Trump tension
US Secret Service agents on March 12 detain a man after a disturbance as US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke in Dayton, Ohio. — Reuters
Concert horror
Girls arrested for terror plans
Paris — Two teenage girls have been charged in France with allegedly plotting to assault a Paris concert hall some four months after the nation’s deadliest terror attacks, legal sources said on March 12.
The girls, 15 and 17 years old, exchanged messages on Facebook in which they claimed they wanted to launch an attack similar to those in November that targeted the Bataclan concert venue as well as bars, restaurants and a football stadium, police said. — AFP
Go home
Australia returns asylum seekers
Canberra — Australia hopes to send thousands of Iranian asylum seekers back to their homeland under a new deal with Tehran, Australian officials said on March 9.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s negotiations with her Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif were well advanced on a deal expected to be signed at the end of March.
The deal would lift Tehran’s long-standing refusal to accept Iranian asylum seekers who don’t want to return to their homeland, her office said. — AP
Food queue
Migrants queue up for food in a makeshift camp on the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece on March 11. — Reuters
Missing found
Booksellers go home
Hong Kong — Two Hong Kong booksellers released from mainland Chinese custody after going missing went straight back to China after returning home to ask police to drop their missing persons cases, local media reported on March 10.
The two, Cheung Chi Ping and Lui Por, were among five Hong Kong booksellers who have disappeared over the past six months and re-surfaced in mainland Chinese police custody.
All five were from a Hong Kong book shop that specialises in gossipy political books about Chinese leaders. — Reuters
Fake mom
Woman steals baby
Cape Town — A South African woman was convicted on March 10 of kidnapping a newborn baby and raising her for 17 years before an astonishing coincidence reunited the girl with her biological family.
“You must have been the person who removed the child from hospital,” High Court judge John Hlophe told the woman, who claimed to have been handed the baby at a train station.
The girl’s biological mother, Celeste Nurse, 36, sobbed loudly as the guilty verdict was handed down. — AP
Less terrorists
Security forces fight jihadists
Tunis — Tunisian security forces killed six terrorists overnight near Ben Guerdane after a deadly jihadist attack on the town near the border with Libya, the interior ministry said on March 9.
“Security and army units eliminated five terrorists in the Benniri sector near the frontier,” the ministry said. A sixth suspected jihadist had been killed overnight. Four Kalashnikov assault rifles were also recovered.
Authorities said the attack was an unprecedented assault by the Islamic State (IS) group. — AFP
EASY NEWS FOR M1-3
Shady day
Eclipse visible in Asia
Jakarta — A total solar eclipse was visible in Indonesia. It happened on March 9. The total eclipse became visible in the west of Indonesia. Partial eclipses were also visible in parts of Asia and Australia. — AFP
Exercises
1. Which of the following statements is true about Celeste Nurse?
a. She kidnapped a newborn baby.
b. She raised the baby for 17 years.
c. Her biological baby was kidnapped.
2. Julie Bishop is Australia’s Minister of Finance. True or false?
3. Where is Khlong See Temple located?
Vocabulary
- eclipse (n): an occasion when the moon passes between the earth and the sun so that you cannot see all or part of the sun for a time
mainland (adj): related to the main area of land of a country, not including any islands near to it
unprecedented (adj): that has never happened, been done or been known before
