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Divers in Madagascar have found a silver bar weighing about 50 kilograms (110 pounds) that they believe was part of the treasure of pirate Captain Kidd. The bar was presented to Madagascar's president, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, in a ceremony Thursday on the island of Sainte Marie, near the country's northeast coast. The bar was found in a bay off the island, the diving team said. The team was led by Barry Clifford, an American undersea explorer who has been searching for pirate treasure for many decades. Clifford believes there could be more treasure on the bay floor where he found the...

Underwater explorers in Madagascar say they have found what is thought to be the treasure of notorious Scottish pirate William Kidd. Soldiers on Sainte Marie island have been guarding the 50kg silver bar after divers brought it to shore. Madagascar's president as well as UK and US diplomats received the suspected treasure at a ceremony on the island. Capt Kidd was executed in 1701 for piracy after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean.

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...

On ship, a ghost of a chance Researchers spend night aboard after visitors see mysterious man By Jenna Russell, Globe Staff | June 26, 2006 MYSTIC, Conn. -- Rain drummed on the deck of the 19th-century whaling ship Charles W. Morgan late Saturday night, as below deck, in the cramped and stuffy captain's quarters, a group of men and women armed with flashlights and digital cameras took their positions. They were ghost hunters, members of the Rhode Island Paranormal Research Group, who had come to Mystic Seaport, the museum that houses the Morgan, to investigate reports of strange happenings on...

SANTA BARBARA (AP) - A tentacle and two arms of a giant squid about 20 feet long were snagged by a sport fisherman off Santa Cruz Island. "We just saw something odd floating. We were just kind of stunned, but I saw it and thought, 'We better bring this thing in,'" said Bennett Salvay. The squid parts were found by Salvay, his son and nephew about eight miles off the island on Aug. 11. Salvay, who lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Tarzana, said they grabbed and pulled at it and it kept "coming and coming.... We kind of...

NEW YORK Howard Dean is writing a weekly column that's being syndicated by Cagle Cartoons (CC). The first piece by the former Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont governor appeared yesterday. In it, Dean called for electronic voting to be shelved until 2006 or until it's "reliable and will allow recounts." Syndicate founder Daryl Cagle told E&P he contacted Dean through a mutual friend. One reason why Dean agreed to write the column was his interest in CC's reach -- more than 600 newspapers subscribe to the service in English. All clients get all of CC's features, and then decide which...