Koreas edge toward conflict

CHINA: Beijing cautioned the US and South Korea against moving ahead with planned military exercises inside its exclusive economic zone, an area of the Yellow Sea that belongs to China. Reuters reported that this is an act that could exacerbate tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Meanwhile, the US urged China to work with its ally North Korea to prevent further incidents like the Nov. 23 shelling of a South Korean Island. North Korean state media accused the US and South Korea of recklessness and said the planned military exercises were pushing the situation to the “brink of war.”

Fifty-eight years on the lam may end soon

NETHERLANDS: Last week, Dutch authorities issued a European warrant for the arrest and extradition of convicted Nazi war criminal Klaus Carel Faber, CNN reported. Faber, who now lives in Germany, was originally convicted in 1947 and sentenced to death, but had his sentence commuted to life in prison. In 1952, he escaped from his Dutch prison and fled to Germany, where his German citizenship prevented his extradition back to the Netherlands. Recent changes to European law may allow the Dutch to finally see Faber back behind bars. Germany has received the highest ranking possible for its efforts to investigate and prosecute Nazi war criminals.

$35 billion Internet bill

AUSTRALIA: The ruling Labour Party of Australia will soon fulfill one of its main election promises of implementing a $35 billion national Internet network. The CBC reported last week that the Australian senate approved the legislation that will allow the government to spend the money on the optical fibre system. The issue was crucial to giving Julia Gillard’s party a minority government in the House of Representatives where her ability to pass legislation depends on the support of every non-opposition member. The opposition Liberals advocated a significantly cheaper network that would have incorporated a variety of methods to provide Internet coverage.

Subtle deterrence

TURKEY: Turkey’s prime minister hinted last week that his country would intervene to prevent any potential Israeli offensives against Lebanon or Gaza, Al Jazeera reported. Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the comments during a meeting with the prime minister of Lebanon, referring to previous attacks by Israel against Lebanon and Gaza in 2006 and 2009 respectively. An Israeli attack on a Turkish protest ship earlier this year put relations between the former allies under strain. Erdogan said Turkey will not attempt to re-establish ties until Israel apologizes for the attack.

Lucky to be alive

NEW ZEALAND: Three teenage boys who had been lost at sea since Oct. 5 were rescued last week after more than 50 days adrift in the South Pacific. The three, who live in the New Zealand-administered Tokelau Islands, had previously been assumed dead after searches by New Zealand’s air force turned up nothing, the BBC reported. Crew members aboard the fishing boat that came across the drifting boat said the teens were physically poor but mentally alert. The boys survived by eating a small stock of coconuts, a captured seabird and collecting rainwater on a tarpaulin.

Published in Volume 65, Number 14 of The Uniter (December 2, 2010)