbaden The Frankfurt authorities responsible for public order have banned the demonstration of the Pirate Party, which was to take place on Good Friday. During the protest loud music was to be played to "invite people to dance," says the Pirate Party. The spokesman for the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau called the project of the Pirate Party "disrespectful." The Young Greens, who organized in 2011 in the Frankfurt Römerplatz a demonstration and thus disrupted the Good Friday procession of...

Max Hardberger, a maritime repo man who recovers stolen ships from lawless Caribbean ports, has set his sights on the notorious Somali pirates 'I don’t know why I like Haiti so much,’ Max Hardberger says, as we battle and swerve through the choking dust and chaos of Port-au-Prince traffic. 'The Haitian people are wonderful, sure, but sometimes they do bad things, especially when they get in mobs, and the country is obviously frustrating. One thing I do like is that it’s lawless here, which makes it much easier for me to operate.’ Hardberger is a 62-year-old adventurer from Louisiana who...

Since the days of sail, sea captains have served as scientific field observers for shorebound researchers, turning in reports of wind and waves, water temperatures and currents. Since World War II, an armada of specially equipped scientific vessels sponsored by governments, universities and foundations has increasingly augmented the amateur observers. These ships do everything from drilling beneath the seafloor to study the Earth’s crust to counting fish to studying climate change. But in the past few years, vast swaths of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean — some 1 million square miles — have been all but emptied of fishing...

Consumers who illegally download copyrighted films, music or television shows might see their Internet speed slowed or access restricted under an industry anti-piracy effort announced on Thursday. U.S. Internet service providers, including Verizon Communications Inc, Comcast Corp, Time Warner Cable Inc, Cablevision Systems Corp and AT&T Inc agreed to alert customers, up to six times, when it appears their account is used for illegal downloading. Warnings will come as e-mails or pop-up messages. Read the rest here: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/07/us-internet-piracy-idUSTRE7667FL20110707