War games
Members of Myanmar’s military on March 27 take part in a ceremony to mark the 69th anniversary of Armed Forces Day in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw. — AFP
City stabbing
Man arrested in Beijing
Beijing — Six people in Beijing were stabbed to death over a family property dispute by a man with a history of mental illness, the city’s police said on March 27.
Beijing police said that they arrested a 34-year-old man over the stabbings on March 27. The incident occurred in Huairou district in the northern part of the capital, police said. — Reuters
Terror attack
Police killed in bombing
Maiduguri, Nigeria — Suspected Islamists drove a car packed with explosives into a police patrol in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri on March 25, killing five policemen.
Authorities said the bombers crashed a Volkswagen Golf into the parked patrol vehicle and detonated the explosives by the Dalori Quarters, an estate for civil servants on the outskirts of the city.
No group had yet claimed responsibility for the bombing. — Reuters
Battling a blaze
A firefighter tries to douse a blaze in La Terminal market in Guatemala City on March 25. The fire injured four people, while 50 others suffered from fume inhalation. At least 400 stalls were also destroyed. — AFP
Cats killed
Zoo puts down lions
Copenhagen — Copenhagen Zoo killed four healthy lions after publicly putting down a young giraffe, causing outrage among animal lovers around the world.
The zoo announced on March 25 that it had killed a 16-year old male lion, a lioness of around the same age and two younger females on March 24 after a new male lion arrived on March 23.
“Now that two young females born in 2012 have become mature, they can take over from the old female,” zoo officials said in a statement. “The two young lions were not old enough to fend for themselves and would have been killed by the new male.” — Reuters
Buried alive
At least 14 die in mudslide
Arlington, Washington — The death toll from a mudslide in Washington state climbed to 14 people on March 24 as six more bodies were found, while the number reported missing continued to swell two days after the tragedy, authorities said.
As many as 176 people were reported missing in the massive landslide, and local emergency management officials expressed doubt that anybody else would be found alive in the muck that engulfed dozens of homes in the rain-soaked hillside near Oso, Washington, which collapsed the morning of March 22. — Reuters
Long gone
Deceased woman found in flat
Berlin —The corpse of a 66-year-old German woman who died more than six months ago was found in her apartment, in front of a television set that was still on, the Frankfurter Neue Presse newspaper reported on March 25.
The woman, in the town of Oberursel, near Frankfurt, had died of natural causes while watching TV.
Police said residents in the 30-apartment block had noticed an unpleasant smell in the staircase but no one had informed the authorities. — Reuters
EASY NEWS FOR M1-3
Bad air
Repot reveals common killer
London — Air pollution killed about 7 million people around the world in 2012. The World Health Organisation reported the news on March 25. Air pollution caused lung cancer and other respiratory infections, according to the report. — Reuters
Exercises
1. Which of the following statements is true, according to the story about the Copenhagen Zoo?
a. A zoo keeper was killed by a family of lions.
b. The zoo put down four giraffes.
c. The zoo killed four lions.
2. Which newspaper first reported the news about the dead 66-year-old woman in Germany?
3. What does TINT stand for?
Vocabulary
- douse (v): to stop a fire from burning by pouring water over it
detonate (v): to explode, or to make a bomb or other device explode
respiratory (adj): connected with breathing
outrage (n): a strong feeling of shock and anger
