Power protest
Anti-nuclear demonstrators stage a rally in front of the Nuclear Regulatory Authority in Tokyo on September 10, after Japan’s nuclear watchdog gave the green light for two reactors to restart. — AFP
Militant video
Rebels say hostages will be released
Beirut — The 45 Fijian peacekeepers held captive by an al-Qaeda-linked Syrian rebel group are alive and will be released soon, one of the hostages said in a video released by the militants on September 11.
Fighters from the al-Nusra Front captured the Fijian troops in late August in Golan Heights, where a 1,200-strong UN force monitors the buffer zone between Syria and Israel. The zone has been engulfed in heavy clashes between the rebels and Syrian government forces.
In the video posted online, the Fijian troops can be seen in the background as two men deliver short speeches in Arabic. — AP
Myanmar march
Activist get prison sentence
Yangon — A Myanmar court on September 11 sentenced a prominent human rights activist to two years in prison for marching through its biggest city and handing out leaflets that questioned the legitimacy of the country’s new, nominally civilian government.
Htin Kyaw passed through 12 townships on his May 5 march to Yangon City Hall, and he has been convicted in 11 of them for disturbing public order. — AP
Buried alive
Pakistani rescue workers search for worshippers in the rubble of a collapsed mosque in Lahore on September 9. At least nine worshippers were killed when the roof of the mosque collapsed. — AFP
Forest figures
Amazon deforestation increases
Brasilia — Deforestation in the Amazon rose 29 percent between August 2012 and July of last year to 5,891 square kilometres, Brazilian officials said on September 10. The figures reversed several years of decline in deforestation.
The official Institute of Special Investigations released figures showing Para state in the north and the central western state of Mato Grosso as the worst affected areas.
The worst year on record for deforestation was 2004, when 27,000 square kilometres of Amazon forest was destroyed. — AFP
Guerrilla fight
Several killed in clash
Manila — Two Philippines soldiers and an unknown number of guerrillas opposed to the government’s peace deal with the country’s largest Muslim rebel group were killed in a clash on September 11, the military said.
Fighting broke out in the south a day after President Benigno Aquino asked Congress to pass a Muslim autonomy law for the region, a key step to ending a decades-old rebellion that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. — AP
Day in court
Terror suspects face charges
Brisbane — The suspected brother of a suicide bomber killed in Syria and another alleged jihadist appeared in an Australian court on September 11 charged with funding and recruiting for al-Qaeda offshoot terrorists in the Middle East.
Omar Succarieh, 31, and Agim Kruezi, 21, appeared in a Brisbane magistrates court for the first time since they were arrested on September 10 in a series of police raids in Brisbane and neighbouring Logan that culminated a year-long counter-terrorism investigation. — AP
EASY NEWS FOR M1-3
Fatal accident
Crash kills 12 students
Manila — A bus fell into a 90 metre ravine. It happened in the northern Philippines on September 10. Twelve high school students were killed in the crash.
Exercises
1. What nationality are the peacekeepers held by the Syrian rebel group?
2. What year was the worst on record for deforestation of the Amazon?
3. How many gamblers were arrested in Pattaya’s Bang Lamung district?
Vocabulary
- watchdog (n): a person or group whose job is to check that companies or governments are not doing anything illegal or ignoring people’s rights
rebel (n): a person who fights against the government of their country
nominally (adv): very small and much less than normal
ravine (n): a deep, narrow valley with steep sides
deforestation (n): the act of cutting down or burning the trees in an area
guerrilla (n): a member of a small group of soldiers who are not part of an official army and who fight against official soldiers
autonomy (n): the freedom for a country or region to govern itself independently
culminate (v): to end with a particular result or at a particular point
