Pumpkin power
A boy poses in front a giant pumpkin weighing 357 kilogrammes, named as the winner of the New Taipei City Pumpkin Competition in Taiwan on June 28. — EPA
Grisly protest
Man sets himself on fire
Tokyo — A man set himself on fire at Tokyo’s busy Shinjuku railway station on June 29 in an apparent political protest. The man, who appeared to be in his 50s or 60s, was taken to the hospital after suffering serious injuries, Shinjuku police officer Daiji Kubota said.
Daiji said the reason for the self-immolation was under investigation. Shots of the incident in social media show a man clad in a suit and tie sitting on a small mat above a pedestrian walkway with two plastic bottles of what looked like gasoline beside him. — AP
Civil war
Hundreds killed in fighting
Kabul — More than 300 people have died and thousands have been displaced in more than a week of clashes between Taliban militants and Afghan forces in four districts in the south of Afghanistan, officials said on June 29.
“At least 50 civilians, including women and children, and 32 security forces have died while some 3,200 families have fled their villages as a result of the offensive,” provincial governor’s spokesman Omar Zwak said. — DPA
Fighting fit
Shia fighters who volunteered to join the Iraqi army demonstrate their skills at a graduation ceremony after completing their field training in Najaf, Iraq, on June 27. — Reuters
Murdered for love
Family kills new couple
Lahore — A young couple in Pakistan were tied up and had their throats slit with scythes after they married for love, police said on June 28.
The 17-year-old girl and 31-year-old man married on June 18 without the consent of their families in eastern Pakistan’s Punjabi village of Satrah, police said.
The girl’s mother and father lured the couple home late on June 26 with the promise that their marriage would receive a family blessing, local police official Rana Zashid said.
“When the couple reached there, they tied them with ropes, and the girl’s father cut their throats,” Rana said. — Reuters
City explosion
Bomb blast kills 10
Kano — An explosion in the red-light district of northern Nigeria’s Bauchi city killed 10 people and injured 14 others on June 27, police said. The cause of the blast was not immediately clear, but Boko Haram Islamists have attacked Bauchi repeatedly during their five-year uprising aimed at creating a strict Islamic state in the north.
Bauchi state police spokesman Mohammed Haruna said the targeted building in the Bayan Gari neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city was widely known as a brothel. — AFP
Plan foiled
Pair sentenced for murder plot
Helsinki — A court in Finland convicted a man and a woman of plotting to kill dozens of people at the country’s largest university and sentenced them to at least three years each in prison.
The Helsinki Regional Court on June 27 found the pair, both aged 24, guilty of possessing weapons, ammunition and chemicals meant for the mass murder of at least 50 people, chosen randomly.
The plot was discovered when the pair tried to recruit a 17-year-old girl into the scheme, but she told another person who tipped off police. — AP
EASY NEWS FOR M1-3
Lights out
Venezuela hit with power failure
Caracas — There was a massive power outage in Venezuela. It happened on June 27. The power failure affected the capital Caracas. At least nine of Venezuela’s 23 states were also affected. — AP
Exercises
1. What did the man do at Shinjuku railway station on June 29?
a. He set himself on fire.
b. He set a train on fire.
c. He tried to burn down the station building.
2. A couple on Finland planned to randomly murder at least 50 people. True or false?
3. What type of drug was the Ghanaian man caught with at Suvarnabhumi airport?
Vocabulary
- self-immolation (n): the act of somebody setting themselves on fire, usually as an extreme form of protest
outage (n): a period of time when the supply of electricity, etc. is not working
scythe (n): a tool with a long handle and a curved blade, used for cutting long grass, etc.
red-light district (n): a part of a town where there are many prostitutes
uprising (n): a situation in which a group of people join together in order to fight against the people who are in power
foil (v): to stop something from happening, especially something illegal
tip somebody off (phrasal v): to warn somebody about something that is going to happen, especially something illegal
