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WASHINGTON, Feb. 22, 2011 – Somali pirates killed all four Americans they had held hostage aboard a sailing vessel in the Indian Ocean this morning, U.S. Central Command officials announced. U.S. officials were negotiating with the pirates for the safe return of the captured Americans when the murders took place, officials said. Centcom officials said that in the midst of negotiations, U.S. forces responded to gunfire aboard the S/V Quest. When the forces reached the boat, officials said, they discovered all four hostages had been shot by their captors. Despite immediate steps to provide life-saving care, all four hostages ultimately...

BERLIN - Two suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks will be deported to their native Morocco, authorities said Tuesday, including one who is awaiting a new trial after being sentenced to 15 years for helping the al-Qaida suicide pilots. Both Abdelghani Mzoudi and Mounir el Motassadeq were served with the notice Monday, said ministry spokesman Marco Haase, the first step in what is expected to be a lengthy process that will take place only after all the appeals in their cases go through. Mzoudi, 31, was acquitted in February on more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and membership...

A German court has ruled that the only man convicted anywhere in the world over the September 11 attacks must remain in custody despite new evidence believed to cast doubt on his involvement. Mounir El Motassadeq was sentenced to a maximum 15 years earlier this year on more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder. His lawyers have now asked for his release after evidence, allegedly from a top Al Qaeda member held in the United States, that neither Motassadeq nor another accused, Abdelghani Mzoudi, were part of the al-Qaeda cell involved in the 2001 attacks. Mr. Mzoudi has already...

HAMBURG, Germany - A Moroccan on trial for allegedly supporting a cell of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers was easy to get along with until he fell under the influence of a fellow countryman, who later was convicted on terrorism charges, their former landlord testified Thursday. Reinhard Martens, who rented defendant Abdelghani Mzoudi a room in his house in late 1996, remembered him as a "very good" tenant until another Moroccan, Mounir el Motassadeq, moved in at the start of 1997. "Mzoudi was quieter than before, he seemed like he could not make his own decisions," Martens testified. "Mounir was...