The U.S.S. Kidd rescued thirteen people whose fishing vessel was seized in the North Arabian Sea in November, the Pentagon said on Friday.

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The Lede Blog: U.S. Navy Rescues Iranians Who Were Captured by Pirates

Some four dozen animals escaped on Tuesday from an exotic animal farm in Zanesville, Ohio, and were loose in the area, according to the sheriff’s office.

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The Lede Blog: Deputies Hunt Exotic Animals on the Loose in Ohio

The police and federal agents were investigating an explosion in Monroe, Mich., on Tuesday evening as a possible car bomb, according to local news reports.

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The Lede Blog: Bomb Suspected in Explosion of Car in Michigan

Following the track of Hurricane Irene as it moves up the East Coast.

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The Lede Blog: The Lede: Latest Updates on Hurricane Irene

On Friday, The Lede is tracking preparations for the expected landfall of Hurricane Irene, a powerful storm heading for the Notheastern United States.

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The Lede Blog: Latest Updates on Hurricane Irene

Readers of The Lede can watch live video of President Barack Obama’s speech on the Middle East, which is scheduled to begin at 11:40 a.m. ET.

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The Lede: Live Reaction to Obama’s Middle East Speech

A private diplomatic mission to Libya by a former U.S. congressman, who wanted to meet Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and convince him to step aside, was paid for by two Houston businessmen whose firm brokers oil and gas deals in unstable countries.

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The Lede: Houston Oil Lobbyists Paid for Former Congressman’s Libya Mission

The White House announced Thursday that it will send a government aid team into rebel-held parts of Libya and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she will meet next week with representatives of the transition council, moves that edged the Obama administration closer to the formal Libyan…

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U.S. to send aid team to eastern Libya; Clinton to meet rebel representatives

Before he addressed the crowd that had assembled in the St. Louis Hyatt Regency ballroom last November, Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly had one request. “Please don’t mention my son,” he asked the Marine Corps officer introducing him.

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Lt. Gen. John Kelly, who lost son to war, says U.S. largely unaware of sacrifice

The American who fatally shot two men in Pakistan last month and who has been described publicly as a diplomat is a security contractor for the CIA who was part of a secret agency team operating out of a safe house in Lahore, U.S. officials said.

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U.S. officials: Raymond Davis, accused in Pakistan shootings, worked for CIA

CIA drone attacks in Pakistan killed at least 581 militants last year, according to independent estimates. The number of those militants noteworthy enough to appear on a U.S. list of most-wanted terrorists: two.

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Increased U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan killing few high-value militants

After a week of crossed signals and strained conversations, the Obama administration finally had good news: Late Wednesday, CIA and Pentagon officials learned of the Egyptian military’s plan to relieve President Hosni Mubarak of his primary powers immediately and end the unrest that had convulsed…

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In Mubark’s final hours, defiance surprises U.S. and threatens to unleash chaos

President Hosni Mubarak’s decision to step down Friday after three decades in power presents the Obama administration with a political vacuum where a stalwart ally once stood, shaking up the Middle East in ways that present as much peril as promise for U.S. interests in the region.

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Mubarak resignation creates political vacuum for U.S. in Middle East

The U.S. missed a chance to nurture civil society in Egypt.

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U.S. deeds don’t follow U.S. words on Egypt

As it braces for the likelihood of a new ruler in Egypt, the U.S. government is rapidly reassessing its tenuous relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, an opposition movement whose fundamentalist ideology has long been a source of distrust in Washington.

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U.S. reexamining its relationship with Muslim Brotherhood opposition group