BIG LANDING
A 4-year-old boy sits on his father’s shoulders to watch the Space Shuttle Endeavour make its way down a city street on its way to a permanent home at the California Science Center in Los Angeles on October 13. — AFP
LOCAL RALLY
Locals march to mark World Habitat Day near the National Assembly in central Phnom Penh on October 8. Villagers from nearby areas gathered and called on the Cambodian government to stop evicting them from their homes. — Reuters
BAD WATER
Floods kill seven
Moscow — Seven people were killed when torrential rain caused heavy flooding in Russia's North Caucasus region of Dagestan, officials said on October 10. The flooding in the ancient Caspian Sea city of Derbent affected 1,120 people and hundreds of homes. Devastating floods in July in the town of Krymsk killed 172 people and raised questions about authorities' handling of disasters. — AFP
KILLINGS BANNED
Death penalty abolished
Geneva — Six countries joined forces on October 10 to call for the complete abolition of the death penalty worldwide.
Launched at Switzerland's initiative on the 10th World Day against the Death Penalty, Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter signed the appeal along with his counterparts from Germany, France, Liechtenstein, Austria and Italy.
More than 130 countries have abolished or put a moratorium on the death penalty, but 50 nations continue to use it. In a call to other nations to join the worldwide ban, the signatories described capital punishment as a practice for which there can no longer be any justification. — AFP
CRUEL MOM
Woman to be punished for abuse
Dallas — A woman who admitted beating her 2-year-old daughter and gluing her hands to a wall was a troubled teen.
Prosecutors in the abuse case against Elizabeth Escalona are seeking a 45-year prison sentence for the woman. In July, she pleaded guilty of injury to her child.
Police say the 23-year-old mother attacked Jocelyn Cedillo in September 2011. At the sentencing hearing, some authorities testified that Escalona was known to be in a gang when she was a teenager and harassed her mother. — AP
CRIMINAL INTENT
Drug trafficker arrested
Mataram, Indonesia — A German man has been detained on the Indonesian resort island of Lombok for attempting to smuggle 3.7kg of hashish with a street value of $730,000 (21.9 million baht), officials said on October 14.
Rolf Oskar Josef Schweikert, 57, was arrested upon landing on October 13 at Lombok's airport, arriving from Singapore with Silk Air.
"The 3.7kg of hashish was found in his suitcase," provincial customs office chief Listrijono said. "The suspect could face the death penalty under Indonesian law." — AFP
HIDDEN ASSETS
Cash found hidden in car
Mexico City — Customs agents seized $560,000 (16.8 million baht) in cash hidden in the door panels of a vehicle entering Mexico at Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas.
The Tax Administration Service said that the driver drove into the nothing-to-declare lane but was subjected to a random search.
Agents found 35 packages of cash hidden inside the rear door panels. Customs agents have seized more than $50 million (1.5 billion baht) at border crossings since 2006. — AP
EASY NEWS FOR M1-3
FATAL FIRE
Family killed by blaze
New Delhi — There was a fire. It happened at a house in New Delhi, India. The fire killed 10 members of one family. It happened on the night of October 13. They were all sleeping. — DPA
Exercises
1. What was seized in Mexico City?
a. An untaxed car.
b. Packages of cash.
c. Illegal drugs.
2. What country is Lombok island located in?
3. What does TDRI stand for?
Vocabulary
- torrential (adj): (of rain) falling in large amounts
counterpart (n): a person or thing that has the same position or function as somebody or something else in a different place or situation
moratorium (n): a temporary stopping of an activity, especially by official agreement
signatory (n): a person, a country or an organization that has signed an official agreement
hashish (n): a drug made from the resin of the hemp plant, which gives a feeling of being relaxed when it is smoked or chewed
evict (v): to force somebody to leave a house or land, especially when you have the legal right to do so
