Brazil
A catastrophic fire in a Brazilian dance club has killed over 230 people, which was reportedly caused by a firework that a band member set off during their set. This incident is the worst dance club fire in over a decade. Reports show that the club was over capacity by 1000 people. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has declared a 30-day period of mourning due to the tragedy. A similar disaster occurred in the United States in 2003 when a Rhode Island club burst into flames, killing 100 people. This too was caused by flares that were set off by band members.
North Korea
Tensions have been escalating between North Korea and the United States recently, due to stricter sanctions that were imposed on North Korea as a result of the satellite that it launched into orbit in December. Along with passing the new sanctions, the United Nations Security Council has also warned North Korea to withhold from testing anymore nuclear devices or else face “significant action.” North Korean leader Kim Jung Un has seen this as a challenge, and international intelligence agencies have begun speculating that the rogue state has begun planning to test a nuclear device in order to show defiance in the face of the United Nation’s threat against them. Kim Jung Un is still a young and inexperienced leader, so he gains a more powerful image both domestically and abroad by detonating these weapons.
Israel
With the Israeli parliamentary elections now over, it has become clear that the new Israeli government won’t be much different from the previous one. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s conservative party lost 11 seats, leaving them with 31 seats out of 120. Despite this small setback, it is expected that he will be able to form a coalition with himself remaining as the Prime Minister. The Yesh Atid party surprised many analysts by winning 19 seats, giving it the second largest party in Parliament. The Yesh Atid party’s agenda that they ran on included the continuation of peace talks with the Palestinians and approval of a two-state solution.
Shanna Carson • Feb 12, 2013 at 11:56 am
It isn’t easy running a tyrannical dictatorship these days. That’s why North Korea wants distracts its people from the real problems occurring within their own country. A way to achieve such result is to mobilize public opinion against an enemy, but you need to create an enemy when you don’t have any. It may explain the aggressiveness of North Korea and it makes their nuclear program a dangerous threat.