Women to be Allowed in US Military Front Line Positions

On Tuesday, the Pentagon announced that it will begin allowing women in front line combat roles.

Those roles will include special forces such as Army Rangers and Navy SEALs.

Plans are for as many as two hundred and thirty-seven thousand more military positions to be opened to women.

Expectations are for all of those roles to be available by January 2016.

Officials say that women who seek the roles will need to meet the same physical standards that the men do.

Attack on Iraqi Mosque Leaves 37 Dead

Two gunmen attacked a mosque in Qahira, Iraq, on Tuesday.

They opened fire killing three guards on the outside, then moved to the inside of the mosque and blew themselves up.

The blast killed thirty-four and injured fifty-seven.

Many worshipers at the mosque come from the nearby Shiite Islamic university.

Shiite neighborhoods are a common target for Sunni extremist groups, including Al Qaeda.

Iraqi officials are blaming Al Qaeda for the attack.

29 Killed as Suicide Bomber Targets Funeral in Pakistan

Twenty-nine people were killed in Mardan, Pakistan, on Tuesday.

A suicide bomber struck a funeral procession of hundreds of people.

Fifty-seven people were wounded in the attack.

The Taliban is thought to be responsible for the attack, but has not claimed it.

USMC: Lance Corporal Jared W. Brown

Lance Corporal Jared W. Brown, twenty of Youngstown, Florida, died on June 16.

He was killed in Helmand, Afghanistan.

Brown was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Colorado Fires Inching Towards Containment

Multiple fires remain burning in Colorado, but all of those that were considered threatening are now well contained.

Over a thousand firefighters remain battling the Black Forest Fire. They have got it up to seventy-five percent contained. Full containment is expected on Thursday.

It killed two people, burned down four hundred and eighty-three homes, and damaged seventeen houses. Many of the mandatory evacuations, due to the fire, have been lifted, but some do remain in affect.

Investigators have not yet determined the cause of the fire. They are finally able to get near where it is believed to have started.

The Big Meadows Fire is just over six hundred acres, but is listed at seventy-five percent containment. Five of the seven trails closed by the fire have been reopened.

Residents, who had been evacuated from near Rifle, due to the Ward Gulf Fire, are being allowed back home. The fire is now sixty percent contained, after burning nearly five hundred acres.

Other fires, burning throughout the state, have either been completely stopped, or are still being allowed to freely burn as they do not threaten anything. Helicopters continuing working on some of those as a precaution.

7 Killed, 41 Injured Over Weekend in Chicago

Seven people were killed and forty-one injured in shootings across Chicago, over the weekend.

So far in 2013, one hundred and forty have died and six hundred and fifty have been wounded in gun violence.

Despite these numbers Chicago's government and police say that their crack down on guns continues to lessen violence.

Chicago has the strictest gun laws, in the country, yet the city remains the US city with the most gun violence.

Almost all of the gun violence is gang related.

For nearly thirty years, Chicago had a total gun ban, but it was struck down by the Supreme Court, in 2010, as violating the Constitution.

Since then, the city has passed multiple ordinances, which stop just short of coming to a full ban.

The city regularly brags about how many guns it confiscates, weekly displaying the confiscations.

During 2012, Chicago confiscated nearly 7,500 guns.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy is asking for stricter laws and stronger punishment, for anyone who violates the gun laws.

Opponents of the laws say that the problem isn't a lack of gun laws, but too many.

They believe that if the public had freer access to guns then they could defend themselves, and gangs would be more wary.

In support of this, they point to stats from other states that have more gun access, but less gun violence.

Towards this, the Illinois state house is working towards allowing for concealed carry permits.

Turkey Threatens Use of Military Against Protesters and Rioters

As protests and riots in Turkey continue, the government threatened to bring in the military.

Riot police using water cannons, tear gas, and rubber bullets have been unable to clear the streets and squares of the people.

Instead of leaving, protesters numbers have only grown, now officially being joined by the labor unions.

The inability of the police to end the protests has led the government to consider the military as an option.

It is unclear how much more effective the military could be.

During the now eighteen days of clashes, four civilians and a police officer have been killed and more than seventy-five hundred have been injured.

19 Killed in India Floods

Nineteen people have been killed in flooding in northern India.

Entire buildings were washed away by the raging waters.

Dozens more have been damaged by the waters, as well as by mudslides that the rains have triggered.

Most of the deaths occurred in Uttarakhand, where fifteen people have died, with the other four being in Himachal Pradesh.

At least forty more are missing in Uttarakhand and five in Himachal Pradesh.

Thousands of pilgrims had recently arrived in the state, and are now stranded.

Haryana and Punjab are also experiencing the floods, but not quite as severely.

India's monsoon season has just begun, and normally lasts through September.

Iran Officially Joins Syrian Civil War

Iran is officially and openly taking part in the Syrian Civil War.

The Iranian government has sent four thousand members of the Revolutionary Guard to support President Assad, in Syria.

They say they are fully committed to preserving the Assad regime, and that the four thousand is but the first contingent of troops.

The decision was apparently made before the Iranian presidential elections took place.

It also appears that the decision was made within hours of US President Obama's decision to send weapons to the Syrian rebels.

All this just goes to show that the war continues to spread, further than just in Syria.

33 Killed in Iraq Bombings

Thirty-three people were killed and over one hundred injured in a series of bombings in Iraq, on Sunday.

Most of the attacks were aimed at Shiite neighborhoods, while some were aimed at security forces.

At least ten bombings occurred as well as a shooting.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but their targets suggest that they were the work of Al Qaeda or other Sunni groups connected to them.