Road block
Nepali anti-charter protesters gather close to the Nepal-India border in southern Kathmandu on September 25, blocking a checkpoint between India and Nepal. — AFP
Worrying times
Chinese people grow concerned
Beijing — The proportion of China’s 1.35 billion people worried about official corruption has more than doubled, with concerns also high over social inequalities and environmental pollution, a survey found.
Eighty-four percent of 3,649 people said corrupt officials are a moderately big or very big problem, up from 39% in a 2008 poll, the US-based Pew Research Centre said. Respondents also worried about the environmental effects of China’s economic growth and the growing gap between the rich and poor. — DPA
Pollution solution
Indonesia cleans up
Jakarta — Indonesia has pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 29% by 2030 through stepping up protection of forests and boosting the renewable energy sector, but observers criticised the plan as lacking details.
Indonesia, one of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters, said it would reduce deforestation, restore degraded forests, and lift the share of renewable energy to almost a quarter of the national energy mixture in a decade, according to the country’s official UN documents. — AFP
Presidential pair
US President Barack Obama and China’s President Xi Jinping walk from the White House to a working dinner on September 24 in Washington, USA. — AFP
Drug detention
Dealer gets prison sentence
Washington — A former sniper in the German army has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in a conspiracy to kill a US drug enforcement agent in Liberia, authorities said on September 25.
Dennis Gogel, 30, was also found guilty of participation in a conspiracy to import 300kg of cocaine on a plane to New York, the US Department of Justice said.
The former elite soldier had joined a Colombian drug cartel in 2013. — AFP
Mystery money
Peru investigates first lady
Lima — Prosecutors announced on September 26 that they have opened a money laundering investigation against Peru’s first lady Nadine Heredia.
Nadine, the wife of President Ollanta Humala, is accused of having received thousands of US dollars in unexplained income in her bank account several years ago.
Prosecutors said the funds that were allegedly deposited into her bank account were used by her husband to finance his presidential campaign. — AFP
Unlucky kids
Children hit by lightning
Kuala Lumpur — Four Malaysian children were hit by lightning strikes. A 15-year-old boy was killed and his three cousins were injured when lightning struck a barn in a village.
The incident took place in the north of Malaysia, police said in a statement on September 26.
The victims were laying traps to catch eels in a river when they were forced to take shelter from a sudden thunderstorm, the statement said. The injured boys were being treated in hospital, police added. — DPA
EASY NEWS FOR M1-3
Deadly weather
Storm kills two tourists
Wellington — A storm hit Lake Tekapo in New Zealand. It happened on September 26. Two tourists were killed. They were a Briton and an American. — AFP
Exercises
1. Who is Nadine Heredia?
a. She is a prosecutor.
b. She is Peru’s president.
c. She is Peru’s first lady.
2. Four children were killed by lightning strikes in Malaysia. True or false?
3. How many boys were killed by a man in Chiang Mai?
Vocabulary
- renewable (adj): that is replaced or controlled carefully and can be used without the risk of finishing it all
deforestation (n): the act of cutting down or burning the trees in an area
sniper (n): a person who shoots at somebody from a hidden position
launder (v): to move money that has been obtained illegally so that it is difficult for people to know where the money came from
