Celebration song
A North Korean student choir sings on July 27 in Pyongyang as part of the celebrations for the 61st anniversary of the Korean War armistice agreement. — AP
Weather worries
Storm affects thousands
Beijing — China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs says a storm has killed 13 people in the country and thousands were in need of basic living supplies.
Typhoon Matmo dumped heavy rain on Taiwan before arriving on the Chinese mainland on July 23 and being downgraded to a tropical storm. It brought strong winds and heavy downpours to several provinces.
The ministry said on July 27 that nine deaths had been reported in eastern Jiangxi province and four in southern Guangdong province. — AP
Right to arm
Judge rules on guns
Washington — A federal judge on July 26 ruled that the ban on citizens carrying handguns in public in the US capital of Washington is unconstitutional.
“There is no longer any basis on which this Court can conclude that the District of Columbia’s total ban on the public carrying of ready-to-use handguns outside the home is constitutional under any level of scrutiny,” Judge Frederick Scullin said in a 19-page ruling.
It is unclear if the defendants — the District of Columbia as represented by Police Chief Cathy Lanier — will appeal the ruling. — AFP
Crash carnage
Soldiers clean the wreckage of a TransAsia Airways turboprop plane that crashed on Taiwan’s offshore island Penghu on July 25. Taiwan authorities launched an investigation into the crash in which 48 people were killed. — Reuters
Flogged for food
Men punished in Iran
Tehran — Five people were publicly flogged in Iran as punishment for eating in public in violation of the rules of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, state media reported.
The offenders ignored warnings from police and ate intentionally in the western city of Kermanshah, the province’s chief justice Ali Mozafari said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency. — AFP
Natural wonder
Huge hole appears in Siberia
Moscow — A group of scientists were sent to investigate when a vast crater was discovered in a remote region of Siberia known to locals as “the end of the world.”
The crater is located in the permafrost around 30 kilometres from a huge gas field north of the regional capital of Salekhard, roughly 2,000 kilometres northeast of Moscow.
Oil and Gas Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences official Vasily Bogoyavlensky said the crater was likely to have been caused by the melting of underground ice in the permafrost, freeing gas that then built up high pressure and broke through to the surface. — AFP
Helping hand
Laos given nutrition scheme
Vientiane — The World Food Programme pledged $28 million (892 million baht) to Laos to improve nutrition among mothers and babies, state media reported Friday.
The money will go towards a project run by the UN agency and the Lao Ministry of Health to improve mother and child health and nutrition, school meals, as well as food marketing, the Vientiane Times newspaper reported.
The programme aims to prevent stunting among Laotians, including in remote communities. — DPA
EASY NEWS FOR M1-3
Spider-Man arrested
Man charged with punching policeman
New York — A man dressed as Spider-Man was arrested for punching a police officer. Junior Bishop was charged with assault. The policeman had told Junior to stop harassing tourists in New York’s Times Square. — AP
Exercises
1. What do scientists think caused the hole in Siberia?
a. A volcano melting the ice.
b. An earthquake.
c. Melting of underground ice in the permafrost.
2. Junior Bishop was arrested for punching tourists. True or false?
3. What were the Dutch man and his Thai wife arrested for?
Vocabulary
- armistice (n): a formal agreement during a war to stop fighting and discuss making peace
handgun (n): a small gun that you can hold and fire with one hand
scrutiny (n): careful and thorough examination
harass (v): to annoy or worry somebody by putting pressure on them or saying or doing unpleasant things to them
flog (v): to punish somebody by hitting them many times with a whip or stick
permafrost (n): a layer of soil that is permanently frozen in very cold parts of the world
stunt (v): to prevent somebody or something from growing or developing as much as they or it should
