Shooting At Arapahoe High School Leaves 1 Student Dead, 1 Wounded in Colorado

Friday saw a shooting at Arapahoe High School, in Centennial, Colorado.

An eighteen year old student walked into the school, carrying a shotgun, and began asking for the whereabouts of one of the school's staff members.

Word quickly reached the staff member and, following active shooter protocols, he left the building.

When the student realized his target was gone he fired two or three shots, from the shotgun, seriously wounding a seventeen year old student.

Police arrived within minutes and as they closed in the shooter took his own life.

Officers found his body as well as two Molotov cocktails, one of which had been detonated, causing smoke issues for the first responders.

At this time it has not been confirmed what the student's motive was in wanting to kill the staff member, or why he shot the female student.

The wounded seventeen year old student was taken to Littleton Adventist Hospital, where she underwent surgery, and is in critical condition.

Mexico Ends Full Nationalization of Oil

With a vote of three hundred and fifty-three to one hundred and thirty-four, Mexico's congress voted to partially denationalize their oil industry.

The industry was nationalized back in 1938, but has recently struggled to stay economically afloat.

Congress's vote allows for private financiers to buy into the national oil company.

This leaves the country as the majority owner, but brings in outside money as well.

Mexico hopes to use investment money to search for new fields, further explore known ones, and utilize their resources to a greater level.

They are already the tenth largest oil supplier, in the world.

Catalonia Sets Date For Independence Referendum

On Thursday, Catalonia's regional government set a date for a referendum on independence from Spain.

They set a date, nearly a year from now, of November 9, 2014.

By placing it a year from now they hope to ensure that international observers will have ample time to see that their votes were free and that the voters were informed.

Voters will simply be asked if they wish for Catalonia to be an independent state.

However, the national government, in Madrid, pledged to keep any such referendum from happening.

At this time, it is unclear how the national government can actually keep the vote from taking place.

Ukraine's President Listens to Protesters and Moves to Sign With EU

President Viktor Yanukovych has reannounced his intention to sign a trade agreement deal with the European Union.

His announcement comes after weeks of protests took place in all the cities of Ukraine, especially in Kiev.

As many as one hundred and thirty thousand protested each day in the capital city.

Police were unable to clear out the protesters on Tuesday, and only partially successful on Wednesday.

Their failure forced the administration to face the reality of the people's anger over Yanukovych attempting to back out of the deal.

Yanukovych had instead decided to seek closer ties with Russia.

Many Ukrainians worry that Yanukovych is taking their country back under Russian influence and fear a loss of their independence from their former Soviet masters.

The protests gained steam after three former presidents backed them.

Kim Jong Un's Uncle Executed in North Korea

A North Korean military tribunal ordered the death of Jang Song Thaek, on Thursday.

Thaek, the uncle of Kim Jong Un, was executed early Friday morning.

Until a few days ago Thaek had been the second most powerful man in the country.

When Un first took over, after his father's death, Thaek had acted as regent.

However, earlier this week, he was arrested and charged with treason and plotting to overthrow his nephew.

The death of Thaek seems to symbolize Un's complete control of the country.

Opposition in Thailand Demands Meeting With Military and Police

Suthep Thaugsuban, the leader of protests in Thailand, is now demanding that police and military leaders meet with him by Thursday evening.

If they don't, then the opposition says they know they can't rely on them.

Til this point, the military has stayed completely neutral in the mostly political conflict, offering to mediate.

The police have done their best to stay neutral as well, while still defending government buildings from the protests.

Members of the opposition have forced a new election, after they resigned in mass.

However, this is not enough, for the opposition, who are demanding that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra resign.

Protests have been taking place for over a month.

Ukraine's Police Fail to Clear Protests in Kiev

Thousands of Ukrainian riot police massed and twice attempted to end the largest protest in Kiev, on Tuesday.

As police advanced the call went out and thousands more citizens rushed to the square.

Both times the protesters were successful in pushing back the police who tried to remove them from Independence Square.

Dozens, on both sides, were injured, including opposition lawmakers and one Orthodox priest.

It is unclear how the government will respond to the police's failure.

On Monday, the police cleared out many smaller protests in Kiev and other cities.

Protests have been going for most of a month and Sunday saw the biggest yet, with over one hundred thousand in the capital city.

The people are demanding that President Viktor Yanukovych resign.

He angered the public when backed out of signing a trade agreement with the European Union, and instead announced that he would seek closer ties with Russia.

Many Ukrainians worry that Yanukovych is taking their country back under Russian influence and fear a loss of their independence from their former Soviet masters.

The protests have gained steam since three former presidents backed them, last week.

Riot Police Breakup Protest Camps in Kiev

Riot police stormed opposition party offices, in Kiev, on Monday.

The heavily armed police forced entry into the offices of the Fatherland Party, and then left taking computers with them.

Led by former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, the party is the largest and most vocal in it's opposition to President Viktor Yanukovych.

Other groups of police cleared out small protest camps, while more yet lined up near the bigger camps.

Protests have been going for most of a month and Sunday saw the biggest yet, with over one hundred thousand in the capital city.

The people are demanding that Yanukovych resign.

He angered the public when backed out of signing a trade agreement with the European Union, and instead announced that he would seek closer ties with Russia.

Many Ukrainians worry that Yanukovych is taking their country back under Russian influence and fear a loss of their independence from their former Soviet masters.

The protests have gained steam since three former presidents backed them, last week.

Putin Dissolves Russia's State News Agency

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin dissolved the state news agency, RIA Novosti.

In it's place he has created Rossiya Segodnya, or Russia Today.

Officially, the move was made to "save money" and "improve news service".

However, it was very clear that the new service will be a propaganda machine, similar to the Soviet Era APN.

In an outgoing statement, RIA's website said that, "The move is the latest in a series of shifts in Russia's news landscape which appear to point towards a tightening of state control in the already heavily regulated media sector."
  
RIA had more often been allowing statements and editorials critical of Putin and his government.

It now seems that doing so made them a target of the regime.

Putin now controls every single major Russian media outlet.

US Air Force Joins The Fight in Central African Republic

C17s from the United States will be joining efforts to stabilize the Central African Republic.

On Monday, it was announced that the US Air Force will be ferrying African Union troops in to CAR.

The AU troops will be joining French and CAR forces who are trying to bring peace to the country.

France came to the aid of it's former colony and has now twice increased troop levels.

The African Union pledged troops, but does not have the capabilities to bring them in, themselves.

US planes will help things proceed much more swiftly, and their involvement comes after the UN authorized international military aid, in CAR.