Lost at sea
A heavily-overloaded ferry capsized in Munshiganj district in Dhaka, Bangladesh on August 4. At least 118 people were missing and one dead body was found after the accident. — AP
Murder in Malaysia
Two students stabbed
Kuala Lumpur — Two British medical students were stabbed to death. The incident happened on August 5 after a reported argument in a bar in eastern Malaysia, police said.
The bodies of the male victims, aged 22 and 23, were found on the street in Kuching town of Sarawak state. Police arrested three Malaysian suspects and recovered a knife that was believed to have been used in the crime. Investigators went to say that the two students argued with the suspects while they were drinking at the bar. — DPA
War zone
Doctors try to treat wounded
Jerusalem — Doctors and aid agencies on August 7 are trying to capitalise on a truce in Gaza to evacuate more wounded Palestinians for life-saving medical treatment in east Jerusalem, Israel and Jordan.
More than 9,500 Palestinians were wounded during four weeks of fighting between Israel and Hamas, Gaza health officials said on August 7.
Ninety of some of the most serious cases have been evacuated through the Erez border crossing since the conflict began. Mediators were working against the clock to extend the three-day Gaza truce as it went into its final 24 hours. — AP
Urgent supplies
On August 5, rescue workers unload relief supplies from a military helicopter in disaster-hit Ludian county of Yunnan province, China, where recent earthquakes killed about 600 people. — AFP
Tsunami survivor
Missing girl found
Banda Aceh, Indonesia — An Indonesian girl swept away in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami has been reunited with her parents after she had been missing for 10 years.
Raudhatul Jannah was 4 when she and her brother were swept away from her home by tsunami waters in Aceh province in December 2004.
Jamaliah said she believed her girl was killed by the tsunami until Jamaliah’s brother spotted her long-lost daughter in June this year. Raudhatul had been looked after by an elderly woman in Aceh Barat Daya district. The family was happily reunited on August 6. — DPA
Human trafficking
Women arrested at orphanage
Hanoi — Two women were arrested for allegedly trafficking a child at an orphanage in a Hanoi pagoda famed for rescuing abandoned babies, Vietnamese state media reported on August 5.
Nguyen Thi Thanh Trang, the 36-year-old manager of the orphanage in the capital’s Bo De pagoda, was taken into custody on August 3, pending a police probe into the trafficking of a 1-year-old boy for $1,700 (54,700 baht), according to the Tuoi Tre newspaper.
Another woman, Pham Thi Nguyet, 35, was also arrested while three others have been questioned, the report added. — AFP
Border crossing
Ukrainian soldiers enter Russia
Moscow — More than 400 Ukrainian soldiers have crossed the border into Russia and deserted the Kiev government, news agency Interfax quoted a border security official as saying on August 4.
Ukraine confirmed the crossing but said the soldiers were forced into Russian territory by rebel fire. Vasily Malayev, head of the Federal Security Service’s border patrol in the Rostov region, told Interfax that 438 Ukrainian soldiers had reached Russia on August 4. He said the Russian side had opened a safe corridor for the soldiers into Russia. — AP
EASY NEWS FOR M1-3
Rodent ride
Rats found on plane
New Delhi — An Air India aircraft was forced to ground in New Delhi, India. Officials reported the news on August 6. Cabin crew members saw rats running on the plane. Rats can chew up electric wires and cause an accident, airline officials said. — AFP
Exercises
1. Which of the following is TRUE, according to the news story about the family reunion in Indonesia?
a. Raudhatul was 14 when she was swept away by the tsunami.
b. Raudhatul had been missing for a decade.
c. The family was reunited last December.
2. How old is Pham Thi Nguyet?
3. What does NCPO stand for?
Vocabulary
- truce (n): an agreement between enemies to stop fighting for an agreed period of time
ground (v): to prevent an aircraft from taking off
orphanage (n): a home for children whose parents are dead
