35 Killed in Taliban Attack

Soldiers guard the town after the attack

Taliban forces attacked the Pakistani town of Lakki Marwat, Saturday morning, leaving thirty-five dead.

Twelve militants, thirteen soldiers, and ten civilians were killed in the four hour battle.

The civilians died when Taliban forces targeted a house, with rockets.

A spokesperson for the Taliban said that the attack was in retaliation for Pakistan's cooperation with the US.

According to the spokesman, four of the militants had blown themselves up, with suicide belts.

5 People Stabbed at Denver Bar

Denver Police are investigating a mass stabbing.

Five people were stabbed at the Monte Carlo bar, early Saturday morning.

One of them is in critical condition.

Two people were arrested for the stabbings, which happened in the parking lot of the bar.

Police are trying to figure out the movie behind the attack.

Federal Fugitive Apprehended in Nebraska

A man who escaped federal custody has been recaptured.

Twenty-five year old Phoday Dumbuya escaped federal custody, Tuesday morning, at Denver International Airport.
 
He was being deported to Gambia and was not handcuffed, when he escaped the two ICE agents who were transporting him.

Friday evening, police in Scottsbluff County, Nebraska apprehended him.

ICE agents will pick him up there, and this time he will be in restraints as he is deported. 

Troops From Niger and Chad Join French Forces in Mali

Nigerian troops

About two thousand troops from Niger and Chad are now in Mali.

They are joining French and Malian troops in clearing out Al Qaeda rebel forces, who had been taking over the country.

A French led offensive cleared every town and city, and saw Al Qaeda forces head for the hills.

France is already talking about pulling their thirty-five hundred troops, out of Mali, and letting African forces take over the fight.

It is unclear exactly when France will be able to pull out, but as more African troops join them, it'll make it easier for them to do so.

Suicide Bomber Kills 22 in Pakistan

A suicide bomber killed twenty-two people in Hangu, Pakistan.

Friday's blast injured another forty-eight, when it struck a market outside two mosques.

One of the mosques was Shiite and the other Sunni, making it difficult for investigators to decide who it was aimed at.

The anti-Taliban Sunni Supreme Council meets at the mosque there, so that could have been the target.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, likely trying to avoid backlash for killing their own people as well.

Protesters in Cairo Besiege Presidential Palace

Protests, in Cairo, centered around the Presidential Palace, on Friday.

The protesters threw Molotov cocktails at the walls around the building and torched trees outside it.

Security forces fired back with water cannons, tear gas, and shotgun pellets.

At least one protester died and dozens more were injured, in the clashes.

Dozens have been killed in the violence, over the last week, and at least a thousand have been injured.

President Morsi threatened the protesters with political repercussions, saying all the violence was their fault.

Explosion Kills 33 at Pemex at Headquarters

Late Thursday night an explosion tore through the headquarters of Mexico's state oil company.

Thirty-three were killed and another one hundred and twenty-one were injured in the blast and resulting partial collapse.

Officials believe more may be trapped under the rubble, and searchers are trying to rescue them.

The company is at a loss for what caused the explosion, as it occurred in the HR area, nowhere near any gas or combustible materials.

Some are leaning towards a terrorist attack, carried out by drug cartels.

A team from the ATF is on it's way to help with the investigation.

Suicide Bomber Strikes US Embassy in Ankara

A suicide bomber struck outside the US embassy in Ankara, Turkey, on Friday.

A Turkish security guard, was killed in the blast, and two more guards and a journalist were injured.

Washington was quick to describe it as a terrorist attack.

Turkish authorities believe that the bombing was the work of a "domestic leftist terrorist group", but stopped short of signaling out a specific group.

However, state run TV blamed it on the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party Front.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

State Department officials are crediting the embassy's security with keeping the bomber, outside of the building.

Remembering: The Columbia

NASA's first shuttle, the Columbia began trips to space on April 12, 1981. Columbia had been scheduled to take it's twenty-eighth flight on January 11, 2001, but it was delayed.

After twenty-eight delays, and two years, Columbia finally made it's take off on January 16, 2003. During take off a piece of thermal insulation foam broke off and struck the left wing of the shuttle.

On the ground, NASA was aware that damage may have occurred, but decided not to tell the astronauts for two reasons. They felt that any damage wouldn't actually be significant enough, and if it was why stress the astronauts with it as nothing could be done.

On February 1, 2003 Columbia began reentry. As people watched her come in from over the Pacific, they were horrified to see pieces start to come off. Within seven minutes Columbia had been ripped apart, leaving a debris field over Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas.

What mission control, and the crew of the Columbia, hadn't known, was that the impact had a put a hole through the heat shield. As Columbia heated up, during reentry, the heat tore through the inside of the ship, breaking her into pieces.

On board the Columbia had been Commander Rick D. Husband, forty-five; Pilot William C. McCool, forty-one; Payload Commander Michael P. Anderson, forty-three; Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut, forty-eight; Mission Specialist Kalpana Chalwa, forty-one; Mission Specialist David M. Brown, forty-six; Mission Specialist Laurel Blair Salton Clark, forty-one.

January Numbers -- Stagnate Means No Growth

Kitty is getting sick of living off of handouts.
(Photo Copyright 2012 by P-G Matuszak)

No matter how they may try to spin it, the recent economic numbers are bad.

U3 Unemployment is listed at 7.9% for January. It has remain relatively unchanged for months.

U6 Unemployment is reported at 14.4%. It also has remained relatively unchanged for months.

The Workforce Participation Rate is steady at a paltry 63.6%, unchanged.

The numbers of reported marginally attached and discouraged workers have allegedly dropped. Since the WRP has remained constant, the only thing that makes sense is that the people who gave up looking haven't bothered to try in over twelve months. It also means that fewer people tried to find a job in the past four weeks.

If you look back at the previous reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and my layman's attempt to explain my understanding of them, the trend is one of stagnation.

Stagnation is not growth. It isn't even change, much less positive change (growth). It is the result of some of the worst economic policies in our nation's history.

Now for the worse news. For those who somehow missed the report that was issued earlier this week, our Gross Domestic Product for the last quarter of 2012 was a shrinkage. We didn't grow. We shrank by .1%. That means our GDP fell 3.2% from a +3.1% growth to a -0.1%.  That is not prosperity. For those who haven't bothered to study the meanings of terms in the US Constitution, prosperity is referred to as "general welfare". Given the policies that have kept employment low, profits low, and threatened to take more of what people do manage to eek out, this is the exact opposite of "the general welfare". It is failure.

Article originally published on P-G Matuszak's Mental Aikido. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.