Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Head of Colorado's Prisons Assassinated

Fifty-eight year old Tom Clements, the Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Corrections was assassinated, Tuesday night.

According to a 911 call, he said he had been shot after answering his door bell.

When El Paso County Sheriff Deputies arrived, at his Monument home, they found he had died from his wound.

Police described the home as secluded, and that there was no sign of a robbery attempt.

Due to this they believe that it was a purposeful targeting of Clements.

A neighbor witnessed a "two door, boxy vehicle" near the property, before the time of the shooting and then leaving afterwards.

At this time, police have no suspects, but the investigation is going off of what leads they have.

Hickenlooper Signs Gun Bill Laws

Colorado's Governor Hickenlooper signed into law two controversial gun bills, on Wednesday.

One of the new laws guns can not hold more than fifteen rounds of ammunition.

The other requires background checks for online gun sales and private transactions.

They will go into effect in July.

His signatures come just days after the US Senate gave up on an attempt to put further restrictions on guns.

Opponents of the bills state their unconstitutional nature.

Several county sheriffs have state that they will not enforce the laws.

Challenges against the bills are already being planned for the 2014 Colorado elections.

Police Attempt to Raid Home Over Picture of 11 Year Old With Rifle

A picture of an eleven year old holding a rifle led to an attempted raid by New Jersey Police and child welfare services.

Josh Moore received the rifle for his birthday and took pictures holding it.

When one of the pictures ended up on Facebook, someone called the state's child services.

They showed up at the family's door with police, demanding to enter and see the family's guns.

Shawn Moore, Josh's father, called his lawyer and put him on speaker phone, so that lawyer could act as a witness and interact during the situation.

As police had no warrant, they eventually gave up on their attempts.

The family regularly hunts and Josh has been trained how to correctly handle rifles, since he was five.

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.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

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.