SUDDEN DISASTER
A girl walks along the shore as strong waves from Typhoon Hagupit hit the Philippines on December 6. — AP
EBOLA FEVER
Man tells dangerous lie
Taipei — A Taiwanese man faces a fine after telling doctors he had symptoms of Ebola after travelling to Africa, officials said on December 7.
The 19-year-old could face a fine of up to TW $150,000 (158,600 baht). The man was hospitalised on December 5 at Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital in southern Taiwan. He told doctors he was suffering from fever and diarrhoea and had eaten bats during a recent trip to Nigeria. The hospital immediately quarantined the man.
Tests for Ebola were found to be negative, and authorities also discovered that the man had never travelled abroad. Doctors at the hospital said they feared he was mentally ill. — AFP
BANNED MONIKER
Leader’s name mustn’t be duplicated
Seoul — North Korea has ordered people who share the name of leader Kim Jong-un to change their names, South Korea’s state-run KBS television reported on December 3.
North Korea imposed similar bans on the use of the names of its two former leaders, Kim’s father, Kim Jong-il, and grandfather, Kim Il-sung, as part of propaganda drives to build cults of personality around them.
Kim Jong-un’s name is not allowed for newborns, and people who already have the name must stop using it and change it on their birth certificates and residence registrations, KBS reported. — Reuters
TROOP TALK
On December 6, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani walks with US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel during an arrival ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan. They later held a news conference to talk about troop withdrawals in Afghanistan. — AP
DEATH DISCOVERY
11 dead bodies discovered
Moscow — Russian rescuers on December 3 recovered the dead bodies of 11 sailors in icy waters off Russia’s far eastern coast, after a South Korean fishing trawler with some 60 people on board capsized on December 1.
Six of the victims were Indonesian, four from South Korea and one from the Philippines, officials told the Interfax news agency. The search for 41 missing sailors in the Arctic Bering Sea was called off at nightfall and it would resume on December 1. No survivors have been found since December 3. — DPA
BOMB ATTACK
Suicide bomber kills four
Mogadishu — Four people were killed and nine wounded in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on December 3 when a suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a UN convoy, police said.
The convoy of armoured vehicles was ferrying staff between Mogadishu’s heavily-fortified airport and a protected UN base in the city when it was hit close to the airport gate. “The bomber drove in between the security escort and the UN armoured vehicles and detonated the car, ramming into one of the escort vehicles,” police officer Mohamed Liban said. — AFP
KILLING FOR BIKE
Dutch woman and baby murdered
Phnom Penh — A 35-year-old vagrant told a Phnom Penh court he stabbed to death a Dutch woman and her baby in April, a news report said on December 3.
Daphna Beerdsen was found dead with stab wounds at her home in the capital. Her 19-month-old daughter, Dana, died a few days later. Sole suspect Chea Phin said he attacked Daphna after she caught him trying to steal a bicycle from inside the unlocked front gate of her house, The Cambodia Daily reported.
He said he was drunk but did not intend to kill her or her daughter. A verdict is due on December 24. — DPA
EASY NEWS FOR M1-3
DRUG HAUL
Singaporean smuggles heroin
Hanoi — A Singaporean man was arrested. It happened at Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He was smuggling 3 kilogrammmes of heroin. The drug was worth around $500,000 (16.4 million baht). — DPA
Exercises
1. Which of the following is NOT true, according to the news on Daphana’s death in Phnom Penh?
a. Daphana and her child died at the scene.
b. Daphana was from Cambodia.
c. The murderer said he was drunk while committing the crime.
2. North Korea allows people to continue using the name of leader Kim Jong-un. True or false?
3. How old was Phakjira when she died?
Vocabulary
- diarrhoea (n): an illness in which waste matter is emptied from the bowels much more frequently than normal, and in liquid form
quarantine (v): to keep an animal or a person who may have a disease away from others in order to prevent the disease from spreading
newborn (n): a child that has just been born
ferry (v): to carry people or goods in a boat or other vehicle from one place to another
vagrant (n): a person who has no home or job, especially one who begs
verdict (n): a decision that is made by a jury in court, stating if somebody is considered guilty of a crime or not
