Amusing protest
On November 13, around 400 demonstrators participate in a protest by burying their heads in the sand on Sydney’s Bondi Beach in Australia to send a message to Prime Minister Tony Abbott about the dangers of climate change. — Reuters
Reef rule
Waste dumping partially banned
Sydney — Australia said on November 15 that it will ban the dumping of dredging waste on most of the Great Barrier Reef as environmentalists called for the government to go further and commit to a total halt.
Conservationists say that dumping waste in reef waters will hasten its demise, with dredging smothering corals and sea-grasses and exposing them to poisons and elevated levels of nutrients.
The plan, announced by Environment Minister Greg Hunt at the World Parks Congress in Sydney, came as the Australian government said it would set aside A$700,000 (20 million baht) to fund a clean-up of marine debris in the reef area. — AFP
Ongoing investigation
Plane crash debris collected
Hraboce, Ukraine — Workers in rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine began to collect debris from the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on November 16, four months after the plane was brought down.
The operation is being carried out under the supervision of Dutch investigators and officials from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The recovered fragments are to be loaded onto trains and taken to the government controlled eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
The investigation into the cause of the crash is being further conducted there and in the Netherlands. — AP
Friendly meeting
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif watch a friendly cricket match on November 15. Ashraf Ghani arrived in Islamabad to seek Pakistan’s help in reviving broken peace talks with Taliban insurgents. — EPA
Dangerous job
Window washes rescued
New York — Two window washers who dangled from a broken scaffold at New York’s One World Trade Center were rescued by emergency personnel.
The workers’ cable broke, leaving them dangling at an unstable angle about 213 metres in the air. A hole was cut in a nearby window to rescue the men.
The men were working on the 69th floor when the left side of their platform became stuck as the right side continued to rise. The window washers said the scaffold emergency stop device had not worked properly. — Reuters
Climate cost
Money pledged for environment
Tokyo — Japan on November 16 confirmed plans to give up to US$1.5 billion (49 billion baht) to the UN-backed Green Climate Fund, joining a US pledge of $3 billion (98 billion baht) to mitigate the impact of global warming on poor nations.
The move was flagged by Japanese media ahead of the summit of G20 leaders in Brisbane and was rubber-stamped in a statement by the White House after US President Barack Obama met Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the summit. — AFP
Victims of violence
Twenty killed in fighting
Manila — Twenty people died in the southern Philippines following a fresh outbreak of unrest in the strife-torn region, officials said on November 15.
The military said the people were killed after heavy fighting between government forces and al-Qaeda-linked militants in the jungle region, where various Muslim extremist and bandit groups are active.
Three plantation workers, including a father and son, were shot dead in the southern island of Basilan on November 14 in a suspected extortion attempt, police officials said. — AFP
EASY NEWS FOR M1-3
Shaky ground
Mudslides kill four
Rome — Mudslides hit the border between Italy and Switzerland. It happened on November 15. Four people were killed. Many houses were damaged. The mudslides were caused by heavy rain. — Reuters
Exercises
1. Which of the following is TRUE, according to story about the Green Climate Fund?
a. Japan confirmed plans to donate 98 billion baht to the fund.
b. Barack Obama gave Shinzo Abe a rubber stamp.
c. The US president and Japanese prime minister met at the G20 summit in Brisbane.
2. On what floor were the window washers working when they became stuck?
3. Until when will the National Human Rights Plan be effective?
Vocabulary
- environmentalist (n): a person who is concerned about the natural environment and wants to improve or protect it
demise (n): death
debris (n): pieces of wood, metal, etc. that are left after something has been destroyed
scaffold (n): a temporary structure built for workers to stand on when they are working on a building
mitigate (v): to make something less harmful, serious, etc.
