Four Americans sailing on a yacht off the coast of Oman have been taken hostage by Somali pirates, an international maritime watchdog says.

The S/V Quest, owned by a retired couple, was hijacked 240 nautical miles (275 miles) off Oman on Friday afternoon, Ecoterra told BBC News.

It is believed the yacht was en route from India to Oman.

While pirates usually attack cargo ships, they have hijacked a number of yachts in recent years.

Ecoterra said the capture of the S/V Quest had been reported by both its sources and by Nato's anti-piracy operation, Ocean Shield. Nato could not be reached immediately for comment.

At least 84 protesters have lost their lives and hundreds wounded in Libya in three days of pro-democracy protests in the African country, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.

According to HRW, security forces killed 20 people in the eastern city of Benghazi, 23 in the eastern Libyan town of al-Baida, three in Ajdabiya, and three in Derna in a matter of days, Reuters reported.

In addition, 35 people lost their lives in Benghazi on Friday, nearly all with live ammunition, said the Human Rights Watch, adding that it has compiled the figures based upon telephone interviews with hospital staffers and witnesses.

It also hit out at the crackdown on protesters in Libya, saying "The Libyan authorities should immediately end attacks on peaceful protesters and protect them from assault by pro-government armed groups."

Anti-government protests sparked by the popular revolutions that deposed long-serving rulers of neighboring Egypt and Tunisia have engulfed Libya this week with thousands of people flocking the streets of the eastern city of Benghazi, and calling for the ouster of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who has been in office since September 1969.

Manama, Bahrain - Government forces fired Friday on protesters in Bahrain's capital, killing at least four of them, an ambulance worker told CNN. The violence was the latest in a series of confrontations that began Monday in this Persian Gulf island nation.

"I told everyone to put their hands up as a sign of peace," said one man who was covered in blood. "Then I saw the military crouch down."

Medical sources at a hospital said at least 50 people were treated Friday for injuries in Manama, and five of them were in critical condition, including one with a bullet wound to the head.

Friday's deaths brought to at least 10 the number of people killed since protesters took to the streets in Bahrain, one of several countries in the Middle East and North Africa to face a surge of dissent following the revolts that toppled longtime autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt.

Updated after the jump: Commenters respond to bloggers respond to reporters respond to Tweeters respond to the inexcusable crime against Lara Logan.

Breaking news: South African TV journalist Lara Logan, known for her shocking good looks and ballsy knack for pushing her way to the heart of the action, was brutally and repeatedly raped while a crowd of 200 celebrated the February 11 resignation of 30-year Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Logan was in Tahrir Square with her 60 Minutes news team when Mubarak's announcement broke. Then, in a rush of frenzied excitement, some Egyptian protesters apparently consummated their newfound independence by sexually assaulting the blonde reporter:

CBS News reports that "she and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration." Then, the horrific assault:

In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers. She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently in the hospital recovering.

As we approach the 8th anniversary of a U.S. invasion of Iraq, and having just passed the 20th anniversary of another, it's worth reflecting on what's been accomplished through two wars and the intervening sanctions that former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright so famously approved of even at the cost of a half million children's lives.

While a growing mob of at least six Americans has noticed this week's videotaped confession by key WMD-liar "Curveball," our achievements in Iraq do not rest on whether anyone in Washington actually managed to convince themselves that Iraq had weapons, or even on whether anyone in Washington believed there was a reason to attack Iraq that actually made any moral or legal sense (as, of course, the possession of weapons did not). Our unprecedented accomplishments in the land where our civilization began stand or fall on their own merits, regardless of whether international law survives the blow we have dealt it by sending the architects of a sociocide off to book tours rather than prisons.

While our efforts in Iraq have taken a bit longer and cost a little more than the efforts of Egypt's young people to begin remaking their country, the results are far more grand. Let's compare. Setting aside years of training and organizing, in three weeks and at the cost of 300 deaths, Egypt has established that all of its people will have some say in its future. In Iraq, the United States has spent or wasted trillions of dollars over two decades, destroyed trillions of dollars worth of infrastructure, killed millions of people, injured and traumatized many millions more, driven several million people from their homes creating the greatest refugee crisis in the Middle East since the Nakba, encouraged ethnic and religious strife, segregated towns and neighborhoods, empowered religious fanatics, set back women's rights horribly, effectively eliminated gay and lesbian rights, nearly killed off some minority groups, decimated the nation's cultural heritage, and created a generation of people without the experience of peace, without education, without proper nutrition, without tolerance, without proper healthcare, without a functioning government, and without affection for or even indifference to the United States.

Despite newspaper claims that Karima el-Mahroug told the Italian prime minister she was a minor, he remains unruffled

Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has brushed aside his indictment on vice charges saying he was untroubled by the prospect of standing trial. In his first public comment since a judge committed him for trial on 6 April, he said: "For love of country I won't talk about it. Suffice to say that I am not in the slightest bit worried."

The prime minister, who was speaking at a press conference in Rome, cut short further questions on the affair saying: "We're here to deal with the economy after all."

Earlier, an Italian newspaper alleged Berlusconi was aware Karima el-Mahroug, the girl he allegedly paid for sex, was underage, according to a statement she reportedly made to prosecutors.

The centre-left daily La Repubblica has published an extract from el-Mahroug's alleged evidence, in which the Moroccan runaway said that when she first met Berlusconi she told him she was a 24-year-old Egyptian. But on a subsequent visit, in March 2010: "I told him the truth: I was a minor and I had no papers."

She said that at their first meeting, and before any relationship between them, the prime minister gave her €50,000 (£42,000).

Berlusconi denies any wrongdoing.

As long as you do not live under a rock, you know that the Federal Government prances along on its merry way of central control, no matter who is in office. The traits of arrogance and aloofness are a prerequisite to retain your employment. This pattern of myopic understanding of the precepts of federalism, separation of powers or the nature of a public servant is the primary aptitude of the professional political class. Whether a lowly intern, a career civil employee, a chairman of a Congressional committee or the head of bureaucratic agency; the steamroller of public destruction buries common citizens under the weight of oppressive dictates.

Even if you ignore the politics, you cannot dismiss the debt. The foremost threat to any remote possibility of reform is a burden that is beyond repayment. Most have seen the national debt ticker of the $14 plus trillion owed. That amount is a mere drop in the bucket of the total obligations owed because of past federal government promises. The U.S. Government Consolidated Financial Report (CFR) has a CITIZEN'S GUIDE TO THE 2010 FINANCIAL REPORT OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT. The $76 Trillion debt applies just for Federal Government obligations. Add on top of this amount all the States, Metropolitan and local and school bond debts.

The White House today demanded that the Egyptian government round up and bring to justice the thugs who brutalized CBS foreign correspondent Lara Logan.

Senior members of the White House say they are expecting a full investigation into the prolonged beating and sexual assault of the reporter by the 200-strong mob last week in Cairo.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said: 'We believe that those responsible for these acts need to be held accountable,' while a State Department spokeswoman said the United States expects a 'full investigation and accountability for anyone involved in violence during the demonstrations.'

Yesterday a concerned President Obama phoned the 60 Minutes reporter to pass on his concerns.

A friend said Mr Obama asked the 39-year-old about her condition and expressed his concern over what she had to go through.

In New York, a spokeswoman for the Egyptian Mission decried the attack and said the turmoil-wrecked Arab state would investigate all attacks on journalists covering demonstrations before and after the fall of Hosni Mubarak last Friday, calling the attack on Miss Logan 'unacceptable and shameful'.

[Note for TomDispatch Readers: Here's a book recommendation for this Egyptian moment. Get your hands on Jonathan Schell's The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People. You won't find a word about the events of the last few weeks. Little wonder, since it was published in 2003, at the height of American hubris over the use of force in Iraq, and just happened to be about eight years ahead of its time. Nonetheless, its look at the history of violence in the context of the great nonviolent uprisings of the twentieth century remains eye-opening and, better yet, Schell got it right. The Obama administration should have ditched all its intelligence and read his book!

And by the way, keep in mind that if you use a TomDispatch link or book-cover image to go to Amazon and buy this book or anything else whatsoever, TD gets a modest cut of your purchase. It's a fine way to contribute regularly to this site at no extra cost to you. Tom]

Here's the truth of it: You don't need an $80-billion-plus budget and a morass of 17 intelligence agencies to look at the world and draw a few intelligent conclusions. Nor do you need $80 billion-plus and that same set of agencies to be caught off-guard by developments on our sometimes amazing planet.

Last Thursday, Leon Panetta, director of the CIA, assured a House Intelligence panel that he had "received reports" that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was likely leavin' town on the next train for Yuma. When that didn't happen, the Agency clarified the situation. Those "reports" hadn't, in fact, been secret intelligence updates, but "news accounts." In other words, billions of bucks later, Panetta was undoubtedly watching Al Jazeera (or the equivalent) just like the rest of us peasants.

After 30 years as Washington's eyes and ears in Cairo, it turns out that the CIA didn't have an insider's clue about Mubarak's psychology. No wonder our fabulous "community" of intelligence analysts and operatives was napping when history came calling. And maybe it's fortunate for us that the future can't be bought, that no matter how much money a declining superpower puts on the barrelhead, it's as likely to be surprised as any of us; in fact, deeply entrenched in the stalest of Washington thinking, our intelligence agencies may have been even more surprised than most of us by what the future had in store. In our startlingly brain-dead American world, that realization in itself should have felt like a breath of fresh air as one startling Egyptian event after another unfolded.

"I've got an 8 pound Bass hanging on the wall that, if he could talk, would tell you what happens when you swallow anything that is presented without checking it out really well first, and this story smells like he would after about three days in the sun !"

I was talking to a friend of mine as I scanned the international news websites starting with Matt Drudge, when the headline blared out the news . As soon as I saw it, I immediately said, I bet it's Lara Logan!.. No I didn't have special powers, or inside info, but I do have a good memory.

I remembered the 'scuttlebutt' during the Iraq war and Afghanistan recounting her interesting habit of attempting to break the monotony over there by 'boinking' several soldiers and other contract employees sometimes in the back of pickup trucks and hummers. This practice was widely known by those who could get her anything she was in need of. (transportation to the front, permission to travel to certain destinations, information she could use, etc.) That's why I said I bet its Lara Logan. It just didn't smell right. (No pun intended) but back to the story.

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