Article 1:

On Wednesday, February 11^th, a group of eight Taliban members launched a suicide attack on Afghan government buildings and a prison.  Their collective attack was said to have been in response to the “mistreatment of prisoners in Afghan jails”, and left 19 people dead and 45 people injured.  The worst of the attacks occurred at the Ministry of Justice where five of the attackers invaded the building and catalyzed a three-hour firefight against Afghan soldiers and police.  It was here that the majority of the casualities occurred; they included both guards and innocent civilians.  An Afghan police officer managed to shoot one of the suicide attackers, although he was able to detonate his explosives outside of the Ministry of Education.  Luckily, his was the only casuality at the Ministry of Education.  Two of the suicide attackers set their explosives off at a prison close to the Khair Khana district, and caused several deaths/injuries.  Later on, two gunman stormed the Justice Ministry and managed to kill three government employees before the police could stop them.  Soon after that, at around one o’clock in the afternoon, a third gunmen was discovered in one of the rooms of the Justice Ministry.  He was later killed in a gun battle.

Wednesdays attacks seem almost modeled after the attacks on Kabul government buildings last October as they were executed in broad daylight, and the attackers were not at all covert when they stormed the buildings.  The Taliban attacks last October consisted of suicide bombers forcing their way into the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture and open-firing on it’s workers.  The Taliban admitted to have been targeting the ministry’s “foreign advisors”, but ended up killing six of the ministry’s guards.  

These attacks serve as more examples of the Talibans unwavering determination to disrupt Afghan progress.

 

Article 2:

This past week, it was discovered that Ruth Madoff, wife of accused Wall Street con artist Bernard Madoff, had withdrawn $15.5 million from a Madoff-associated brokerage firm in Massachusetts.  She apparently made the withdrawal in late November and early December, a couple weeks prior to her husbands arrest.

State regulators have issued a complaint against Cohmad Securities as they believe Cohmad to be closely involved in Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion ponzi scheme.  Cohmad is denying any such involvement despite the daily wire transactions that show multiple transfers to and from Madoff-related accounts.  These daily reports yield two transactions made from Cohmad to Ruth Madoff, a first withdrawal of $5.5 million on November 25^th, 2008 and a second withdrawal of $10 million on December 10^th, 2008. 

Bernard Madoff was arrested on December 11^th and is being held under house arrest in his lavish Manhattan apartment.  He is up against one charge of securities fraud as he allegedly orchestrated an international ponzi scheme that has squandered the life-savings of multiple investors.  If convicted, he will face a punishment of up to 20 years in prison and a $5 million fine.

Last month, prosecutors tried to retract his $10 million bail after his blatant attempts to move $1 million worth of jewelry and other assets out of government control.  But a judge argued that these actions did not make Madoff a danger to the community or a “flight risk”.  Since then, prosecutors and Madoff’s lawyers have agreed on their decision to further delay a deadline for an indictment or probable cause hearing for Madoff; as of Wednesday, the deadline has been delayed another 30 days. 

Madoff has agreed to the partial civil judgment that the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed against him.  Madoff is well aware that this form of judgment could potentially result in his payment of fines and repayment of former investors.  Also under this agreement, Madoff will continue to freeze his assets and refrain from violating all other securities laws; however, it does not force him to admit/deny any allegations.

 

Article 3:

On Wednesday, Stewart Parnell, the president of the Peanut Corp. of America, and Sammy Lightsey, the manager of the company’s plant in Blakely, Georgia, refused to cooperate with members of Congress.  The two men are under the accusation of knowingly distributing contaminated food have cited the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination in their defense; however, their testimonies to the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee against these accusations barely lasted 10 minutes.  Neither man could offer an opening statement, and neither attempted to deny that their citation of a constitutional amendment was being used to avoid questioning.  Parnell continued to argue protection against self-incrimination in response to every question thrown at him.

Parnell and Lightsey are being held responsible for the salmonella outbreak traced back to PCA that has killed nine people and sickened an estimated 600 others across 43 different states.  Thus, grief-stricken family members representing their dead loved ones have formed a panel that urged committee members to punish the Parnell and Lightsey for intentionally compromised the safety of the nations food supply.  The majority of victims died as a result of eating contaminated peanut butter, for which PCA provided the peanut base.  People all over the nation are outraged and thoroughly sickened that those responsible for the food on our plates fail to keep it edible, nontoxic, and safe in general.  Families of victims refuse to accept that the release of contaminated peanut base was an accident.  An email sent from Parnell to Lightsey discussing the obvious presence of salmonella in a recent shipment but his reluctance to call it back, is undeniable proof that both Parnell and Lightsey were well aware of the situation it’s possible outcomes.

In their latest visit to the PCA plant in Blakely, FDA inspectors discovered an incredibly unsanitary and unsafe facility; mold was found inside a cooler used to store peanut butter products, roaches (both dead and alive) were found in a washroom close to the production area, and salmonella was found in two placed, one of which was only three feet from complete peanut butter products.  The salmonella outbreak has resulted in the recall of more than 1,000 products, thus making it one of the largest food recalls in our nations history.