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UPDATE: Between five to 15 reported dead, three firefighters missing, more than 160 injured. The explosion was so powerful, it registered as a 2.1 seismic event.

This has been one hell of a week, hasn't it? Very disturbing news from just outside of Waco, TX: Explosion hits fertilizer plant north of Waco, Texas:

An explosion ripped through a fertilizer plant Wednesday night in the area of West, Texas, sending a massive fireball into the sky and causing dozens of injuries, officials said.

A number of nearby residents were being evacuated because of the possibility of another explosion, officials said.

A hospital in nearby Waco, Texas, has been told to anticipate 100 injured people coming in from the fertilizer plant area, an official at the medical facility said.

Glenn Robinson, CEO of Hillcrest Hospital, said a field triage station was being set up on a football field near the plant some 18 miles north of Waco after the Wednesday night explosion. [...]

"What we are hearing is that there is one fertilizer tank that is still intact at the plant, and there are evacuations in place to make sure everyone gets away from the area safely in case of another explosion," said Ben Stratmann, a spokesman for Texas State Sen. Brian Birdwell. Photos of the explosion -- which reportedly happened around 7:50 p.m. (8:50 p.m. ET) -- showed a huge blaze and flames leaping over the roof of a structure and a plume of smoke rising high into the air. The West Fertilizer Plant is just north of Waco. A school and a nursing home are among the buildings near the plant, CNN affiliate KWTX reported.

Here are more updates from CNN as well: What we know about fertilizer plant explosion in Texas:

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Conservative supporters Margaret Thatcher expressed outraged on Monday after CNN marked the death of the the former British prime minister by airing a photo of her with former BBC television presenter Jimmy Savile, a suspected pedophile.

In a CNN Starting Point segment soon after the news of Thatcher's death broke on Monday, the morning show displayed the black and white photo of Thatcher and Savile appearing together at an event in the 1980s to support the NSPCC children's charity. CNN showed the photo at least four times during the five-minute segment.

Scotland Yard announced that in 2012 that it had launched an investigation about a year after Savile's death in October 2011 into allegations that he had sexually abused hundreds of children.

Wall Street Journal Social Media Editor Neal Mann noted on Twitter that CNN "obviously didn't get the memo" when it ran the photo of Thatcher with Savile.

"That is the picture CNN chose to run for Margaret Thatcher’s obituary? A pedophile?" Michelle Malkin's Twitchy website asked, accompanied by a list of tweets by conservatives slamming CNN's decision.

"Whoever's doing the Thatcher montage on CNN is either an idiot or a sly lefty. Repeated images of Thatcher with Pinochet and Saville...," David Tumilty wrote.

A good clip from the BBC's Newsnight program last week. The basic conservative arguments used in favor of austerity here are being used more so in Britain, to not surprisingly disastrous results.

Jeremy Paxman is joined by Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman, venture capitalist Jon Moulton and Conservative MP Andrea Leadsom to discuss whether austerity is always the best method for resolving a country's national debt problem.

Moulton brought up the Estonian 'miracle' at the very end, which was dismissed by Krugman. The Estonian President Toomas Ilves has since gone on a twitter war against Krugman for his comments.

Here's a taste of what was said.

Jon Moulton: You know, I struggle to attack an Nobel Prize winner, but I think you’re really, seriously wrong. The issue about austerity here is really we have too large a state. We’ve let the economy go from thirty-odd percent to pushing fifty percent public sector. If you want growth you need a larger private sector, not a larger public sector. You’re also ignoring, as your book does, I’ve just been reading it when, while waiting to come on, the very simple moral dimension of what you’re recommending, which is that we run up more debt. The only thing that that does enables us to live better today at the expense of those who follow us. That’s quite a serious moral argument, and you cannot ignore it.

Krugman: I actually would put the moral argument very differently. And I look, I certainly look at the US and it’s true here as well, if I think about the future generation, I think that the crime we are committing against the next generation is not that we’re going to leave them with more debt, that’s a venial sin, the crime is that all of these students are graduating from college with no job prospects, are graduating from college with debts that they have incurred to get an expensive education and then there are no jobs – that damage that we are inflicting, the damage we are inflicting on the next generation by not having jobs for them, (Andrea interrupting: Yeah, but that’s...) which is the result of misguided austerity right now, (Jon interrupting sounds) that is the great sin…

Jon Moulton: Those jobs will be generated when people move from the public sector to the private sector.

Andrea Leadsom: Yeah, yeah. What we need to be doing is really making it easier for young people to start their own businesses. Making it far, far easier for new entrepreneurs. When you say we have to give them jobs, create jobs, we shouldn’t be about creating jobs, we should be about enabling the economy to create jobs by low tax regime, opportunities for people to start up new businesses, and so on, not by creating jobs.

Krugman: But how many--you know, the average young person is not going to start a business, there has to be (Andrea interrupting: But why not?) an expanding economy which is not happening, and is not happening because we’re not providing the neccessary support, and by the way, I think you [Andrea Leadsom], you’ve just given me confirmation of something that people like me tend to say which is that actually none of this is at all about fiscal responsibility, it’s all about exploiting the current situation to pursue an ideological goal of a smaller state, and, you know, we can argue about whether the British state is too large, but look at Sweden, which is actually weathering this very well with a much larger state than you have, so that, that’s a great diversion, that’s suggesting that you’re not actually sincere, it’s not really the budget deficit that’s the concern, you’re looking for a way to exploit this debt, deficit situation…(both Joe and Andrea interrupting, garbled)

Jon Moulton: You’re wrong and you accuse us of lying.

Krugman: No, I think that it’s probably just that you are, you’re mingling together concepts that are really quite separate.

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Here's the latest on News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch's troubles in the U.K. where he denied to a British court that he's ever used his political power to get favorable treatment for his business interests. I sincerely hope we see some fallout over this scandal carry over to the United States after the damage his corporation has done to our political system in this country with leading the way in propagandizing the American public.

Rupert Murdoch tells British court his political clout is overstated:

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch denies using his News Corp. newspapers to advance his business interests. 'I've never asked a prime minister for anything,' he says.

He's hobnobbed with every British prime minister of the last 30 years but says he wields no undue political influence. His scandal-loving tabloids strike fear into the hearts of decision-makers, but he denies ever using his newspapers to advance his commercial interests.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch cast himself as the very model of a modest, upright newspaperman Wednesday, insisting in a London courtroom that any suggestion to the contrary was based on lies and legends.

Here was his chance, he said before a judge, to set the record straight: that for all the talk of his political clout through publications like the mass-market Sun, he never took advantage of it, and that he expects those who work for him to adhere to high ethical standards.

"That is a complete myth, that I used the influence of the Sun or supposed political power to get favorable treatment," Murdoch testified, declaring, "I've never asked a prime minister for anything."

And as for allegations of corporate misdeeds, "I try very hard to set an example of ethical behavior, and I make it quite clear that I expect it," the Australian-born billionaire said.

Forget that the reason he was summoned to appear in court in the first place was because of the phone-hacking scandal engulfing his giant News Corp., which sparked a judicial inquiry into media practices. Or that dozens of journalists at Murdoch-owned papers have been arrested in wide-ranging investigations into illegal reporting methods, including bribing police.

The man at the top remained unruffled at the inquiry through four hours of questioning on his media empire and its effect on public life here in Britain, where Murdoch, 81, owns several national newspapers, including the Sun, the Times of London and the Sunday Times.

Much more there so go read the rest. Video above is from BBC World News' coverage of the latest on the scandal.

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More trouble for Uncle Rupert and his son James as the inquiry into the hacking scandal continues.

British Cabinet Minister Becomes Focus in Murdoch Inquiry:

The long-running tabloid newspaper scandal that has shaken Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire delivered a new jolt on Tuesday as its powerful and lucrative television operations moved to the center of a British judicial inquiry with disclosures that a senior cabinet minister, or at least an aide claiming to speak for him, worked covertly to help win approval for a $12 billion takeover of the BSkyB network.

A trove of newly released e-mails pointed to hand-in-glove collaboration between a lobbyist for Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation and the office of Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt, the official designated to pass judgment on the BSkyB bid. That deal, which would have crowned Mr. Murdoch’s 60-year media career, was scuttled last year as the scandal over illicit phone hacking exploded, and now appears out of his reach for years, if not permanently. Read on...

James Murdoch on the defensive over BSkyB bid:

James Murdoch came to the Leveson inquiry to defend his reputation, and ended up spending much of the remaining six and half hours on the stand in effect defending the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt.

But his robust defence of News Corporation's insider lobbying tactics was not matched by such a sure touch elsewhere, as his evidence revealed him to be incurious about phone hacking and uninterested in newspapers.

The media mogul said that his chief lobbyist, Frédéric Michel, was simply "doing his job" in his briefings again and again on titbits obtained from ministers and their special advisers with regard to the BSkyB bid. For all the information he received, Murdoch remained sceptical.

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The BBC has apologized after one their most popular hosts called to have striking public workers killed "in front of their families."

Labor unions claimed Wednesday that as many as two million public workers joined a strike over cuts in pension rights as part of an austerity program by the British government.

In an interview on BBC's The One Show Wednesday, Jeremy Clarkson, host of BBC's Top Gear, was asked about the strikes that had affected "schools, hospitals, airports, even driving tests."

"Frankly, I'd have them all shot!" Clarkson exclaimed.

"I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families. I mean how dare they go on strike when they've got these gilt-edged pensions that are going to be guaranteed while the rest of us have to work for a living?"

Those remarks left The One Show host Matt Baker making an on-air apology at the end of the show.

"Although we enjoy Jeremy’s views, which he sometimes exaggerates for comical effect, we are seriously sorry if his comments about deaths on the railways has upset anyone," Baker explained.

British Prime Minister David Cameron told ITV Thursday that he hadn't see the interview but, "it's a silly thing to say."

As a BBC employee, Clarkson is essentially paid by the same British taxpayers who he was calling to have executed.

UPDATE: As several of the commenters have noted, the full context of Clarkson's remarks show that he was most likely making a point about how the BBC wants all opinions to be "balanced" with a counterpoint.

"It is evident he is adopting a different persona for comedic effect as he says this, shifting his weight before he says it," Calum Nicholson wrote for The Huffington Post. "He is role-playing, in order to satirise the BBC's need for 'balance'. To balance, in this case, his expressed opinion that the strikes are a good thing."

"It looks like this has been missed by even his defenders. Probably because he transitions into this persona with barely a pause, and delivers the lines in complete dead-pan. And so unless you are paying close attention, it is perhaps not wholly obvious."

Clarkson has since clarified that the remarks were not meant to be taken seriously, but "[i]f the BBC and I have caused any offence, I'm quite happy to apologise for it alongside them."

As of Monday, the BBC had received more than 30,000 complaints about Clarkston.

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YouTube version

Impending economic Armageddon is apparently a great time to make money. This clip from the BBC will likely leave you as gobsmacked as it did me.

via the International Business Times:

Stock market trader Alessio Rastani commented on the current economic crisis to the BBC on Monday, saying, "Governments don't rule the world" but rather Goldman Sachs does and he "dreams of another recession."

"This is not a time right now for wishful thinking that governments are going to sort things out," Rastani told the BBC. "The governments don't rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world."

In a candid interview about the Eurozone rescue plan, Rastani said the market is ruled by fear and cannot be saved by the rescue plan.

"They know the stock market is toast," he said. "They know the stock market is finished."

Rastani said most investors are moving their money to places it would be more safe, like U.S. treasuries and the dollar, as they simply do not care about the state of the economy but rather about their own pockets.

"Personally it doesn't matter," he said. "See I'm a trader. I don't really care about that kind of stuff. If I see an opportunity to make money, I go with that."

Rastani continued on to say that most other traders, like him, are not interested in the climate of the economy but only care about making money.

"For most traders...we don't really care that much about how they're going to fix the economy, how they're going to fix the whole situation," Rastani said. "Our job is to make money from it."

Finding optimism in a grim situation, Rastani said he's been "dreaming" of this moment for years.

"I go to bed every night, I dream of another recession," he said.

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While our media in the United States has largely ignored this story, the press overseas has not to say the least. BBC World News not only made this the opening segment on their show that reairs locally here on PBS, but did a follow up segment with as well.

Our national media here appears to be too busy distracting the American public and ambulance chasing the Casey Anthony murder trial to bother reporting for the most part on this story.

Here's more from their web site on the story -- Calls grow for inquiry into newspaper phone-hacking:

Ex-Deputy Prime Minister Lord Prescott, actor Hugh Grant and dozens of other public figures are demanding an inquiry into newspaper phone-hacking.

It follows allegations that a private investigator working for the News of the World hacked into Milly Dowler's phone.

Mr Grant said people felt "viscerally sickened" by the revelations.

The House of Commons is to debate the calls for an inquiry for up to three hours on Wednesday.

News International, which owns the News of the World, has promised to investigate the claims made against it.

Hacked Off, a campaign supported by Mr Grant, Lord Prescott, Conservative former Health Secretary Lord Fowler, Labour MP Chris Bryant, Liberal Democrat MP Adrian Sanders and the Dowlers' lawyer, Mark Lewis, has started an online petition calling for a full public inquiry.

Police are already investigating allegations over phone-hacking by detectives working for the News of the World, but the group described this as too "narrowly focused". Read on...

And here is Robert Greenwald's interview with the BBC who's done lots of great work documenting Murdoch and his media empire here in the U.S. in their Fox Attacks series.

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From the BBC - British journalist Tim Hetherington dies in Libya:

An award-winning British photographer has been killed while covering the conflict in the Libyan city of Misrata.

Liverpool-born Tim Hetherington, 40, is said to have been killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack. His family said he would be "forever missed".

US photographer Chris Hondros, 41, was also killed, and two others, including Briton Guy Martin, were injured.

Mr Hetherington, who co-directed Oscar-nominated war documentary Restrepo, was working for Vanity Fair magazine.

In a statement on the magazine's website, his family said: "It is with great sadness we learned that our son and brother, photographer and filmmaker, Tim Hetherington was killed in Misrata, Libya, by a rocket-propelled grenade.

"Tim will be remembered for his amazing images and his Academy Award-nominated documentary Restrepo."

They added: "Tim was in Libya to continue his ongoing multimedia project to highlight humanitarian issues during time of war and conflict."

And here's more from Human Rights Watch: A Tribute to Tim Hetherington.

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It's amazing how something that had the attention of our 24/7 "disaster porn" media here in the United States has gone mostly ignored since we decided to start another military intervention in Libya. Our foreign press seems to do a better job than our media does here in the U.S. with managing to walk and chew gum at the same time and not just chasing after the latest headline of the day and pretending there aren't any other important stories to cover.

Things are still looking dire with the nuclear disaster in Japan and with just how wide spread the impact that catastrophe is going to end up being with the nuclear fallout.

Japan nuclear: Fukushima seawater radioactivity 'rises':

Water near the Fukushima Daiichi plant's reactor 1 contained radioactive iodine at 3,355 times the legal limit, Japan's nuclear safety agency said.

However, an official said the iodine would have deteriorated considerably by the time it reached people.

Meanwhile, the president of Fukushima operator Tepco has been hospitalised.

Masataka Shimizu is being treated for high blood pressure and dizziness, a Tepco spokesperson said.

Mr Shimizu has barely been seen in public since the earthquake and tsunami on 11 March which damaged the Fukushima plant.

Tepco officials have announced a press conference for 1500 local time (0600 GMT).
Half-life

Earlier samples had put the iodine level at 1,850 times the legal limit.

"Iodine 131 has a half-life of eight days, and even considering its concentration in marine life, it will have deteriorated considerably by the time it reaches people," Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of Japan's nuclear safety agency told a news conference.

Radioactive materials are measured by scientists in half-lives, or the time it takes to halve the radiation through natural decay.

Half-lives range from fractions of a second to billions of years.

Iodine 131 was blamed for the high incidence of thyroid cancer among children exposed to fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.

Alongside uranium, other elements of greater concern are those with much longer half-lives. These include caesium, which is easily taken up by plants and animals and can be inhaled through dust, ruthenium, strontium and plutonium. Read on...