Ever wonder what's happening around the world? This weekly column for Storeboard.com will give you a global perspective of interesting, entertaining, and newsworthy happenings around the planet Earth!
The columns focus on what's happening on planet Earth continent by continent during the coming week and also include important events from the previous week. This is the 17th weekly column.
Here's what's happening from Monday, Feb. 10, 2014 through Sunday, Feb. 16, 2014:
Worldwide: Valentine’s Day is Friday. Not just in the United States, but in nations all over the world, including China, Finland, France, Greece, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, the Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, and several Latin American nations. The holiday began as a religious holiday honoring a third-century Roman saint and “was first associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages (1001-1300),” according to Wikipedia.
Africa: Monday is Fenkil Day in Eritrea. OK, that sounds really boring. Let me try again. On Monday, Eritrea celebrates the 24th anniversary of a military victory that helped it become independent. Eritrea fought for independence from Ethiopia from 1961 to 1991. On Feb. 8, 1990, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) attacked Massawa, a Red Sea port. The military offensive was called Operation Fenkil. I’ve given up researching the reason for this name. In any case, the EPLF won the Battle of Massawa on Feb. 10, 1990. Eritrea became an independent nation on May 24, 1991. Today, the northeast African nation across the Red Sea from Saudi Arabia has about 6 million people.
Antarctica: Could there be a war in Antarctica? I doubt it, but there was a shipfight last week. That’s right. A shipfight. And the combatants are blaming each other like little children. According to the Associated Press, a Japanese whaling ship and a ship that was protesting whaling collided. The captain of the conservationists’ ship -- which is named Bob Barker after the game show host because he donates millions to the Sea Shepherd conservationists -- said the collision was “an unprovoked attack and they did so ruthlessly." The whalers, though, countered that the protesters carelessly threw ropes in front of their ship and the ropes became entangled in the ship’s propellers. You can’t make this stuff up.
Asia: Tuesday is Islamic Revolution’s Victory Day in Iran -- “a national holiday with state sponsored demonstrations in every city,” according to Wikipedia. On Feb. 11, 1979, the government appointed by Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi was overthrown by religious fundamentalists. The Shah led Iran from 1941 to 1979 although he was a figurehead while Iran was a democracy from 1951 to 1953. Anti-Shah protests, sometimes violent, began in 1977. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini led the opposition although he had been in exile since 1964. The Shah fled Iran on Jan. 16, 1979, but his appointed prime minister stayed. Khomeini returned to Iran on Feb. 1 and took power 10 days later. Today, Iran is an Islamic republic where religious leaders often have authority over elected leaders. It has about 77 million people.
Australia: The Australian Museum in Sydney is hosting an exhibit on Tyrannosaurs, a family of dinosaurs, until July 27. The exhibit is open to the public every day from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., although the last tickets are sold at 3:30 p.m. The museum says the exhibit is the first in the world on Tyrannosaurs, it “shows how this group became the world’s top predators with their massive skulls, powerful jaws and bone-crunching teeth,” and it “features fossil specimens from China and North America never before seen in Australia, as well as stunning life-sized skeletons and models.”
Europe: Saturday is National Day in Serbia. The public holiday commemorates the Feb. 15, 1804 start of the Serbian revolution against Ottoman rule and the Feb. 15, 1835 signing of Serbia’s first written constitution. Serbia struggled against Ottoman rule for decades, gaining independence in 1867 when the last Turkish soldiers left. In 1918, Serbia became part of Yugoslavia along with five other republics -- Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Slovenia. Four of the republics left Yugoslavia in the early 1990s and Serbia and Montenegro split into two separate nations in 2006.
North America: No Independence Day celebrations in North America this week as far as I know. There will be celebrations in Quebec City, Canada. The city hosts the Winter Carnival Festival every year. This year’s festival began on Jan. 31 and will end on Sunday, Feb. 16. It includes numerous parties and balls throughout the city as well as snow sculpture contests on the Plains of Abraham, opening and closing ceremonies at the Ice Palace, and competition in numerous sports, including snowboarding, ice canoeing, sledding, skiing, snow rafting, and hockey.
South America: Wednesday is Youth Day in Venezuela. It commemorates the death of the students who died on Feb. 12, 1814, during the Battle of La Victoria, which was part of the Venezuelan War of Independence. I’ve given up researching how many students died. I have learned that the war began when Venezuela declared its independence on July 5, 1811, and Venezuela achieved sovereignty from Spain in 1821 as part of Gran Colombia, a nation that included present-day Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. Venezuela became completely independent in 1830. Today, Venezuela has about 29 million people.
Here are the previous 16 columns in chronological order. The first one covered Oct. 21 through Oct. 27.
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world/222550
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--oct-28-nov-3/233783
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--nov-4-nov-10/236105
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--nov-11-through-nov-17/237804
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--nov-18-through-nov-24/239456
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--nov-25-through-dec-1/242035
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--dec-2-through-dec-8/244013
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--dec-9-through-dec-15/245514
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--dec-16-through-dec-22/247922
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--dec-23-through-dec-29/250019
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--dec-30-through-jan-5/251970
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--jan-6-through-jan-12/253826
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--jan-13-through-jan-19/256157
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--jan-20-through-jan-26/258281
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/news/whats-happening-around-the-world--jan-27-through-feb-2/260646
http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/sports-and-fitness/whats-happening-around-the-world--special-winter-olympics-edition/262963
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