Blue to Gold: ARMY Spc. Brittany B. Gordon

ARMY Spc. Brittany B. Gordon, twenty-four, of St. Petersburg, Florida, died October 13, in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
The hidden bomb that killed St. Petersburg's Army Spc. Brittany Gordon on Saturday is being linked to the revenge killing of a nine year old Afghan child according to the New York Times.

In a tragic coda to Saturday's story, the suicide bomber's nine year old brother was killed in revenge by the brother of a victim, said Shamsullah, a Maruf local, who commands a guardpost.

"The nine year old boy was killed in front of his mother and father," said Shamsullah. "The parents didn't know their son Abdul Wali was going to commit suicide."

The Department of Defense described in a statement Monday that Gordon, the daughter of St. Peterburg's assistant police chief Cedric Gordon, was killed by an improvised explosive device. But the IED was carried inside a vest by a suicide bomber Cong. Bill Young told the Tampa Bay Times.

"It is not one that was planted as a mine. The person was wearing a suicide vest. This is also considered an IED," said Young, who chairs the House defense appropriations subcommittee. "It was an inside job."

The American coalition that included Gordon was delivering new furniture to an Afghan intelligence office in the Maruf district. The suicide bomber, dressed in an Afghan intelligence uniform, detonated the explosive vest  hidden under his uniform and killed two Americans and four Afghans according to the New York Times.


Family members said Brittany Gordon's parents met the body in Delaware. Services have not been announced yet.

"I know that Chief Gordon was extremely proud of Brittany and all that she accomplished in her life," police Chief Chuck Harmon said in a statement. "Her life of service and especially service to her country stand as a testament to the type of person she was."

Family friend Cynthia Jolliff-Johnson said Brittany Gordon was vivacious. "She was kind. She was compassionate. She really had a joie de vivre," Jolliff-Johnson said.

Gordon joined the military in 2010. This was her first deployment. She was assigned to the 572 Military Intelligence Company, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, the military said.
Gordon worked in military communications, relatives said. She was scheduled to return home in December.

Some 20,000 of the 205,000 service members serving in Afghanistan are women, according to the Department of Defense. Pentagon statistics show that, as of Monday, 152 military women have been killed and 947 wounded in combat and noncombat incidents in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Defense Department says there have been more than 2,000 total military deaths in Afghanistan.

Gordon is the 12th female soldier from Florida to die in the wars.

Cuba Lifting Travel Ban

Cuba has announced that it will be lifting what amounted to a ban on travel, for it's citizens.

Under current law, Cubans were required to apply for a special permit, just to leave the country.

In this way the country kept individuals of worth and political dissidents, from leaving.

The new policy will allow for anyone to leave at anytime, with nothing but their passport.

It is set to go into effect January 13, 2013.

Sixteen Dead in Latest Iraq Bombings

At least sixteen people are dead and another thirty-two injured after another bombing wave, in Iraq, on Tuesday.

The provincial government complex in Kirkuk seemed to be one of the focuses of this wave, with multiple bombings happening around it's entrances.

Most of the other bombs occurred in the Kirkuk province, aimed at police and anti Al Qaeda militias.

The Salah ad Din, Diyala, Al Anbar, and Nineveh Governates were also heavily hit; as usual Baghdad was the target of some of the violence.

Some of the attacks were carried out by IEDs, others by gunmen, but suicide car bombings still seem to be the main way for Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Hundreds of people are killed weekly, across the country, as violence only grows stronger, without the presence of international troops.

Ford Recalling 154,000 Fiestas

Ford has announced a recall of 154,000 Fiestas.

In the 2011 through 2013 models, side air bags were failing to deploy, in the rear, if no one was sitting in the passenger seat.

Dealers will simply reprogram the air bags to deploy even if no one is in the passenger seat, for free.

According to the company, no injuries have been related to the issue.

Syrian Jets Bombard Maaret al-Numan

Syrian jets focused on bombarding rebel areas in Maaret al-Numan, on Tuesday.

Fighting has centered around the area as rebel forces work to cut the main highway between Damascus and Aleppo.

Elsewhere, across the country, fighting rages on all fronts as the rebels continue to gain ground against government forces.

With death tolls mounting, international agencies confirm that the fighting is only growing in intensity.

Estimates place the death toll closing in on thirty-five thousand, as the conflict continues into it's twentieth month.

Fears of international involvement continue to grow as Turkey brings more firepower to it's border, and the war of words between the two countries escalates, with both countries banning the other from using it's airspace in any capacity.

Second Presidential Debate Tonight

The second Presidential debate of 2012 will take place tonight, in New York City.

Tuesday's moderator will be CNN's Candy Crowley.

This debate will be a town hall format, so set up quite differently and more strictly than the first one.

Eighty participants, who were chosen by Gallup as being undecided voters, and who live in the area, have submitted questions for the candidates.

Crowley will pick which of the questions she wishes to have asked, the audience member who wrote the question will then get to ask the question, the candidates will each have two minutes to respond to it, and then Crowley can ask a follow up question.

The Romney campaign is hoping for a repeat of the first, with a definitive win, whilst the Obama campaign is promising an actual fight this time.

Supreme Court Will Take up Arizona Voter Law

On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to take on a decision over Arizona voter law.

The law in question requires people to prove their citizenship when they register to vote.

Arizona passed the law, in 2004, and in April 2012 it was suspended by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

In June, the Supreme Court denied Arizona the right to lift the ban, whilst the appeals process was under way.

Arguments, for the case, won't be heard til at least February of 2013, and so will have no effect upon the 2012 election.

Clinton Claims Responsibility For Benghazi Debacle

In a CNN TV interview, Monday night, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton stated that it was her fault that the Benghazi debacle occurred.

An attack upon the US consulate there, left four Americans dead, including the US ambassador to Libya.

Saying "I take responsibility", Clinton attempted to deflect criticism aimed at President Obama over the lack of security at the consulate.

That criticism was only strengthened while administration officials continued to give countering accounts of what occurred in Benghazi.

Over the last few weeks more and more evidence has come out that the consulate repeatedly asked for an increase in security, but the requests were both rejected and ignored.

Clinton now pledges that such an incident will never happen again.

Softbank to Buy 70 Percent of Sprint

Japan based Softbank Corp is moving ahead with plans to buy seventy percent of Sprint.

It will cost them over seventy billion dollars, the largest amount ever spent by a Japanese firm to buy into a foreign one.

Sprint is the third largest mobile carrier, in the US, and Softbank is one of the largest in Japan.

The move is an important one for Softbank, as the Japanese mobile market has stagnated, whilst the US is still growing.

Since the announcement was made, Softbank stock has gone down, but Sprint and that of the companies it owns have gone up, especially that of Clearwire.

Every part of the deal should be completed by mid 2013.

Portugese Protesters Clash With Police

Portuguese austerity protests turned into a half riot Monday night.

Thousands of people in Lisbon had peacefully protested for hours, on Monday.

They were demanding that Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho cancel the newly approved budget.

By Monday evening protesters began setting fires, and then clashed with police when they tried putting them out.

Tear gas was used to clear the crowd from the area outside of the National Assembly.

The government approved the new budget, early Monday, that is one of the harshest in history for the country, and includes heavy tax increases, pension cuts, and other ways the government hopes to save money.

Portugal is working hard to rescue it's failed economy, they've already received over a hundred billion dollars in bailout money from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.