Big meeting
US President Barack Obama meets with ASEAN leaders during the US-ASEAN Summit at Sunnylands, California on February 15. — EPA
Death scene
Actor stabbed by sword
Tokyo — An actor was fatally stabbed with a samurai sword while rehearsing a play at a Tokyo studio. Police were investigating whether his death was criminal or accidental.
Media reports indicated several actors were performing an action scene when the man was stabbed on February 15, and nobody saw what exactly happened.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported that the other actors saw Daigo Kashino hunched over when they turned around after hearing him groan. Kashino, 33, was rushed to a hospital but died hours later, police said on February 16. — AP
Guerrillas attack
Police ambushed in Philippines
Manila — Suspected communist guerrillas killed six policemen and wounded eight others in an ambush in the northern Philippines on February 16.
Military official Lysander Suerte said about 40 New People's Army rebels detonated a bomb then opened fire on a truckload of policemen in the coastal town of Baggao in Cagayan province on February 16, sparking an hour-long gun battle.
Two assault helicopters were deployed and soldiers and policemen were pursuing the attackers, who burned construction equipment in a nearby farm irrigation project on February 15, Suerte said. — AP
Popular pope
Pope Francis on February 15 greets the crowd as he arrives at the Victor Manuel Reyna stadium in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico. — EPA
Bad candy
Police find illegal package
Mexico City — Police at Mexico City’s international airport on February 15 found a load of lollipops with each piece of candy containing a capsule of methamphetamine.
The federal police say the freight shipment originated in the drug-plagued state of Sinaloa and was headed to Nebraska in the US.
Police X-rayed a box of candy and saw the circular shadows of capsules inside the lollipops. — AP
Sentence changed
Woman gets pregnant in prison
Hanoi — Four prison guards in northern Vietnam have been suspended for alleged negligence after a female inmate, on death row for drug trafficking, became pregnant. Under Vietnamese law, her death sentence will now be commuted to life in prison once her child is born, state media reported on February 16.
The Thanh Nien newspaper said Nguyen Thi Hue, 42, was arrested in 2012 for drug trafficking and sentenced to death in 2014. The paper reported that while in prison, Nguyen hired a male inmate to help her get pregnant. — AP
Human error
Signalman charged over crash
Berlin — German prosecutors said on February 16 that human error caused a train crash which killed 11 people. They also charged a 39-year-old signalman with negligence leading to the fatal accident.
Wolfgang Giese, the prosecutor who led the investigation into the accident in southern Germany said that if the signalman had complied with the rules, there would have been no collision.
"There is no evidence of technical problems. Our investigation shows that this was human error," Wolfgang said. — AFP
EASY NEWS FOR M1-3
Undercover operation
Police find hidden drugs
Sydney — Police in Australia found illegal drugs worth more than $1 billion (25 billion baht). Australian authorities reported the news on February 15. The drugs were found hidden in bra packages. — AFP
Exercises
1. Which of the following is TRUE, according to the news about Nguyen Thi Hue?
a. Nguyen is in her fifties.
b. Nguyen is from Taiwan.
c. Nugyen is a pregnant prisoner.
2. An actor was fatally stabbed with a knife while making a movie in Tokyo. True or false?
3. Where is U-tapao Airport located?
Vocabulary
- guerrilla (n): a member if a small group of soldiers who are not part of an official army and who fight against official soldiers
lollipop (n): a hard round or flat candy on a small stick made of boiled sugar
methamphetamine (n): a type of illegal and dangerous drug that makes people feel as if they have lots of energy
inmate (n): one of the people living in an institution such as a prison or a mental hospital
commute (v): to replace one punishment with another that is less severe
signalman (n): a person whose job is operating signals on a railway
negligence (n): the failure to give something enough care or attention
