By Dylan Hackett, News Editor
Middle East: (Turkey) The Twitter-sphere erupted in praise on Thursday when Justin Bieber halted singing on two occasions for his 50,000 fans packed in an Istanbul arena to make time for the Azaan, an act of prayer practiced by Turkish Muslims five times a day. Bieber also performed two shows in Dubai last weekend, one of them a makeup show for his cancelled performance in the Omani capital of Muscat.
(Syria) Israeli air forces flew into Syria to perform an air strike, halting a shipment of weapons from Bashar al-Assad, president of Syria, now in its second year of civil war. The weapons were allegedly bound for the Lebanese Shiite militants, Hezbollah, who have been supportive of al-Assad’s regime. Hundreds of Syrians have been killed in the last week by al-Assad’s anti-rebel attacks.
North America: (United States) Coastal wildfires singe Southern California with 111-square km engulfed as of Saturday morning. The wildfire was borne out of the Camarillo Springs area, 80 km from Los Angeles. Southern California fire departments have been using all sorts of utility vehicles to combat the flames including airplanes and bulldozers. A moist weather system is predicted to assist the firefighters in subduing the blaze.
South America: (Venezuela) President Nicolas Maduro, recently elected replacement to the deceased Hugo Chavez, has accused former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe as being behind a plot to have him assassinated. Uribe, a conservative politician, was also accused of involving the Venezuelan right in the plot. Maduro won the April election on a tight gap of 1.49 per cent.
Europe: (Belgium) A chemical fire caused by a train derailment has taken two lives and injured 14 others. The train, bound from the Netherlands to the port city of Ghent, was carrying chemicals that caused the explosion of three rail cars at 2 a.m. Saturday morning. Video of the flaming mess went viral. Three hundred locals were evacuated from the rural area.
Asia: (Bangladesh) The massive garment factory collapse that killed over 500 in Dhaka, the worst in Bangladeshi history, has been cited to have been caused by the excessive vibrations of industrial equipment combined with poor building structure. The owner of the building, Mohammad Sohel Rana, is in police custody for his criminal negligence in the collapse of the building. Investigations have unearthed that Rana was not a popular man in the area, being perceived as a thug, or colloquially, a “mastan.”
