Twenty-one United Nations Peacekeepers from Philippines have been detained by the Syrian rebel groups near Golan Heights, which is a volatile zone separating Israeli and Syrian Armed Forces and has been a hotbed of conflict between Syrian rebels and Government forces. The motives are still not clear since Syrian rebels have not yet made an official announcement. In Manila, Philippine military spokesman Col. Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos said that Syrian rebels were holding 21 Filipino peacekeepers “as guests.” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also has condemned those peacekeepers who were captured.
The verdicts of a war crime court in Dhaka, Bangladesh, have been the cause of massive protests. So far, dozens of people have been killed, according to CNN. In 2010 an International War Crimes Tribunal was set up in Dhaka. Its sole purpose is to put the accused war criminals of 1971 Bangladesh Civil War to trial. Almost all the defendants belong to non-secular opposition parties, namely Bangladesh National Party and Jamat-e-Islami. The International Crimes Tribunal is accused of being biased against the defendants because they belong to opposition parties. Protests in Dhaka also have been taking place from the supporters of the secular ruling government Awami League. Ataur Rahman, a Bangladeshi expert based at State University of New York said the divide between Bangladesh’s Islamic and secular Bengali identities, which for decades had been “reconciled within the political process”, was now growing rapidly.
Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela who is infamous for promoting the “21st century socialist model” around the world died Tuesday at the age of 58. Chavez was considered a revolutionary to some and a brutal dictator to others. Chavez left Venezuela’s economy in shambles with an inflation rate of 22.8 percent and a degrading nationalized oil industry, which is the biggest revenue maker for the Venezuelan government, according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Due to Chavez’s consolidation of power in Venezuela, his death has left a power vacuum in the country. There has been no news from the Venezuelan government on who is going to succeed Chavez.
North Korea has threatened to end the 1953 Armistice Treaty that ended the Korean War citing the new sanctions introduced in UN led by US with backing from China, The Wall Street Journal reported. The recent nuclear test by North Korea has certainly caused security concerns for Asia-Pacific region. As a response to the nuclear test, Seoul and Washington, D.C. are having new military drills.
