Water sport
Ethnic Innthar people take part in a long boat race during the annual Paung-Daw Oo pagoda festival at Inle Lake in the southern Shan state of Myanmar on October 21. — AP
Happy Halloween
A group of costumed group on October 28 poses for the cameras during a Halloween event in Kawasaki, near Tokyo. About 100,000 visitors watched more than 3,000 brightly-costumed participants in a parade down the main street. — AP
Big operation
Huge tumour removed
Berlin — Doctors in Germany said on October 26 that they had removed a tumour weighing 28 kilogrammes from a 60-year-old woman who had previously been diagnosed as obese.
A spokesman from the university clinic in the eastern city of Dresden said that Irmtraud Eichler had made a full recovery after the seven-hour operation and is now able to walk again with crutches.
The tumour had attached itself to an ovary and Irmtraud began to put on weight at an alarming rate, leading her doctor to prescribe a course of anti-obesity medicine. — AFP
Better bears
Animals freed from old zoo
Zarnesti, Romania — Two brown bears in Romania have been rescued from a zoo where the conditions failed to meet the European Union’s animal safety standards. They were transferred to a sanctuary where they were released on October 27, wildlife experts said.
The two male bears were removed from the decrepit Onesti zoo and driven to Zarnesti, 150 kilometres away, which houses the country’s first bear sanctuary in a forest.
Victor Watkins from the World Society for the Protection of Animals said that while in the zoo, the bears had lived in small concrete enclosures. — Reuters
Royal engagement
Swedish princess to marry
Stockholm — Sweden’s Princess Madeleine, the youngest child of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, is engaged to marry US-British businessman Chris O’Neill, the palace announced on October 25.
“We are both extremely happy and delighted,” the 30-year-old princess said on the palace website. The wedding will take place sometime next summer.
The couple met in New York, where the princess has been working with the World Childhood Foundation, a charity set up in 1999 by her mother for marginalised children. — AFP
Bird flu gone
Mexico controls outbreak
Mexico City — Mexico declared on October 24 that it has overcome a bird flu outbreak in the west of the country that had triggered the slaughter of 22 million hens since June.
“We can now declare that the outbreak is totally under control,” President Felipe Calderon said, noting that no new cases of H7N3 influenza were reported for 68 consecutive days.
The outbreak caused egg prices to soar in Mexico, the world’s biggest consumer of eggs per capita. — AFP
Buried treasure
Ancient temple uncovered
Bali — An archaeologist said a structure that is believed to be the remains of an ancient Hindu temple has been unearthed on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali.
Wayan Swantika, of the local archaeology agency, said that workers digging a drainage basin in eastern Denpasar, Bali’s capital, discovered a large stone about 1 metre underground in the middle of October.
Excavation teams have since uncovered a 57-metre structure that is believed to be the temple’s foundation. Wayan said that he believes the temple was built sometime between the 13th and 15th centuries. — AP
EASY NEWS FOR M1-3
Unsafe supermarket
Shoppers killed in collapse
Buenos Aires — A supermarket roof collapsed. It happened in Buenos Aires, Argentina on October 26. The accident killed 3 people, while 18 others were injured. — AFP
Exercises
1. What happened in Mexico?
a. New anti-virus drugs were developed.
b. A recent bird flu outbreak was successfully contained.
c. A new flu epidemic hit Mexico City.
2. How old was the German woman who had the huge tumour?
3. How much has the air force spent on repairing its Don Mueang base and headquarters?
Vocabulary
- tumour (n): a mass of cells growing in or on a part of the body where they should not
obese (adj): very fat
ovary (n): either of the two organs in a woman’s body that produce eggs
sanctuary (n): an area where wild birds or animals are protected and encouraged to breed
decrepit (adj): very old and not in good condition
marginalise (v): to put somebody in a position in which they have no power
consecutive (adj): following one after another in a series
archeologist (n): a person who studies archaeology cultures and periods of history from the past by examining buildings and objects found buried in the ground
unearth (v): to find something in the ground by digging
drainage (n): a system of drains, used for removing water from an area
