by Joel S. Hirschhorn
 
Can you trust national averages?  As bad as the jobless data you hear are, you have not been told the whole truth.  If you think the terrible impact of America’s Great Recession is shown by an official unemployment rate of about 10 percent, think again.

In Afghanistan, thousands of US and NATO forces have entered the fourth day of a major offensive in Marjah in southern Helmand province. At least nineteen civilians have been killed so far, including six children who died when a missile struck their house on the outskirts of the city. Meanwhile, the Italian NGO Emergency says that dozens of seriously injured civilians are being prevented from reaching hospitals in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, due to military blockades. We speak to Wall Street Journal reporter Anand Gopal in Afghanistan.

Bennington is a small New England town. The problem that now affects Bennington is nationwide.  Small towns and villages all across the US are plagued by the same issue, the lure of military contracts.  This is a hidden issue not often discussed publicly. In a time of a failing economy it is politically incorrect to question any source of jobs - no matter how harmful those jobs are.

by Jacob G. Hornberger

I’m no psychiatrist but it’s been said that the subconscious of people who are suffering severe guilt sometimes causes them to make inadvertent admissions of wrongdoing. That might well be why former Vice-President Dick Cheney made a startling statement at the very end of his recent interview on ABC News’ “This Week.”

From a June 23, 2009, incident report by David Knepper, a policeman at Columbus Airport, in Columbus, Ohio. A CTX is a machine that screens for items that have the same density as explosives.

The US president has turned to nuclear power as he attempts to cut greenhouse gases, making about $8bn in federal loan guarantees available for building the country's first new nuclear power plants in almost 30 years.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, has arrived in Haiti to support international relief efforts after last month's devastating earthquake.

Pakistani officials have officially confirmed the capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Brader, the Afghan Taliban's senior military commander and trusted friend to Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader.

Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, leader of the Pakistani organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawah, has said that allegations against him of plotting attacks in India are baseless.

US military officials have said they are now in control of crucial areas in Marjah in Helmand province as a major offensive in Afghanistan against the Taliban enters its fifth day.

Britain and Ireland have said that the passports used by nine people suspected of the killing of a senior Hamas figure in the United Arab Emirates are believed to be fake.

Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia, is to conclude a deal with Russia to build a military base on its soil for land troops.

The United States has moved to mend diplomatic ties with Syria, appointing a new ambassador to Damascus five years after withdrawing the last envoy.

King Tutankhamen, Egypt's best-known pharaoh, was a frail youth who died due to "severe malaria" more than 3,000 years ago, researchers have said, following extensive DNA analysis on his remains.

Iran's president has said that a UN-drafted uranium exchange deal remains a possibility with talks on the proposal "not yet closed".

Israel's foreign minister has said there is "no reason" to believe that his country's spy agency was behind the killing of a senior Hamas figure in the United Arab Emirates, but did not explicitly deny involvement.

China sold a record amount of its US Treasury holdings in December, ceding its place as the world's biggest foreign holder of US debt to Japan.