Festive fun
A member of the Kiba Kakunori preservation society performs a stunt at a festival in Tokyo on October 20. — AFP
Crew arrested
Ship found with weapons
New Delhi — Police in southern India on October 18 arrested all 35 crew members of a US ship which was detained in the middle of October.
Police boarded the Seaman Guard Ohio docked in Tuticorin town and arrested 10 crew members and 25 security guards, local media reported. The ship was detained off the Tamil Nadu coast and 31 assault rifles and 5,000 rounds of ammunition were seized.
The vessel is owned by US-based firm AdvanFort International Inc, which provides maritime security services to ships against pirate attacks, but it did not have permits for carrying weapons in Indian waters. — DPA
Bootleg booze
Toxic liquor kills more
Lucknow — Another 10 people have died in hospitals after drinking toxic bootleg liquor in northern India, police said on October 20, raising the death toll to 42. About 40 people are being treated in hospitals in Uttar Pradesh state, officials said.
Police arrested 32 people for illegally brewing and selling the toxic drink during the Hindu Dussehra festival in Azamgarh district in the middle of October. The region is 300 kilometres southeast of state capital Lucknow. — AP
Up in flames
A devastating bushfire hits Winmalee in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, Australia, on October 18. — EPA
Money matter
Ex wife gets half the winnings
Karlsruhe, Germany — A woman whose husband won the lottery seven years after they had separated is entitled to half of his winnings, which amounts to a quarter of a million euros (10.6 million baht), a German court ruled on October 16.
The German Federal Court of Justice said the woman should receive the winnings from her ex-husband because they were technically still married when he bought the winning ticket. The man filed for divorce two months after the win. — AFP
Wild weather
Typhoon causes mass destruction
Hanoi — The death toll in Vietnam from typhoon Nari rose to 18, with three still missing, authorities said on October 18.
Seven bodies were discovered on October 17, including those of two men buried by a landslide in Quang Nam province, officials said.
Typhoon Nari destroyed houses, uprooted trees and caused power outages. About 120,000 people were evacuated to makeshift shelters, while floods inundated more than 87,000 homes. — DPA
Large collection
Family wants to return books
Shanghai — A Chinese family is seeking a former Jewish refugee in Shanghai to return 2,000 of his books they kept safe for 70 years, media reports said on October 17.
Shanghai was home to tens of thousands of Jewish refugees who fled Nazi persecution in Europe from the 1930s. One of them, a Jewish schoolteacher, left books with Lin Daozhi for safekeeping when he left China in 1943.
He is believed to be a German Jew named Carl Anger. The books include religious works in Hebrew, English and German, as well as children’s books. — AFP
EASY NEWS FOR M1-3
Wreckage found
Plane passengers killed
La Paz, Mexico — Wreckage of a small plane that crashed was found on October 16. It happened in La Paz, Mexico. The plane went missing in the middle of October. The 14 people on board have all been confirmed dead. — AFP
Exercises
1. Which of the following is NOT true about the news on the Jewish schoolteacher?
a. He left China in 1943.
b. He left his books with Carl Anger.
c. He wasn’t a Chinese citizen.
2. In what country is Karlsruhe located?
3. How old is Adul Wannason?
Vocabulary
- bootleg (adj): made and sold illegally
outage (n): a period of time when the supply of electricity, etc. is not working
inundate (v): to cover an area of land with a large amount of water
