Peace prize
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi arrives at Yangon International Airport in Myanmar on January 24 before flying to Honolulu, Hawaii to deliver an address and to accept an award at the Rotary Global Peace Forum. — AP
Lacking learning
Teachers fail basic tests
Brussels — A large number of Belgium’s future secondary school teachers struggle with basic concepts of geography, politics and history, a study published on January 23 has shown.
Among final year teaching students involved in the study, one in three could not identify the US on a map and almost half did not know where the Pacific Ocean was. Shown a picture of Mao Zedong, two in three could not recognise the former Chinese leader, with the most common response being it was the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. — Reuters
Lethal drugs
Vietnam has execution solution
Hanoi — Vietnam will begin producing its own chemical for executing prisoners after factories in the European Union stopped shipments because of objections there to the death penalty.
Vietnam stopped using firing squads in 2011 because of concerns it was traumatising the shooters. Last year, the government said it was unable to execute 532 on death row because it couldn’t source the drugs for lethal injections. The Laborer newspaper on January 24 quoted a minister as saying Vietnam would now produce its own drug for executions. — AP
Spray away
A Japan Coast Guard patrol boat uses water cannon on January 24 to warn a Taiwan fishing boat and Taiwan Coast Guard vessel off the coast of Uotsuri, the biggest island in the disputed Senkaku or Diaoyu island chain in the East China Sea. — AP
Into the wild
Adventurers set sail
Sydney — A British-Australian expedition recreating Ernest Shackleton’s perilous 1916 crossing of the Southern Ocean in a small boat set off on January 24.
Led by renowned adventurer Tim Jarvis, the team of six braced for fearsome seas and bleak conditions as they began to sail 1,480 kilometres in a small lifeboat from Elephant Island off the Antarctic Peninsula to South Georgia.
The team aims to relive part of what is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever survival tales. — AFP
Elderly athlete
Old runner retires
New Delhi — A 101-year-old man regarded as the world’s oldest marathon runner will quit after one final run at a Hong Kong race in February, media reports said January 24.
Indian-born British national Fauja Singh admitted age was finally catching up with him and he had decided not to compete after the Hong Kong Marathon on February 24, five weeks before his 102nd birthday on April 1.
“But I will keep running for at least four hours daily after that,” Singh told the Times of India newspaper. — AFP
Deadly outbreak
Measles kill in Pakistan
Islamabad — At least 103 children had died in January in a measles outbreak in Pakistan, officials said on January 24.
Sixty-two of the deaths were in the southern province of Sindh, World Health Organisation spokeswomen Maryam Yunus said. Thirty-three measles-related deaths occurred in the south-western province of Balochistan, while seven children died in the eastern province of Punjab and one in the capital Islamabad. — DPA
EASY NEWS FOR M1-3
Dangerous escape
Crocodiles let loose
Johannesburg — Around 15,000 crocodiles escaped from a farm in South Africa. They escaped after heavy rain and flooding. The news was reported on January 24. One of the escaped crocodiles was found at a school 120 kilometres away. — AFP
Exercises
1. Where does the101-year-old man plan to run his final marathon?
a. Britain.
b. Hong Kong.
c. India.
2. The crocodiles in South Africa escaped because of a drought. True or false?
3. In which city were the alleged 7-Eleven robbers arrested?
Vocabulary
- dispute (v): to argue or disagree strongly about who owns something
address (n): to make a formal speech to a group of people
execute (v): to kill somebody, especially as a legal punishment
traumatise (v): to shock and upset somebody very much
perilous (adj): very dangerous
fearsome (adj): making people feel very frightened
bleak (adj): cold and unpleasant
outbreak (n): the sudden start of something unpleasant, especially violence or a disease
