More Pirates? Really? More of them?

Pirate activity has escalated sharply in recent months in the open seas off of the Horn of Africa. It is now being answered by increasingly assertive military operations by the American and French navies. On Sunday, Navy sharpshooters killed three pirates holding an American cargo ship captain hostage. Last week, French naval forces freed a yacht, the Tanit, in an operation in which two pirates and a hostage were killed; three pirates were taken prisoner in that incident, and they have been sent to France.