Beautiful bird
A white peacock opens its plumage at Nogeyama Zoo in Yokohama, suburban Tokyo on May 25. — AFP
Fatal floods
Thousands hit in China
Beijing — At least 19 people died and seven were missing on May 25 in widespread flooding that hit hundreds of thousands of people in southern China.
Heavy rains lashed the cities of Guangzhou, Zhaoqing and Qingyuan and triggered floods, mudslides and the collapse of 1,143 houses, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
About 21,000 people were evacuated in the region, while in the city of Pingxiang, 5,000 remained trapped by flood waters. — AP
Kidnapping case
Thirty-five victims rescued
Mexico City — Mexican federal officials rescued 35 people who had been kidnapped for ransom in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, the federal Attorney General’s Office said on May 21.
Authorities located the victims as part of an investigation to find four people who went missing in Guerrero in October. Federal investigators aided by marines arrested four suspected kidnappers and are seeking the arrest of six more. The kidnap victims showed signs of severe malnutrition and had injuries from being kept in inhumane conditions. — AP
Outside mass
Pope Francis leads an open-air mass in the Manger Square on May 25 outside the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank Biblical town of Bethlehem. He was on a three-day Middle East tour aimed at forging regional peace. — AFP
Japanese defence
Military camp to be built
Tokyo — Japan confirmed that it would establish a defence camp on one of its southern islands to guard against military assaults, amid growing Chinese assertiveness in the East China Sea. Local media reported the news on May 22.
Vice Defence Minister Ryota Takeda on May 21 told officials of Amami Oshima Island about the government’s plan to build a camp for about 350 troops to the region, approximately 1,300 kilometres south-west of Tokyo. — DPA
Brutal stabbing
Jealous man murders mayor
Paris — A jealous man murdered the mayor of a hamlet in northern France whom he suspected of having an affair with his girlfriend, officials said on May 23.
Mayor Dominique Leboucher, 55, was brutally stabbed in the neck by a 39-year-old electrician, the prosecutor of the northern city of Caen told reporters. The attacker had no previous police record, officials said. He committed suicide after the attack. — AFP
App out
Instagram possibly banned
Tehran — A semi-official news agency in Iran is reporting that a court is ordering that the photo-sharing application Instagram be blocked in the Islamic Republic over privacy concerns.
The Mehr news agency reported on May 23 that the court order had been given to Iran’s Ministry of Telecommunications to ban the site. Users in Tehran still could access the application around noon on May 23.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was thought to have an Instagram account. — AP
EASY NEWS FOR M1-3
Crash carnage
Truck accident kills 10
Beijing — Two trucks collided. It happened in Wujiaqu city, China on May 26. The accident killed 10 people and injured 32 others. Six people were seriously injured. — AP
Exercises
1. Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the news story about the murder in France?
a. Dominique Leboucher murdered somebody.
b. Caen is a city in Canada.
c. Dominique Leboucher was in his fifties.
2. At least 19 people were missing and seven died in the flooding that hit southern China. True or false?
3. What does OBEC stand for?
Vocabulary
- plumage (n): the feathers covering a bird’s body
malnutrition (n): a poor condition of health caused by a lack of food or a lack of the right type of food
telecommunications (n): the technology of sending signals, images and messages over long distances by radio, telephone, television, satellite, etc.
