MOGADISHU, Somalia — A spokesman for the African Union force in Somalia says AU soldiers are surrounding a key insurgent stronghold in the capital of Mogadishu. Paddy Ankunda says peacekeepers advanced their positions on Sunday and are now on the southern and western sides of Bakara market. The market is the commercial heart of Mogadishu and taxes levied on its businessmen are an important source of funding for the insurgency. Ankunda did not say whether AU soldiers would enter the market, a deadly labyrinth of winding alleys and tall buildings. The AU has previously said it will not enter Bakara but will seek to control access to it. Read full article > >

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AU spokesman: Peacekeeping force surrounding Somali key insurgent stronghold of Bakara market

Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have agreed to hold a ballot for a national strike over cuts to the public sector.

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Civil servants to vote on strikes

The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that it will not stop the Federal Reserve Board from releasing documents identifying the commercial banks and Wall Street financial firms that received Fed loans-and the collateral they put up-to survive the financial…

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Fed Must Release Banks’ Loan Info

Colorado’s creative community bands together with a temporary retail space Taking a cue from the commercial world, a Colorado organization recently jumped on the pop-up bandwagon again with YesPleaseMore , a temporary store featuring locally-crafted goods from more than 70 Colorado-based artists and designers. The retail project is part of a three-pronged initiative to provide an economic development platform that gives credence and support to a recent report that the state’s creative industry is its fifth largest economic producer. (An unsurprising fact since Colorado ranks fifth nationally for it’s high concentration of artists.) The resulting shop offers a massive variety of made-in-Colorado products, including furniture, skis, jewelry, stationery, art prints and larger installation pieces. Founders Brian Corrigan and Samuel Schimek give 70% of the profits back to the original designers and artists, while the remaining 30% benefits YesPleaseMore’s ongoing development efforts, including a free work space for networking opportunities in an environment conducive to its participants’ working needs, as well as starter grants for creative entrepreneurs . Every three months, three local applicants whose projects earn the most public votes will receive $500 dollars in funding. Visit the shop, located at the Denver Pavilions , through the end of February.

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YesPleaseMore Pop Up Store

It’s a small world, after all. Walt Disney Co. signed an agreement with a Shanghai government company on Friday to build a $3.6 billion, 1.5-square-mile amusement park in the commercial capital of China. Shanghai and Disney have been in talks for 15…

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Disney Signs Shanghai Deal

Those of you despairing of today’s partisan bickering, take heart: The Senate unanimously agreed late Wednesday that loud TV commercials are very annoying. The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, or CALM, will require television stations…

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Senate Turns Down the Volume

Tommy Longo has had a rough year: both hips, a femur and a knee replaced. When he hobbles out of his truck to see how the new City Hall construction is going, he looks with every step like he just needs to sit down. His face is covered with perspiration in the afternoon heat, and he always seems to be headed to the next appointment. You might think the mayor of a town that disappeared would have little to do, and yet Longo seems to never stop. “We lost our residential structures, lost our commercial structures, lost our governmental structures,” he says. “Every city building was gone. Our town was obliterated. We were wiped off the face of the earth.” For all the attention focused on New Orleans each time the anniversary of Katrina rolls around, it would be easy to forget that the epicenter of the storm was over on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. And no town was hit harder than Waveland. Ninety-five percent of its homes were taken by the storm; 100 percent of the town’s businesses. With virtually every road either broken up or piled with mountains of debris, it was difficult for recovery teams to find a starting place.

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‘Obliterated’ town coming back to life

Sting has added yet another commercial venture to his resume: Farm shopkeeper.