Volkswagen Recalling 384,181 Vehicles From China

Volkswagen has announced a recall of nearly four hundred thousand vehicles from China.

The recall was announced due to a problem where the car loses power.

An issue with the gearshift box causes the power loss, but does not cause control difficulties.

China is Volkswagen's largest market, but they hope that the recall will not hurt their sales.

Greeks Demand Their Government Follow The Lead of Cyprus

Greeks protested in the streets on Wednesday, demanding that their government say no to the EU, just as Cyprus did on Tuesday.

Cyprus' government rejected EU terms and then turned to Russia asking for better ones, to avoid strict austerity measures.

However, it is unclear if Greece could gain favor with Russia, as Russia does not have the same level of investment in Greece that they do in Cyprus.

Violent protests have become a regular occurrence in Greece as the country struggles with extremely unpopular austerity measures, put in place by the government.

Austerity measures were added as conditions which Greece needed to meet to gain bailouts from the European Union.

Greece's economy has been in desperate straits for quite awhile now, leading to one of the highest unemployment rates in the world.

The government hopes that the bailouts will see them eventually able to recover, without a complete collapses.

Cyprus Rejects EU Turns to Russia

Cyprus shook things up on Tuesday when they rejected a bailout offer from the European Union.

They then doubled the shake up when they turned to Russia, and asked them for help.

Russia is expected to meet the Cypriot terms, as many Russians have investments in the island nation's economy.

The EU responded to the switch, by threatening to pull out their current financial aids to the troubled country.

Banks in Cyprus have been closed all week, and will remain so til next week, while the country tries to prevent a threatened run on the banks.

The closure and uncertain economic future is only increasing the difficulties that are faced.

7 Marines Killed in Nevada Mortar Accident

Seven Marines were killed in a training accident, Tuesday morning, at Hawthorne Army Depot, in Hawthorne, Nevada.

A 60mm mortar round blew up in it's tube, instead of launching, while the Marines were training with the mortars.

They were part of the 2nd Marine Division, based in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Six of them were killed instantly, one died from his wounds on the way to the hospital, and another seven are in serious to critical condition from wounds they sustained.

The Marine Corps banned use of the weapon, while an investigation is underway, and the other services are likely to join them in the moratorium.

India Bus Crash Leaves 37 Dead and 15 Injured

A bus fell off of a bridge, early Tuesday morning, in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra, India.

Thirty-seven people were killed and fifteen injured, when the bus went off the bridge and landed upside down.

Witnesses said that as the bus reached the bridge, over the Jagbudi River, that it went right through the guard rail and straight off the bridge, flipping in the air.

A crane was brought in to lift the bus off the victims.

25 Syrians Killed in Chemical Weapon Attack

On Tuesday, twenty-five people were killed in what appears to be the use of chemical weapons, in Aleppo, Syria.

Government media quickly blamed the attack upon rebel forces.

Opposition forces countered that it had to have been a government attack.


Syria's national military is known to have chemical weapons, but rebel forces were not thought to have them. 

However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is generally pro-opposition, did state that sixteen of the dead were soldiers of the regime.

That would at least make it appear that rebel forces were the perpetrators of the act.

The use of chemical weapons marks a dark step in the civil war, and could bring international involvement.

Multiple foreign governments have repeatedly pledged to stay out of the war, but listed the use of chemical weapons as a "red line" which they could not ignore.

The civil war, which turned two years old, on Thursday, has killed nearly seventy-five thousand people and displaced over a million Syrians.

17 Bombings Kill 65 in Iraq

Terrorists celebrated the ten year anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, with a series of bombings.

In seventeen separate attacks, sixty-five people were killed and two hundred and forty injured.

Attacks were focused on government forces and popular Shiite areas of the country.

Authorities were quick to put the blame on Sunni terrorist group Al Qaeda, and the attacks followed patterns the group has used before.

Al Qaeda has not claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the coordination of the attacks does not suggest the abilities of any of the other active terror groups.

Life is spelled R-I-S-K

America was founded on some principles. One of which was 'personal responsibility'. You were free to make you own life choices knowing that there were consequences. The example I was raised with was you don't work, you don't eat.

My mother's family were farmers. I grew up in a farming community. This was the way of life. You literally had to work for your food. You had to plant, fertilize, water, prune, then harvest the food. People also preserved what they could for the winter months and in case of drought seasons. They were their own safety net.

Some where a long the line, the federal government decided to step in and provide other safety nets. The thing with safety nets is after you land on them, you're supposed to crawl back over to the ladder and start to climb the ladder again. This time knowing what caused the fall to begin with and how to prevent it from happening again.

Problem is that the federal government's big web of safety nets became too comfy. People began to feel it was their right to stay, even though they put no effort into creating, building, or sustaining the net. So now they live rent free on our hard working backs.

Back to my original thought - RISK.

Personal responsibility is one hundred and eighty degrees away from shared responsibility. I happen to like the personal kind myself. If I fall, it is up to me and only me to get back up. No one pays for me. No one is responsible for me. Not that I wouldn't take help from a friend or family member. Lord knows we've all been there. But what right do I have to take money from a stranger from miles away because I fail?

Life is about taking risks. You learn from them. I truly believe safety nets makes this country soft. We, as a country, used to be bad ass. We used to do everything ourselves. Now, we let someone else take care of us. We have become toddlers.

I'm not a toddler! Are you?

Galena Fire Purposefully Set

Officials announced that the Galena Fire, burning to the west of Fort Collins, Colorado, was purposefully set by a human.

They are continuing their investigation to determine exactly how the blaze was started, and try and find out by who.

Firefighters hope to have full containment, by Tuesday morning.

Two firefighters were injured, on Sunday, but were treated and released.

On Monday, one hundred and thirty fighters were joined by two helicopters as they attacked the fire.

Indiana Plane Crash Leaves 2 Killed, 3 Injured, and Homes Destroyed

A small private jet crashed into houses near South Bend, Indiana, on Sunday.

Two of those aboard were killed and the other two were injured.

When the plane plowed into three homes, it injured one person on the ground.

The plane had come from Tulsa, Oklahoma and began experiencing technical difficulties as it neared it's destination of South Bend Regional Airport.

Investigators are trying to determine just exactly what went wrong.

Steven Davis, sixty, and Wesley Caves, fifty-eight, were the two victims of the crash.