Street parade
Actors on September 25 parade on a street after performing at Anono School during an awareness campaign about Ebola in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. — Reuters
Gone from Games
Nepalese athletes go missing
Incheon — Three athletes from Nepal have gone missing from the Asian Games, held in Incheon, South Korea, the local organising committee said on September 26.
The committee’s director of international relations, Jung Ki-young, told a media conference that a Nepalese sepak takraw player had gone missing on September 24.
“He was meant to be going to go back to his country after the match, however, he disappeared from the venue,” Jung said.
On September 25, two of Nepal’s wushu competitors also went missing from the athletes’ village. Jung said that the athletes could remain in South Korea legally until October 19. — DPA
Kids killed
School stampede leaves six dead
Beijing — Six schoolchildren died in a stampede on September 26 at a primary school in the southern Chinese city of Kunming, authorities said. It wasn’t clear what caused the stampede at Mingtong Primary School, officials said.
Earlier in September, a man killed three pupils on the first school day before jumping to his death in the central Hubei province.
Chinese education officials have repeatedly demanded that campus security be increased. Following the stampede, Kunming officials demanded that all schools in the city have thorough security checks to remove any safety hazards. — AP
Angry protest
Indonesian protesters who oppose the new bill on local elections chant during a noisy protest outside the parliament building in Jakarta on September 25. — AFP
Young guns
Myanmar releases kids from army
Yangon — Myanmar’s army released 109 children from its military ranks on September 25 in its single biggest discharge of child soldiers. However boys are still being illegally recruited from poor families, the United Nations said.
Myanmar has for years been listed among countries where children have been recruited to fight by both government forces and rebels. Bertrand Bainvel, head of the UN Children’s Fund in Myanmar, said the military wants to professionalise its ranks and the presence of child soldiers may block military cooperation with countries that could provide assistance.
The military has released 472 children from service since June 2012, according to the UN. — Reuters
Cartoon cut
Animation censored in Indonesia
Jakarta — A Japanese children’s cartoon in which the main character displays his naked buttocks will be censored in Indonesia after regulators criticised it, officials said on September 25.
The network showing the cartoon Crayon Shin-chan has agreed to tone down disturbing scenes after the broadcasting watchdog voiced concern. The show follows 5-year-old Shin, often depicting his antics such as dropping his trousers.
The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission put the show in the category caution, a level below danger on the body’s scale of how disturbing a programme is, commission member Agatha Lily said. — AFP
Violent robbery
Killers sent to prison
Caracas — Three men were sentenced to more than 20 years in prison on September 23 in Venezuela over the killing of an ex-beauty queen and her partner.
All three, aged 18, 19 and 21, pleaded guilty, the attorney general’s office said. The victims in the January roadside robbery and shooting were former beauty queen Monica Spear and her partner Thomas Berry. Monica was Miss Venezuela in 2004. She and Thomas were shot dead in their car during a robbery on January 6 in front of their 5-year-old daughter. — AFP
EASY NEWS FOR M1-3
Big bang
Factory explosion kills 12
Beijing — There was an explosion at a fireworks factory. It happened in Hunan province, China on September 23. The explosion killed 12 people and injured 33. Police were investigating the cause of the explosion. — AP
Exercises
1. Which of the following is TRUE, according to the story about the beauty queen’s murder?
a. Monica was Miss Venezuela in 2007.
b. Three murderers were sentenced to more than 30 years in prison.
c. Monica and her partner were killed during a robbery on January 6.
2. How many schoolchildren died in the stampeded in Kunming, China?
3. When did police arrest three Bulgarian men for ATM card skimming?
Vocabulary
- stampede (n): a situation in which a group of people or large animals suddenly start running in the same direction
professionalise (v): to make an activity more professional, for example by paying people who take part in it
censor (v): to remove the parts of a book, film, etc. that are considered offensive, immoral or politically dangerous
