Headlines

• Turnout from 120-nation Cold War-era bloc has paled in comparison to past meetings with only 10 heads of state showing 

Margarita Island, Sept.19.─ Only a handful of leaders have travelled to a meeting of a large Cold War-era bloc in Venezuela in an embarrassment for the crisis-hit socialist government.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has touted the 17th meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement as one that would "be remembered for centuries", as the unpopular leftist seeks to bolster his international legitimacy.

Middle East, Sept.8.─ The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) says 4475 people were killed in the nation's horrific civil war during July. Of these, 1289 were civilians, including 263 children.

Almost three quarters of these civilian casualties were killed in airstrikes by the government or its ally, Russia, and other attacks by the pro-government side, SOHR said.

Since the Syrian Civil War began in 2011, more than 400,000 people have been killed, between 4-to-5 million people have left Syria as refugees and about 8 million have been internally displaced.

The government is responsible for the highest civilian body count, but it does not have a monopoly on atrocities. Among their opponents is ISIS, whose sadism is well known.

But many of the other armed opposition groups, including those affiliated to the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition (SNC), share a similar Islamist ideology to ISIS. Even secular affiliates to the SNC have, like ISIS, made videos advertising their own cruelty. 

Rojava

Amid this carnage, there has emerged a region of hope: the self-administered areas of Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) and Northern Syria.

 Washington DC, Sept.5.─ Congress returns Tuesday from a seven-week recess that has left lawmakers with less than a month to fund the federal government and prevent a shutdown. But the scramble to solve that problem will not stop Republicans from casting votes on other issues designed to register their opposition to the Obama administration.

Federal agencies ranging from the National Park Service to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could face closures unless lawmakers vote on a stop-gap spending bill to keep the government running past the end of September.

An international arbitration tribunal has ordered Venezuela to pay for expropriated mines

Vancouver, Aug.23.─ An international arbitration tribunal has ordered Venezuela to pay a Vancouver-based mining company more than US$1.2 billion for expropriating its gold mines.

Venezuela took over Rusoro Mining's investments in the country as part of a nationalization of the gold industry in 2011.