Rescue operation
Sea World marine rescue workers try to rescue a humpback whale beached at Palm Beach on Queensland’s Gold Coast on July 9. — AFP
Animal attack
Two hurt in bull run
Pamplona — Fighting bulls gored an American and a Spaniard in a hair-raising third running of the bulls on July 9 at Spain’s San Fermin festival.
A government statement said the American, a 32-year-old from Chicago, was gored in the right thigh, and that a 35-year-old Spaniard was gored in the chest. Three other Spaniards who fell at the run were treated in hospitals in Pamplona for their injuries. — AP
Terror charges
Two British men arrested
London — Two 22-year-old British men pled guilty to terrorism charges on July 8 after returning from months spent in Syria.
Mohammed Nahin Ahmed and Yusuf Zubair Sarwar admitted spending eight months in the war-torn country fighting with an al-Qaeda linked group. Their families persuaded the two to return to Britain, where police charged them with engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorism.
Sawar faked documents to convince his family he was going on a university trip. His family reported him missing to police. — AFP
Election time
Papuan tribesmen and women wearing traditional costume vote in Jayapura in remote eastern Indonesia’s Papua province on July 9. Indonesians voted on July 9 in the country’s presidential election. — AFP
Teachers sacked
Fake qualifications found
Patna — India’s Bihar state sacked 1,100 school teachers in the last five years for faking their own education qualifications, an official said on July 8.
Bihar’s government has launched a probe into the eastern state’s primary and secondary teachers to check the authenticity of their degrees, the official said.
“We have removed about 1,100 school teachers in the last five years in the state for using forged degrees to get jobs,” senior state education official R S Singh said. — AFP
Disgraced diplomat
Victim says case handled badly
Wellington — A New Zealand woman who says she was sexually assaulted by a Malaysian military official is criticising the handling of her case.
Tania Billingsley, 21, told television network TV3 on July 9 that she thinks New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Murray McCully should resign because he didn’t keep track of the case and tried to blame others for missteps.
Muhammad Rizalman Ismail was working at Malaysia’s Embassy in Wellington when he was detained on May 9 and charged with burglary and assault with intent to rape. He claimed diplomatic immunity and returned home on May 22. — AP
Customer complaint
Books removed from libraries
Singapore — Singapore’s public libraries pulled children’s books off the shelves after a complaint from the public that they were not pro-family, local news reported.
One, titled And Tango Makes Three, tells the true story of two male penguins in Manhattan’s Central Park Zoo, Roy and Silo, who were given an egg and cared for it together until it hatched. Another called The White Swan Express features a lesbian couple adopting a baby girl from an orphanage in China.
Both books were removed by the National Library Board after a complaint from a member of the public. — DPA
EASY NEWS FOR M1-3
Shaky ground
Earthquake hits Mexico
Mexico City — There was an earthquake in Mexico’s southern Pacific coast. It happened on July 7. At least three people were killed and 33 injured. Many buildings were also damaged. — DPA
Exercises
1. Why were the children’s books removed from libraries in Singapore?
a. They were considered too violent.
b. A member of the public complained that they weren’t pro-family.
c. Not enough people wanted to read them.
2. Teachers were sacked in India for having fake qualifications. True or false?
3. How many homes were destroyed by strong winds in southern Thailand?
Vocabulary
- gore (v): to wound a person or another animal with a horn or tusk
hair-raising (adj): very frightening but often exciting
probe (n): a thorough and careful investigation of something
authenticity (n): the quality of being genuine or true
misstep (n): a mistake or wrong action
