Newsademic British English edition 226bulletin.stpauls.br/bulletin/newsacademic/Newsademic.Issue.226.B.pdf · 26th June 2014 Newsademic.com™ – British English edition page 3 SPIDERS

26th June 2014British English edition

Issue Number 226

In this issue

Fishing spidersOffensive in North WaziristanLongest and shortest daysNew World Heritage SitesFamous ‘tusker’ killedCeasefire in eastern UkraineEgypt, news reporters sentencedLost Persian army legend explainedCave rescue in GermanyMystery on TitanWorld Refugee DayEmperor penguins adaptDinosaurs and mesothermsAleutian Islands earthquake‘Big’ echidna searchAmazon’s new smartphonePresident re-elected in ColombiaBerlin’s House of OneOcean ConferenceGlossary Crossword and Wordsearch Puzzle

ISIS picture showing some of its fighters moving through a town in Syria

Each week, Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, speaks to, or addresses, the Iraqi people on live television. When he spoke on 25th June he talked about the crisis in the country. In recent weeks large areas of Iraq have been seized by a militant Sunni Muslim group called ISIS.

Many blame the prime minister for Iraq’s problems. Mr al-Maliki leads a Shia political party. His critics say he fa-vours Shia Muslims over Iraq’s other re-ligious and ethnic groups. These include Sunni Muslims and Kurds. Mr al-Maliki and his close followers say this is not true. Many people are worried that the sectarian conflict in Iraq will now spread to other parts of the Middle East.

The divide between Sunni and Shia Muslims dates back to the death of the Prophet Muhammad nearly 1,400 years ago. All Muslims believe that Muham-mad was God’s messenger. Some people

describe him as the founder of Islam. When Muhammad died there was a disagreement about who should lead the Muslim nation. Sunnis believed that this person should be chosen or elected. Shi-as wanted the leadership to pass to one of Muhammad’s relatives.

Of all the Muslims in the world about 85% are Sunnis. Large numbers of Shia Muslims live in Iran and southern Iraq. Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, and Bahrain also have big Shia communities.

ISIS was formed in northern Syria a few years ago. It is believed to have around 15,000 well-armed men. Its fight-ers wear black and often cover their faces. ISIS stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (it is also known as ISIL). The Levant is a name used to describe the area around the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea. Recently there have been many reports of ISIS’ brutality. Its

ISIS A N D T H E B A T T L E F O R I R A Q

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leaders encourage suicide bombings and order frequent executions.

For the last two years ISIS has been part of an insurgency in Syr-ia. There, it occupies the northern part of the country. In Syria several armed groups, including ISIS, are fighting against the Syrian army. The army supports Syria’s presi-dent, Bashar al-Assad. The armed groups are fighting to overthrow the president and his government.

The leaders of ISIS say they do not recognise countries like Iraq and Syria. They plan to set up a new Sunni Islamic state. This, they claim, will cover a large part of the Middle East. Everyone within this state would have to follow very strict religious laws.

TURKEY

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SYRIA

IRAQ

IRAN

SAUDIARABIA

Baghdad

Mosul IraqiKurdistan

O Area controlled by ISIS

In 2003 the USA invaded Iraq. Then, Saddam Hussein was the Iraqi leader. He had controlled the country for over 20 years. Saddam Hussein and most of the people who worked for him were Sunnis. The leaders of the USA claimed that Iraq was developing WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction). They believed that the Iraqi leader would use these weapons to threaten or attack other countries in the Middle East.

George W Bush, the American president at that time, decided to launch an invasion. The govern-ments of several other countries such as the UK, Australia and Po-land agreed to help. The invasion was successful and the Iraqi army

was quickly defeated. Saddam Hus-sein was captured. A court decided that he was guilty of crimes against the Iraqi people. He was sentenced to death.

Many people in the USA and the UK are still unhappy about the in-vasion and occupation of Iraq. They believe that it was illegal under in-ternational law. No WMD, which was the original reason for the war, were ever found.

After the invasion, fighting broke out between different Iraqi militant Shia and Sunni groups. In 2006 the USA organised elections and Mr al-Maliki became Iraq’s prime minister. The American and other foreign troops in Iraq helped to train a new Iraqi army and police force. By mid 2009 many foreign soldiers had left Iraq. There were plans for several thousand American troops to stay. However, Mr al-Maliki ar-gued against this. At the end of 2011 all the remaining American troops returned to the USA.

A few weeks ago a large ISIS force entered northern Iraq from Syria. Within a few days it captured Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. This is a Sunni area of Iraq. Local Sunni tribes and former Saddam Hussein supporters helped the ISIS fighters. Most Sunnis in this part of Iraq dislike Mr al-Maliki. They claim that he and his government treat all Sunnis unfairly.

Thousands of Iraqi soldiers were near Mosul. Yet most fled, or ran away, when the ISIS fighters arrived. The soldiers left behind most of their American-made military equipment, weapons and ammunition. The ISIS fighters then advanced to several towns that are within 80 kilometres (50 miles) of Baghdad.

The northwest of Iraq is a Kurd-ish area. Under Saddam Hussein the

Iraqi Kurds were very badly treated. Today this area, which is known as Iraqi Kurdistan, is still part of Iraq. Yet the Kurds have their own prime minister and make many of their own decisions. The Kurds also have their own army. Called the Pesh-merga, it is a well-trained and well-equipped military force.

After the Iraqi soldiers fled, the Peshmerga quickly occupied sev-eral parts of northern Iraq, including the city of Kirkuk. The Kurds have always claimed ownership of these places. Many of Iraq’s oilfields are in this part of the country. So far ISIS fighters and the Peshmerga have not attacked each other.

Some reports say that ISIS now plans to attack Baghdad. Thousands of young Iraqi men have volun-teered to fight against ISIS. Nearly all are Shia Muslims. They were given weapons and then sent to the north of Baghdad to stop the ISIS advance. The leaders of Iran have offered to help. Some Iranian sol-diers are now believed to be in Iraq.

Mr al-Maliki has asked for Amer-ican assistance. Barack Obama, the president of the USA, says he will not send large numbers of Ameri-can troops back to Iraq. Yet, on 25th June, over 100 American military advisors arrived in Baghdad. These men are expected to help Iraqi army commanders. They may also be used to pass information about possible targets to American fighter planes.

The leaders of other nearby countries, such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia, are worried about what is happening in Iraq. All say ISIS must be defeated. For many years the USA and Iran have been enemies. Surprisingly, if the leaders of both countries want to prevent the break-up of Iraq, they may have to work together.


SPIDERS AND FISH

Two scientists from Switzerland and Australia have recently completed a study of certain types of spiders. Nearly all spiders feed on insects. However, the scientists say that a surprising number of them also catch and eat fish.

Spiders are also called arach-nids. This name comes from the Ancient Greek word for ‘spider’. People who have arachnophobia are scared of spiders. In Greek ‘phobia’ means ‘fear’.

There are thought to be around 43,600 different types of spiders. All spiders have eight legs, but they differ in size. The smallest have a body length of only 0.37 millimetres (0.015 inches). One of the biggest is called the Goliath birdeater. These spiders are found in South America. They have a leg span of 25 centime-tres (9.8 inches).

The scientists gathered informa-tion on all spiders that have been re-corded catching fish. These spiders, they say, can be found everywhere in the world except Antarctica. The place with the most fish-eating spi-ders is Florida, in the USA.

The fish that these spiders eat are small. Most are between two and six centimetres (0.8 and 2.4 inches) long. Yet, on average, the fish are up to 4.5 times the arachnids’ weight and 2.2 times the length of the spiders’ bodies.

The spiders that catch fish are semi-aquatic. They live around small streams, ponds and swamps. A few can swim and some are able to walk on water. Insects that can be seen sit-ting or walking on water are held up by surface tension. This is like a thin ‘skin’ on the water’s surface.

Spiders that were recorded catch-ing fish included wolf spiders, nurs-ery web spiders, wandering spiders,

and long-legged water spiders. All are what’s known as hunting spi-ders. Hunting spiders catch their prey without using a web. One type of wandering spider is able to swim underwater for about 20 minutes.

Spider with fish in Ecuador (Ed Germain)

Most fish-eating spiders do not go into the water. They stay by the water’s edge. Here they use their back legs to hold onto a stone or plant. Their front legs can then be positioned just above the water. If a small fish comes close enough, the spider grabs it with its front legs. The spider then bites the fish. The fish is killed or paralysed by the spider’s venom. After this the spider drags the fish away from the water.

Spiders eat fish in the same way that they eat insects. They do not have teeth so spiders are unable to chew and eat solid things. Instead they cover their prey with enzymes. These turn their food into a liquid, which the spiders then suck up. Many living things have enzymes that help to digest, or break down, food. However, these normally work inside the body.

Semi-aquatic spiders do not only eat fish. Most of the time they feed on insects. The scientists suspect that these spiders catch fish for spe-cial reasons. Fish contain a lot of protein. This protein could be use-ful for female spiders during mating periods, as they need to be healthy at this time.

NORTH WAZIRISTAN OFFENSIVE

On 24th June officials from the United Nations (UN) announced that over 400,000 people have re-cently left their homes in North Wa-ziristan. The officials say that many others may decide to leave. All are trying to get away from fighting be-tween a militant Islamic group and Pakistani government forces.

The militant group is called Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). It is also known as the Pakistani Tali-ban. The TTP is based in North Wa-ziristan. This is a mountainous re-gion next to Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. This part of Pakistan is often called the Tribal Areas.

Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, and Barack Obama, president of the USA

The TTP was founded in 2007. Even though the Taliban from Af-ghanistan and the TTP have similar ideas, they are separate organisa-tions. The leaders of the TTP say that they want to set up an Islamic state in Pakistan. Everyone living within this state would have to obey very strict religious laws. In recent years the TTP has carried out many bombings and shootings in different parts of Pakistan. These include Is-lamabad, the country’s capital.

Pakistan is a parliamentary de-mocracy. The elected members of the country’s parliament select the president. The parliament is made up of the Senate and the National Assembly. The country’s president


is the head of state. Yet he or she has few powers. It is the prime minister who runs the country. Normally, this person leads the political party with most seats or elected members in the National Assembly.

ArabianSea

North Waziristan

INDIA

AFGHANISTAN

PAKISTAN

IslamabadBannu

Karachi

There was an election in Paki-stan last year. Nawaz Sharif’s party, called the Pakistan Muslim League (PLM-N), got the most seats. So Mr Sharif became Pakistan’s new prime minister. Before the elec-tion Mr Sharif said he would offer to hold peace talks with the TTP, if he won.

Just before these talks began the TTP’s leader was killed. He died in an American drone (or unmanned aircraft) strike. The American gov-ernment insisted that he had or-ganised attacks against some of its military convoys. These were trav-elling from Pakistan to Afghanistan. Peace talks with other TTP leaders and Pakistani government officials eventually started last February. Yet no agreements were made.

At the beginning of June, ten heavily armed men attacked the airport in Karachi. Karachi is Paki-stan’s biggest city and its airport is the busiest in the country. Pakistani soldiers surrounded the airport. A gun battle started. Eventually, the ten attackers were killed. All were members of the TTP. During the

attack the armed men killed 36 air-port workers and set fire to a num-ber of airport buildings.

Two weeks after the Karachi airport incident, Pakistani air force planes began attacking TTP bases in North Waziristan. The government then launched a large ground assault. Military commanders are calling this offensive Operation Zarb-e-Azb (Sword of the Prophet). It includes 30,000 soldiers and helicopter gun-ships. Some people say the TTP will retaliate. They now expect an increase in TTP attacks on Pakistani cities.

Most of the people who have left their homes in North Waziristan have gone to the nearby city of Bannu. Reports say that others have crossed the border into Afghanistan. The military offensive in North Wa-ziristan is expected to last for sev-eral months.

MIDSUMMER AND MIDWINTER

For people living in the northern hemisphere, 21st June was the ‘longest day’ of 2014. This day is known as Midsummer or Midsum-mer’s day. For those in the southern hemisphere the day was Midwinter, or the year’s ‘shortest day’.

It takes the Earth one year to go around, or orbit, the Sun. As it orbits, the Earth spins on its axis. This is an imaginary line. It runs through the centre of the Earth from the North Pole to the South Pole. The Earth’s axis is at an angle of 23.4 degrees. So different parts of the Earth get different amounts of sunlight as it goes around the Sun. This explains the seasons and the differing hours of daylight and darkness throughout the year.

The Earth’s northern and southern hemispheres tilt, or angle, towards

the Sun at different times of the year. When a hemisphere tilts away from the Sun the weather is colder and the days are shorter. When the same hemisphere tilts towards the Sun, the opposite happens. The weather is warmer and the days are longer.

Many people call Midsummer’s day the summer solstice. It’s true that this solstice happens around the time of the longest day. Yet the solstice is really an exact moment in time. If you were standing at the North Pole, the summer solstice is the moment you see the Sun reach-ing its highest point in the sky. At the same time it is the winter sol-stice in the southern hemisphere.

As the date of the summer sol-stice gets closer the Sun can be seen to rise higher and higher at midday. After the summer solstice the mid-day Sun gradually moves lower. The days get shorter and shorter until the winter solstice arrives. After this the days gradually get longer again.

People gather at Stonehenge, in the UK, on Midsummer’s day, as Sun rises over Heel Stone

The name solstice comes from two Latin words, sol (or ‘sun’) and sistere (which means ‘to stand still’). In the northern hemisphere the sum-mer solstice is on 20th or 21st June and the winter solstice takes place on either 21st or 22nd December. In the southern hemisphere it is the other way round. The summer sol-stice is in December and the winter solstice in June.


The Earth does not complete an orbit of the Sun in an exact number of days. This is why the solstice is not always on the same day each year. There are 365 days in one year. Yet one complete orbit takes rough-ly 365.25 days.

Nowadays most countries use the Gregorian calendar (also known as the international calendar). This calendar is adjusted every four years by adding an extra day, or 29th Feb-ruary. (However, there are three such years in every 400 years when an extra day is not added.) The years that have 366 days are called ‘leap years’. The last leap year was 2012. The next one is 2016.

As the Earth takes about 365.25 days to go around the Sun, each sol-stice happens about six hours later than the previous year’s solstice. This year, in the northern hemi-sphere, the summer solstice was on 21st June. Yet in 2016, or the next leap year, it will ‘jump back’ to 20th June. This is because Febru-ary will then have 29 days instead of 28.

It is known that many ancient cultures and civilisations were aware of Midsummer (or the sum-mer solstice). For example, the An-cient Egyptians, the Inca in South America, and the Aztecs in Mexico all designed some of their buildings to align, or line up, with the sunrise on Midsummer’s day.

One of the most famous of these ‘sunrise alignments’ is at Stone-henge, in the UK. There, on Mid-summer’s day, from the middle of the ancient stone circle, it is possi-ble to see the sun rise over the Heel Stone. The Heel stone is just outside the main ring of stones. Nowadays thousands of people gather at Stone-henge to watch the sunrise on Mid-summer’s day.

NEW WORLD HERITAGE SITES

The World Heritage Committee held its annual meeting in Doha, the capital of Qatar, between 15th and 25th of June. Each year the committee announces which sites in the world have been added to its World Heritage list. The meeting was hosted by Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani. She is the sister of the Emir, or Qatar’s ruler.

The World Heritage Committee is part of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). One of UNESCO’s jobs is to protect and look after cer-tain places in the world. These are sites that are important for histori-cal, cultural or natural reasons.

Any government can ask for a special place, or site, in its own country to be put on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. The UNESCO World Heritage committee then de-cides whether it should be included.

Uluru (or Ayers Rock) in Australia

World Heritage Sites are places that UNESCO believes need special protection. Countries that apply to have a site on the World Heritage list must agree to provide money to look after it. They must also promise not to do anything that will threaten the site. If it is listed as a World Heritage Site, UNESCO will give the country some extra money each year. This money has to be used to safeguard and protect the site.

Most World Heritage Sites are re-lated to human culture. Many are old buildings. For instance, the Pyramids of Giza, in Egypt, are a World Herit-age Site. The Statue of Liberty, in New York City, in the USA, is another.

Replica of one of the prehistoric paintings in the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave, in France

Other World Heritage Sites are ‘natural sites’. These are ecologically important. An example of a natural site is Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock). This is a large sandstone rock formation in Australia. Another natu-ral site is Mount Fuji. This is a vol-cano in Japan. Its last eruption was just over 300 years ago. Mount Fuji is also Japan’s highest mountain.

At the end of the meeting the committee confirmed that 26 cultur-al and natural sites had been added to the World Heritage list. One was an ancient Inca road system. The Inca civilisation was centred on modern-day Peru. Spanish explor-ers and soldiers destroyed this civi-lisation after they arrived in South America about 500 years ago. The Inca roads are specially constructed pathways. The pathways go through high mountains, forests and deserts in six different countries.

Another new cultural site is the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave, in south-ern France. It was discovered in 1994. The cave’s entrance had been


hidden by a rock fall. This happened about 23,000 years ago. Many of the cave’s walls are covered in pictures of prehistoric animals. They include bison, bears, wild cats, and rhinos. The pictures are at least 30,000 years old. They are the oldest known examples of human art.

To protect the paintings only a few people are allowed in the cave. A museum is now being built near by. It will display replicas, or cop-ies, of the pictures in the cave.

There are now 1,007 World Her-itage Sites in 161 different countries. Italy has the most. Many of the Ital-ian sites are very old buildings. The country with the most natural sites is Australia.

FAMOUS ELEPHANT KILLED

On 13th June the Tsavo Trust re-leased a statement. It confirmed that a large elephant called Satao was dead. The elephant, the statement read, was killed by a poisoned ar-row. Its tusks were then removed. The Tsavo Trust is a wildlife con-servation organisation that is based in Kenya.

Satao (Tsavo Trust)

Satao was a large African bull, or male, elephant. The animal was what’s known as a ‘tusker’. These big bull elephants have very long tusks that almost reach the ground. Satao’s tusks were about two meters (6.6 feet) long.

African elephants are the world’s largest land animals. They are often associated with wisdom and intelli-gence. The saying ‘an elephant never forgets’ shows the popular belief that they have long memories. Elephants have been seen doing things that in-telligent animals, such as dolphins and some primates (apes), are known to do. These include showing grief when a member of the group dies, using tools, and helping to look after the babies of others.

Elephant herds are made up al-most entirely of female elephants. The only males are youngsters. When male elephants become adults they live on their own. The herd’s leader is known as the matriarch. The other elephants in the herd act on the matriarch’s ‘instructions’. For in-stance, the matriarch might decide to move to a new place to find food and water. The others then follow. Adult elephants have no natural predators (apart from human hunters).

In Kenya and several other Af-rican countries criminal gangs kill elephants. They do this for the ani-mals’ ivory tusks. People who un-lawfully kill wild animals are called poachers. Ivory is worth a lot of money. A large elephant tusk can be sold for tens of thousands of dollars. Ivory is popular in countries such as China, Thailand, Japan, and the Philippines. Traditionally, in these places, ivory is carved to make works of art, handicrafts and fam-ily seals. Most of this ivory comes from Africa.

Nowadays killing elephants in Africa is illegal. It is also against the law to buy ivory that has come from Africa. However, officials in African countries have found it difficult to stop the poaching. Trying to patrol or police the large wildlife parks where many elephants live is difficult. Last

year at least 20,000 African elephants were killed for their ivory.

Satao was believed to be about 45 years old. The elephant was one of the largest in the world. Because of the danger of poaching, officials from the Tsavo Trust and the Ken-ya Wildlife Service (KWS) often tracked Satao. Usually, the elephant stayed in the same part of a wildlife park. Yet a few weeks ago the ani-mal moved to a different area where poaching is more common.

Some time ago a filmmaker spent a few weeks following Satao. He said that the elephant seemed to deliber-ately move from bush to bush. The filmmaker said he was sure that the el-ephant was doing this to hide its tusks. If true, Satao may have been aware of the danger of ivory poachers.

NEWSCAST

EXPENSIVE LYRICS — Four old sheets of handwritten paper have just sold at an auction for US$2 million (£1.2 million). On the pieces of pa-per, written in pencil, are the words, or lyrics, of a very famous song. Many words have been crossed out and rewritten. The song is called ‘Like a Rolling Stone’. Bob Dylan, the well-known American musi-cian, scribbled the words down in a hotel room in 1965 when he was 24 years old. Each sheet of paper still has the hotel’s name printed at the top. ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ tells the story of a woman who has eve-rything. Then, her world suddenly changes. She has nothing and no money. The song ends with the words ‘Like a complete unknown / Like a rolling stone’. Bob Dylan is now 73. The person who sold the lyrics bought the pieces of paper from him many years ago. It is not known who the new owner is.


CEASEFIRE IN UKRAINE

On 20th June, Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s new president, ordered a one-week-long unilateral ceasefire. This was part of his plan to end the fighting in the east of the country. The conflict is between government forces and armed groups or separa-tists. Three days later the separatists’ leaders also declared a ceasefire.

Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko

Normally two opposing sides will agree to a ceasefire at the same time. A unilateral ceasefire is when one side decides to stop fighting without demanding that the other side do the same.

Ukraine used to be part of the Rus-sian-led Soviet Union. It became an independent country in 1991. This was when the Soviet Union started to break up. However, many ethnic Russians live in the eastern part of Ukraine. Most of these people use Russian as their first language.

Problems began in Ukraine at the end of last year. Many people joined street protests in Kiev, the coun-try’s capital city. They were angry with Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s president. Mr Yanukovych refused to sign a trade agreement, or deal, with the European Union (EU). He said a different trade deal would be arranged with Russia instead.

Most people who live in western Ukraine would like their country to work more closely with EU mem-ber countries. Many are anti Russia.

Yet, most Russian-speaking people in the east are pro Russia.

The street protests in Kiev be-came bigger and bigger. Some of the government’s security forces began to shoot at the demonstrators. Groups of protesters then took over government buildings. Mr Yanuko-vych fled the country and went to Russia. After he left, the protesters set up a new temporary government.

Many Russian-speaking people were unhappy about what had hap-pened. Mr Yanukovych was demo-cratically elected. It was wrong, these people said, to remove an elected leader in this way. Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, in-sists that Ukraine’s new temporary government is unlawful. He de-clared that Russia was prepared to protect all Russian-speaking people in Ukraine.

Russian as a native language: < 5% 5 - 24% 25 - 75% > 75%

Kiev

UKRAINE

Crimea

RUSSIABELARUS

ROMANIA

MOLDOVA

POLA

ND

Black Sea

Luhansk

Donetsk

Pro Russian groups in a part of Ukraine called Crimea organised a referendum. People could vote if they wanted Crimea to be part of Ukraine or Russia. Most voted to join Russia. Mr Putin then agreed that Russia would take over, or an-nex, Crimea. This angered the lead-ers of many other countries such as the USA, the UK, Germany, and France.

Armed groups then started to take over government buildings in Donetsk and Luhansk. These are two Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine

next to the border with Russia. These groups are called separatists. This is because they want Donetsk and Lu-hansk to be separate countries or to join Russia. The temporary govern-ment sent military forces to eastern Ukraine to oppose the separatists. Fighting then broke out.

A presidential election was held one month ago. Mr Poroshenko won. He had been a member of the Ukrainian government before. As well as Ukrainian he speaks Russian and English. Mr Poroshenko is also a successful and wealthy businessman.

When Mr Poroshenko was elected, Mr Putin said he would be happy to work with him. After Mr Poroshenko ordered a ceasefire, Mr Putin advised the separatists to do the same. Many people hope the ceasefire means a solution to Ukraine’s problems can be negoti-ated. However, others suspect that both sides may find it difficult not to break the truce.

JOURNALISTS SENTENCED IN EGYPT

On 23rd June the judge in charge of a court in Egypt announced a con-troversial ruling. He declared that three television news reporters, or journalists, were guilty of support-ing a banned organisation called the Muslim Brotherhood. The three men, who work for the Al-Jazeera Company, were given seven to ten year prison sentences.

Al-Jazeera (which means ‘The Island’) is a television network based in Qatar. It broadcasts news and other television programmes in both Arabic and English. The net-work started broadcasting in Arabic in 1996. It launched its English lan-guage news channel ten years later. Al-Jazeera’s television broadcasts


are popular in many Middle Eastern and other Arab countries.

Officials from Al-Jazeera say they want to present world news in a more balanced way. They believe that news broadcasts from the USA’s CNN and the UK’s BBC are biased. This means they take sides, or their news reports from some countries are not neutral. Al-Jazeera also does more reporting from poorer developing countries. Its officials claim that CNN and the BBC often ignore these places.

A news reporter protests against the prison sentences given to the journalists in Egypt

Before Al-Jazeera’s English language news channel opened it recruited, or hired, several well-known news reporters. They used to work for CNN or the BBC. Most people think Al-Jazeera did this to show their non-Arab viewers that their reports could be trusted.

The Muslim Brotherhood is both a religious and political organisa-tion. It exists in many Arab coun-tries. In 2011, Hosni Mubarak was forced to stand down. He had been Egypt’s president for 30 years. The army took over and elections were organised. While Mr Mubarak was in charge the Muslim Brotherhood was banned in Egypt.

In the elections for Egypt’s par-liament the Muslim Brotherhood did well. The organisation’s candi-date for the presidential election, Mohammed Morsi, won. How-ever, many Egyptians disliked the way that Mr Morsi governed the

country. They were also unhappy about some religious laws that Mr Morsi planned to introduce. About 12 months ago there were huge anti-government street protests in Cairo, Egypt’s capital city.

Because of the street protests, General Sisi, the head of the army, decided to take control. Mr Morsi and other Muslim Brotherhood leaders were arrested. All are now in prison. After Mr Morsi’s arrest, General Sisi announced a new ban on the Muslim Brotherhood.

General Sisi appointed Adly Man-sour as the country’s temporary lead-er. Another presidential election was held four weeks ago. General Sisi left the army a few months before the vote. This was so he could stand for president. There were only two can-didates and Mr Sisi won easily.

At the end of last year, the three Al-Jazeera journalists were arrested in Cairo. One is an Egyptian born Canadian, who used to work for CNN. Another is a former BBC jour-nalist from Australia. The third man is from Egypt. He previously worked for a Japanese newspaper company.

The three journalists were accused of supporting the Muslim Brother-hood. The authorities also claim that they reported incorrect or false news, which favoured the banned organisa-tion. The three men insist that this is not true. It’s known that Qatar’s lead-ers helped the Egyptian government when Mr Morsi was in power. Some people suspect that this is why the Egyptian authorities arrested the Al-Jazeera journalists.

News reporters in many other countries are angry about the ver-dicts. The day after the judge’s announcement people in several countries took part in silent protests. Some stood outside news and televi-sion offices. They stuck tape over

their mouths and held signs saying ‘journalism is not a crime’. The tape, they said, represented ‘being unable to speak or no press freedom’. Lead-ers from many countries, including the USA, Canada, Australia, and the UK complained. All said the prison sentences were unjust.

On 24th June, Mr Sisi, Egypt’s new president, said that he would not interfere with the judge’s ruling.

CAMBYSES THE SECOND’S LOST ARMY

An archaeologist from a university in the Netherlands thinks he may have solved an ancient mystery. Pro-fessor Olaf Kaper believes that he now knows what happened to ‘the lost army of Cambyses the Second’. An old legend says that this army disappeared in a part of the Sahara Desert around 2,500 years ago.

Cambyses was a Persian king. The ancient Persian Empire was cen-tred on modern-day Iran. Cambyses is believed to have died in 522 BCE. Historians say he may have been murdered or killed in an accident.

19th-century picture of the desert sandstorm and the lost army of Cambyses the Second

A few years before his death, Cambyses invaded Egypt. There his armies fought against an Egyptian force led by a pharaoh called Psam-tik the Third. The two armies met at a place called Pelusium, which is on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.


Cambyses won the battle and Psam-tik was captured. The Egyptian pharaoh was taken back to Persia where he was eventually killed.

Before the Battle of Pelusium, Cambyses had sent an army of 50,000 men to capture the Siwa Oa-sis. This was an Egyptian religious site far out in the desert. This oasis is near the modern-day border between Egypt and Libya. Today this part of the Sahara is called the Libyan De-sert. The army never returned. Leg-end says that all the Persian soldiers were buried by a huge sandstorm.

Dakhla Oasis

The legend of the ‘lost army’ and the sandstorm comes from Hero-dotus (484 – 425 BCE). He was an Ancient Greek historian. Herodotus wrote down historical accounts af-ter speaking to people in Egypt and the other places he visited. Modern historians believe that some, but not all, of Herodotus’s writings are historically correct. When Herodo-tus was in Egypt he was told that, many years before, a Persian army was buried by a desert sandstorm. So this is what he wrote.

In the past many people believed what Herodotus had written. In the 1920s and 1930s several explor-ers travelled to the Libyan Desert. They searched for the remains of the ‘lost army’. If the soldiers were buried in sand, they believed that all their equipment would still be there. However, none of the expeditions found anything.

Professor Kaper says that he nev-er believed the sandstorm story. He has been working at a place called the Dakhla Oasis. This oasis is in a different part of the Libyan Desert. Recently, Professor Kaper man-aged to decipher the text on some ancient temple blocks. The text was about a person called Petubastis the Third. He was a local military leader when the Persians invaded Egypt. The text also shows that the Dakhla Oasis was a military stronghold at that time.

Professor Kaper now believes that the ‘lost army’ was not sent to the religious site. Instead, he thinks it was ordered to attack the Dakhla Oasis. Then, an Egyptian force, led by Petubastis, surprised the Persian army in the desert and defeated it.

Later, after the Battle of Pelu-sium, Petubastis recaptured some parts of Egypt. He was then declared to be Egypt’s new pharaoh. By this time Cambyses was dead and Dar-ius had become the Persian king. Darius’ forces in Egypt defeated Petubastis and his followers.

Professor Kaper believes that the defeat of the ‘lost army’ was embar-rassing for Persia. Later, rulers such as Darius invented the story about the sandstorm. This was because they did not want others to know that a Persian army could be beaten.

CAVE RESCUE

On 19th June a rescue team man-aged to finally bring an injured man out of a cave in Germany. It had tak-en a team of over 700 rescue work-ers, from several countries, nearly 12 days to get Johann Westhauser to the surface.

Mr Westhauser, who is 52 years old, is an expert caver, or speleologist.

He was one of a group of expe-rienced cavers who discovered the Riesending cave in 1995. (In German Riesending means ‘Big Thing’.) The entrance to the cave is on top of a mountain near Berchtes-gaden, in southern Germany. This city is close to Germany’s border with Austria.

Inside the Riesending cave

There are 19 kilometres (12 miles) of passageways inside the cave. Several are long vertical shafts. Other horizontal parts are so narrow that it is very difficult for a person to get through.

Mr Westhauser and two other cavers planned to explore some of the farthest parts of the cave. On 8th June, when deep underground, he was hurt in a rock fall. Mr West-hauser was hit on the head. Even though he was wearing a helmet Mr Westhauser had a serious brain injury. The accident happened one kilometre (3,300 feet) below the mountain top or cave entrance. One caver left to get help. The other stayed with Mr Westhauser.

It is very cold and wet in the cave. There was therefore a danger of Mr Westhauser getting hypother-mia. This is when someone’s body temperature becomes dangerously low. It took the person who went to get help 12 hours to reach the entrance. He returned to the cave with a doctor. However, before they got to the place where the ac-cident happened, the doctor had to


turn back. He was suffering from exhaustion and claustrophobia, or fear of enclosed spaces. Another doctor from Switzerland finally got to Mr Westhauser two days after the accident.

By this time a rescue team was being organised. Experienced cave and mountain rescue teams arrived from Austria, Croatia, Italy, and Switzerland. They were taken to the top of the mountain by helicopter. A flat area had to be made before the helicopter could land. The Swiss team brought a special stretcher.

The first part of the cave is a 180-metre (590 foot) vertical drop. This part is nicknamed ‘the chimney’. The rescue teams entered the cave to set up ropes and rest areas. Mr West-hauser was strapped into the stretcher. Special padding was used to make sure that his head could not move.

Very slowly the rescuers began to pass the stretcher back through the cave. Where the passageway is very narrow it took many hours to go a short distance. In several places the only way to get through was to put the stretcher in a vertical posi-tion. In another part of the cave Mr Westhauser and the stretcher were wrapped in waterproof material. This was because they had to pass through a waterfall.

The rescuers frequently changed places. This meant each person did not have to spend too long under-ground. Eventually, the stretcher was pulled up through the chimney and out of the cave’s entrance. Be-fore this happened Mr Westhauser’s eyes were covered. After spending a long time in the dark, a person’s eyes can be damaged by bright light. A helicopter then took him to a nearby hospital. Mr Westhauser had been underground for 11 days, ten hours and 40 minutes.

TITAN’S MAGIC ISLAND

An object that appeared on one of Saturn’s moons and then vanished has puzzled scientists in the USA. The scientists have nicknamed the mystery object ‘Titan’s magic island’.

Titan is the biggest of Saturn’s 62 moons, or natural satellites. The large moon is unusual. This is be-cause, other than the Earth, Titan is the only planet or moon in the Solar System that is known to have a liq-uid on its surface.

Titan is about one and a half times the size of the Earth’s Moon. Titan is the second largest moon in the Solar System. (The biggest is Ganymede, which is one of Jupiter’s many moons.) By volume Titan is even larger than the planet Mercury. It is also the Solar System’s only moon with clouds and a thick, hazy atmosphere. The atmosphere on Ti-tan is mostly nitrogen. Its clouds are made of methane and ethane.

Picture of Titan taken by Cassini (NASA/ESA)

Like the Earth, Titan has rivers and lakes. Yet these do not contain water. Titan’s rivers, lakes, seas and even its rain are liquid hydro-carbons. These include methane, ethane and propane. On the Earth these hydrocarbons are gases, which can easily catch fire. They are liq-uids on Titan because it is so much

colder. Titan’s surface temperature is around -180ºC (-292ºF). There is water on Titan, but it is frozen and hard as rock.

Before and after picture of Ligeia Mare on Titan highlighting the ‘magic island’ (NASA/ESA)

In 1997 the USA’s space agency (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) launched an un-manned spacecraft, or probe. Called Cassini-Huygens, it was designed to study Saturn and some of its moons. The space probe was named after two astronomers. They studied the stars and planets around 320 years ago. Cassini was French and Huy-gens came from the Netherlands.

After flying around Jupiter, the spacecraft finally reached Sat-urn about three years ago. It then separated into two parts. One part, Huygens, travelled to Titan. After passing through Titan’s atmosphere it landed on the moon’s surface. Meanwhile Cassini has continued to orbit Saturn and some of its moons. Over the last 12 months Cassini has flown past Titan several times. Dur-ing these fly-bys the space probe sent photographs and other informa-tion about Titan back to NASA and the ESA.

Cassini confirmed that Titan has large seas, lakes and rivers. Titan’s


three largest seas were named after the Kraken, Ligeia and Punga. These are all mythical figures or beasts. The second largest liquid area is the Ligeia Mare (mare is Latin for ‘sea’). This sea is about the same size as Lake Superior, which forms part of the border between the USA and Canada.

The magic island appeared in the Ligeia Mare. An object about 19 kilometres (12 miles) long and 9.5 kilometres (six miles) across was in a photograph taken by Cassini. Yet when the spacecraft returned and took another photograph about two weeks later, the object was gone. The scientists then checked previ-ous photographs. The ‘magic island’ was not on these either. So the ob-ject must have appeared and then it disappeared again.

The scientists do not know what the ‘magic island’ is. They say it could be a floating iceberg-type object. Oth-er possibilities are bubbles coming up from the bottom of the sea, or waves. These, the scientists say, could look like an island when seen from high above Titan’s surface.

WORLD REFUGEES

World Refugee Day was on 20th June. The United Nations (UN) first designated this date as World Refu-gee Day in 2000. Each year, on this day, the United Nations High Com-missioner for Refugees (UNHCR) issues a report. It contains informa-tion about refugees such as total numbers and which countries they come from.

Refugees are people who have had to leave their homes because it is too dangerous to stay. They may be in danger of persecution or phys-ical harm. This could be for several

reasons. Examples are: race, nation-ality, religion, or for being part of a particular social or political group.

Many refugees decide to cross borders and move to nearby coun-tries. Most then have to live in tents in large camps. Often these refugee camps are organised and run by the UNHCR. Other types of refugees are people who are forced to move to another part of their country. These refugees are known as ‘inter-nally displaced’ people.

Aerial picture of Syrian refugee camp

Asylum-seekers are also includ-ed in the UNHCR’s annual refugee report. These can be people who have applied to move to a different country. Another type of asylum-seeker is a person who tries to enter another country illegally. Many of these people do this because they are seeking a better life in a more wealthy, or developed, country. These refugees are also called ‘eco-nomic migrants’.

An international organisation was first set up to help refugees in 1944. Its job was to take care of the millions of people in Europe who were displaced dur-ing the Second World War (1939 – 1945). After the war this organisation be-came part of the UN. A few years later the UNHCR was formed. Where there are refugee problems the UNHCR helps by providing shel-ter (mainly tents), food, water, and medical treatment. In the past the

UNHCR has twice been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The first time was in 1954 and the second in 1981.

Today, the main reasons for peo-ple becoming refugees are wars, conflicts and local fighting. Other reasons include drought and food shortages. The UNHCR says eventu-ally refugees should be able to return to their homes in their own countries. Yet the organisation also believes no-body should ever be forced to return if it is not safe to do so.

The UNHCR reports that the to-tal, or overall, number of refugees is now 51.2 million. This is about six million more than 12 months ago. It is the first time that the number has been over 50 million since 1945, or the end of the Second World War. Of these 51.2 million about 33 mil-lion are internally displaced people.

The UNHCR says that the war in Syria is the main reason for the in-crease in refugees. This war started three years ago. Since then around 2.5 million Syrians have crossed the country’s borders into Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, and Jordan. Another 6.5 million are internally displaced in Syria. Other countries with large numbers of refugees are Af-ghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, and the Central African Republic (CAR). Nearly all CAR refugees are women and children.

The country that is looking after the most number of refu-

gees compared to its own population is Lebanon. In Lebanon, for every 1,000 Lebanese people there are 178 refugees. Jordan is next with 88 refugees per 1,000 people.

António Guterres is the head of the UNHCR. He is from Portugal. Mr Guterres says the best way to

r- th


reduce the number of refugees is to end existing wars and stop new ones from starting.

MOVING PENGUINS

Emperor penguins live in large groups called colonies. It was thought that the penguins always returned to the same spot to breed. However, Ameri-can researchers say that penguins are now moving to other places, or even different colonies.

Emperor penguins

Emperor penguins are found only on the Antarctic continent. The tem-peratures where they live can be as cold as -50ºC (-58ºF). The penguins are the only warm-blooded animals that stay in Antarctica during its very cold win-ter months. Adult penguins are around 122 centimetres (48 inches) tall. They feed on tiny crustaceans, called krill. The penguins catch these in the cold waters of the Southern Ocean.

Emperor penguin colonies are usually many kilometres from the coast. After the females lay their

eggs they walk to the sea. The male emperor penguins stay in their colo-nies. They incubate, or look after, the eggs during the winter months. When it gets very cold the penguins huddle tightly together to keep warm. During this time the females feed in the sea.

After the eggs hatch, the females return with food for the newly born chicks. By this time the males have not eaten for over 100 days. Once the females have returned, the males then walk back to the sea to feed.

As the penguins gather together in large numbers in one place their excrement, known as guano, dark-ens the colour of the white snow. These dark guano patches can be seen in satellite pictures. Scientists can use the patches of guano to try to work out how many emperor pen-guins are in each colony.

Previous studies showed that em-peror penguins were philopatric. This means that they return to the same place to breed and lay their eggs each year. In recent years scientists wor-ried that warming temperatures and melting ice would affect the pen-guins. It seemed that some colonies were getting smaller and smaller. The scientists presumed that this was because fewer and fewer penguins were able to survive.

The latest study suggests that this is not true. The researchers think the penguins are now adapting to global warming and climate change. If their colony becomes less habitable, they will all move to a new place. Alternatively, some penguins from one colony might leave and join a different one. It is not known if this is a recent change in their behav-iour, or if they have always moved around in this way.

Over the last three years the re-searchers recorded six colonies

where none of the penguins returned to breed. They also found a number of new colonies. The researchers say that the penguins in the new col-onies must have come from some-where else.

In the past many people have wor-ried that the number of emperor pen-guins was declining. The new study seems to show that this is not happen-ing. It also suggests that emperor pen-guins will be able to adapt to warmer temperatures in Antarctica.

WERE DINOSAURS MESOTHERMS?

Palaeontologists (or scientists who study fossils) have been trying to find an answer to an important ques-tion for many years. Were dinosaurs warm-blooded or cold-blooded? A group of researchers from the USA have recently completed a study that suggests dinosaurs were neither.

Mammals and birds are endo-therms, or warm-blooded creatures. Fish, amphibians and reptiles are cold-blooded, or ectotherms. The word endotherm comes from two Greek words. These mean ‘within’ and ‘heat’. Ectotherm is ‘outside’ and ‘heat’.

Warm-blooded animals (such as humans) control their body temper-ature. They are able to keep it at the same level whether the outside tem-perature is hot, warm or cold. Body temperature in healthy humans is around 37ºC (98.6ºF). Some food


This map shows countries to which news stories refer in this issue. Visit www.newsademic.com for more detailed world maps.

USA

UK

UKRAINE

SYRIA

SWITZERLAND

QATAR

PERU

PAPUANEW GUINEA

PAKISTAN

OMAN

LEBANON

KIRIBATIKENYA

ITALYITALY

IRAQ IRAN

GERMANY

EGYPTCUBA

COLOMBIA

AUSTRALIA

Hawaii

Alaska

eaten by warm-blooded animals is used to produce heat energy. Most endotherms have some form of in-sulation. This reduces heat loss. Ex-amples of this insulation are feath-ers, fur and layers of fat.

Cold-blooded animals cannot control their body temperature. This means it changes with the tempera-ture around them. They have little insulation, so heat can be easily lost or absorbed. It is not unusual to see cold-blooded animals, such as liz-ards and snakes, lying in the sun to warm up. Others will need to hide in the shade or lie in cool water to cool down.

Being warm-blooded has sev-eral advantages. Endotherms are able to survive in a wider range of temperatures. Most cold-blooded animals need to avoid temperature extremes. Warm-blooded animals can be active in all temperatures.

Ectotherms become very slow when their surroundings get too hot or too cold.

However, one disadvantage of being warm-blooded is that it takes a lot of energy to keep a steady body temperature. This means warm-blooded animals need to eat a large amount of food to create extra body heat. So endotherms must always have a good food supply.

Warm-blooded animals have a higher metabolic rate. This is a chemical process that takes place inside all living things. It controls growth, energy production and the removal of waste. One researcher gave an example of how this differs between endotherms and ectotherms. He explained that if people ate sand-wiches all the time they would have to eat five every day to survive. Yet a reptile of a similar size could sur-vive by eating two sandwiches in one

week. Cold-blooded creatures do not have to eat so much because their metabolic rate is much slower.

Dinosaurs are normally thought of as being large reptiles. So, many people think that they must have been cold-blooded. However, modern-day birds are now known to be the clos-est living relatives of certain types of dinosaur. Birds are warm-blooded.

The researchers worked out how fast different types of dinosaurs grew. They did this by studying their bones. These have growth rings, similar to those that trees have. A warm-blooded animal that grows quicker than a cold-blooded one has a faster metabolic rate. The speed of growth was then compared to liv-ing creatures. From this information the researchers calculated the dino-saurs’ metabolic rates.

The researchers say their study seems to show that dinosaurs were


not cold-blooded. Nor were they warm-blooded. Instead, the research-ers believe that dinosaurs were ‘in between’. If true this means dino-saurs were mesotherms (Greek for ‘intermediate’ and ‘heat’). In today’s world there are not many meso-therms, but they do exist. Some ex-amples include certain types of shark, leatherback turtles and tuna fish. These creatures have some control of their body temperature. Yet, unlike endotherms, their body temperatures can go up and down.

ALEUTIAN EARTHQUAKE

There was a powerful undersea earthquake near Little Sitkin Island on 23rd June. The earthquake’s magnitude was 7.9. Nobody lives on Little Sitkin. It is one of the Aleutian Islands in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean.

The Aleutians are a long string, or chain, of islands. They are part of Alaska, which is one of the USA’s 50 states. The Aleutians form a curved line between Alaska and the Kamchatka Peninsula. This large peninsula is part of Russia. There are 14 larger islands and 57 smaller ones. The bigger islands are all vol-canic. Earthquakes in this part of the world are not unusual. Since 1900 there have been 26 earthquakes with a magnitude of at least 7.0 near Lit-tle Sitkin Island.

Most of the Aleutian Islands are uninhabited. The local people who live on some bigger islands are known as Aleuts. (They are also called the Unangan people.) The earthquake shook buildings in Adak. This is one of the larger Aleutian Is-land towns. Around 350 people live there. Shaking was also felt in the villages along the island chain.

Earthquakes occur because the surface of the Earth, known as the crust, is made up of huge pieces called tectonic plates. The plates float on the mantle, a layer of hot liquid rock beneath the crust. The edge of one plate can slide over or under another. The edges can also move apart or push into each other. Any of these movements can create very strong vibrations or tremors, known as earthquakes.

Satellite picture of Little Sitkin Island

The Aleutians mark the boundary where two different tectonic plates meet. Here the Pacific plate is slowly sliding under the North America plate. It moves about 59 millimetres (2.3 inches) each year. This movement creates huge pressure. One tectonic

plate does not easily slide underneath another. So, every so often a large area of rock will suddenly break. This is what caused the earthquake.

Near these meeting places, or plate boundaries, magma often rises to the surface. This is very hot liq-uid rock from deep underground. When it reaches the surface, the hot liquid rock cools and forms volca-noes. This explains why most of the Aleutian Islands are volcanic. The central part of Little Sitkin Island is a large volcano.

The Aleutians are part of what scientists call the ‘Ring of Fire’. This is a horseshoe-shaped line running around the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Along it a number of tectonic plates meet and bump into each other.

Tsunamis can happen when an earthquake causes a large area of seabed to suddenly move up or down. This can displace a huge volume of seawater. If it does, the movement creates a tsunami, or a huge surge, or series of surges, of water. Tsunamis can be many kilo-metres long. The front of the surge,

Aleutian

Islands


or wave, increases in height as it gets closer to the coast.

The recent earthquake triggered a tsunami alert, or warning. People in Adak and several other places left their homes and moved to higher ground. However, when the waves arrived they were only a few centi-metres high.

HUNT FOR ‘BIG’ ECHIDNA

Researchers have begun a search in a part of Australia. They are hoping to find an unusual creature. Until recently this creature was believed to have died out in the country thou-sands of years ago.

Long-beaked echidna

Both short- and long-beaked echidnas are found in Papua New Guinea (PNG). In PNG, the long-beaked one (called the western long-beaked echidna) is an endan-gered species. Until now scientists believed that only short-beaked ones lived in Australia. This was because the long-beaked echidna was thought to have died out around 5,000 years ago. Their fossilised bones have been dug up. Also, in some parts of Australia, there are ancient cave pictures of them.

Echidnas are mammals. Yet they are different from almost all other types of mammals. Mammals give birth to live young. However, echidnas don’t do this. Their young hatch from an egg that is laid by the

females. Only one other mammal, the platypus, does a similar thing. Platypuses are only found in Aus-tralia. Echidnas and platypuses are the world’s only monotremes, or mammals that lay eggs.

Short-beaked echidna

Short- and long-beaked echidnas differ. For example, the short-beaked ones eat ants and termites. Long-beaked echidnas feed on worms and insect larvae. Short-beaked echid-nas are about 38 centimetres (15 inches) long. They weigh around three kilograms (6.6 pounds). The long-beaked ones are bigger. They can weigh over 16 kilograms (35 pounds) and grow to a length of one metre (3.3 feet). Both types are nocturnal, so they are more active at night. Each is covered in spines. They also have sharp claws, which they use for digging.

Recently a curator from the Smithsonian Museum, in the USA, visited the UK. She spent some time in a museum, in London, the UK’s capital city. In a drawer of old mu-seum specimens she found the skull and skin of a long-beaked echidna. A tag seemed to show that it had been found in Australia in 1901. In addition, some years ago, a 90-year-old indigenous Australian woman talked to a scientist. The woman remembered hunting for both short- and long-beaked echidnas when she was a young girl.

Researchers in Australia are now sure that some long-beaked

echidnas still live in a part of West-ern Australia. The DNA from the two types of echidnas, they say, is very different. The animals are thought to have evolved separately, or diverged, between 15 and 20 mil-lion years ago.

The researchers say catching or photographing a long-beaked echidna may be difficult. They have been collecting echidna scats, or droppings. These are being tested to see if any of them contain long-beaked echidna DNA. However, the researchers admit that the big-ger echidnas could still be living in Australia even if no evidence of their existence is found.

AMAZON’S SMARTPHONE

On 18th June the Amazon Company organised a special presentation in Seattle, in the USA. This is where the company has its headquarters. Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer. At the presentation, Jeff Be-zos, the company’s boss, introduced Amazon’s first mobile phone.

Called the Fire Phone, people in the USA will be able to buy it at the end of July. The new smartphone has been designed to compete with mo-bile phones made by Apple and Sam-sung. Apple is an American company and Samsung (which means ‘Three Stars’) is from South Korea.

One of the differences between the Fire Phone and other smart-phones is its screen’s display. There are four cameras around the edge of the screen. These are designed to track the owner’s head. The phone then uses this information to change or alter the image displayed on the screen. This creates a 3D (three-di-mensional) effect. Amazon calls this ‘dynamic perspective’.


Before starting Amazon, Mr Be-zos worked for a large finance com-pany in New York City. He became interested in the internet and decided to set up an online store. He moved to Seattle where the Amazon Com-pany was founded in 1994. At first Mr Bezos was not sure which prod-uct to sell. He decided on books. Mr Bezos says he chose the company’s name for two reasons. One was be-cause it began with the letter A. The other was that (Mr Bezos thought) the Amazon was ‘the biggest river in the world’ and he wanted to cre-ate ‘the biggest online store in the world’. (Nowadays the River Nile in Africa is judged to be longer than the River Amazon.)

It took the company about six years to make a profit. Around this time Amazon began to sell other items and not just books. Now the company has large warehouses in many differ-ent countries. These are often near airports. Amazon calls its warehouses fulfilment centres. These centres are where all the items the company sells are kept. They are also the places from which the items are sent, or dis-patched, to Amazon’s customers.

Jeff Bezos holding Amazon’s new smartphone

Amazon makes money in several ways. It charges other companies to place advertisements on its website. It also keeps a small amount of the price of everything it sells. Other compa-nies used to make all the items listed on the Amazon website. However, this changed in 2007. Then, Amazon

launched its own Kindle eReader. A few years later the company began selling its Kindle Fire tablet. Earlier this year Amazon also introduced a TV set-top box. This can be used to watch films and previously broadcast television programmes.

Apple makes its own operating system for its smartphones. How-ever, most other smartphone makers, such as Samsung, LG, another South Korean company, and HTC, from Taiwan, use the Android operating system. Google makes this software. Amazon’s new phone also uses An-droid. Yet its Android operating sys-tem has many modifications.

The Fire Phone has been de-signed to increase the number of things people buy from Amazon’s online store. A feature called Firefly can recognise more than 100 mil-lion items. If the phone is pointed at an item it will display the page on Amazon’s website where it can be bought. Some shop owners say they are worried about the new phone. They fear that Firefly will increase what’s now known as ‘showroom-ing’. This is going to a shop to look at an item and then buying it online for a lower price.

ELECTION IN COLOMBIA

A run-off election for the president of Colombia took place on 15th June. The following day the coun-try’s electoral commission, or the organisation in charge of the elec-tion and vote counting, officially an-nounced the results. It declared that, with almost 51% of the votes, Juan Manuel Santos had been re-elected for another four years.

Just over 50 years ago a conflict began in Colombia. The fighting is between Colombian government

forces and a militant group called the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (known as Farc). Two years ago Mr Santos agreed to peace talks with Farc leaders. These be-gan in Oslo, the capital of Norway. The talks are now taking place in Cuba. Many people hope that the two sides will finally agree to end the fighting.

Colombia’s president, Juan Manuel Santos

The election on 15th June was a run-off. Colombia has a rule that says a person must get over 50% of the votes to win a presidential elec-tion. This is similar to many other countries that have presidential sys-tems of government. If nobody gets more than 50% then a second round, or run-off, is held. The two candi-dates who got the highest number of votes take part in the run-off.

The presidential election was held on 25th May. There were five candi-dates. Mr Santos and Óscar Iván Zu-luaga got the highest number of votes. In the run-off Mr Santos got 50.95% and Mr Zuluaga 46.02%. In Colombia people are able to choose not to vote for either candidate. About 3% did so.

Mr Santos and Mr Zuluaga disagree about the peace talks, or


negotiations, with Farc. So, many Colombians probably voted for the person who they thought was propos-ing the best way to end the conflict.

Farc’s leaders disagree with the system of government in Colom-bia. They want to set up a commu-nist state. Over the years the group has carried out many bombings and shootings in towns and cities. These include Bogotá, the country’s capital city. One of the group’s tactics has been to kidnap, or capture, people and hold them hostage. Many of the hostages have been government officials and soldiers from the Co-lombian army. Farc then demands a ransom, or payment, for their release.

In the past Farc made a lot of money from making and selling cocaine, an illegal drug. This mon-ey was then used to buy weapons. Cocaine comes from the coca plant that grows in the Colombian jungle. Today it’s thought that about 43% of all the cocaine in the world comes from Colombia.

Cocaine from Colombia is unlaw-fully smuggled into other countries, especially the USA. The American authorities want to stop this illegal drug trade. In the past they gave money and weapons to the Colom-bian government. These were to be used in the fight against Farc.

It is estimated that around 220,000 people have been killed since the fighting began. Thousands of others have had to leave their homes because of the violence. Sev-eral years ago, Farc controlled large areas of Colombia. Yet in recent years the group has had a number of setbacks, or defeats.

It’s now thought that Farc has roughly 8,000 well-armed fighters. This, Colombian officials say, is about half the number the group had ten years ago. Farc’s leaders now

operate from secret bases hidden deep in the country’s forests.

Mr Santos’s peace plan means that Farc’s leaders would not be im-prisoned. They would be allowed to set up a political party and take part in future elections. Mr Zuluaga in-sists that this is too lenient. He wants Farc’s leaders to be punished. So they would have to spend a number of years in prison. Mr Santos claims the election results show that most people in the country agree with his peace plan.

HOUSE OF ONE

Three local religious leaders have announced a plan to construct an unusual building in Berlin, the capital of Germany. Their project is called the ‘House of One’. Others have nicknamed the proposed build-ing the ‘wonder of Berlin’.

Artist’s impression of the completed House of One in Berlin (house-of-one.org)

The three men are a Jewish rabbi, a Protestant, or Christian, pastor and a Muslim imam. The House of One is to be a large single building. In-side will be a synagogue, a church and a mosque. It will be the first building in the world where people who follow these three religions can all pray at the same time.

The entrance to the House of One will lead into a large hall or com-mon area. A person will have to walk through this area to go to the syna-gogue, church or mosque. Therefore people from each of the three faiths will be able to meet and talk with each other. The synagogue, church and mosque will be the same size. Yet the shape of each is to be different.

The pastor, rabbi and imam holding the House of One’s first bricks (house-of-one.org)

The Jewish faith, Islam and Christianity are all monotheistic religions, or faiths that worship one God. Each originates in the Holy Land. This is an area in the eastern part of the Middle East, which in-cludes Jerusalem. These three reli-gions are also known as Abrahamic faiths. Abraham was a person who is thought to have lived about 4,000 years ago. For Muslims, Christians and Jews, he is an important reli-gious figure.

The House of One will be built near the centre of Berlin. There used to be a large old church on this site. It was badly damaged during the Second World War (1939 – 1945). Later, officials in what used to be East Germany decided to knock it down. In 2009 archaeologists dis-covered an ancient graveyard in the area. A decision was made to build a new church on the site. Then, the Christian pastor had an idea for a ‘multi-faith’ building.

After the Christian pastor spoke to the Jewish rabbi and Muslim


imam they agreed. The three men then found a company of architects to design the unusual building. The architects studied different church-es, synagogues and mosques. They say there are many similarities. For example, in some parts of the world churches have been turned into mosques. Many years ago large mosques in Spain became Christian cathedrals. What’s more a mosque does not have to have a minaret and a church does not need a tower.

Building work is expected to cost €43.5 million (£34.75 million). The money is to be raised from donors. People are being asked to pay for one or several bricks. Each costs €10 (£8). Construction will start as soon as the first €10 million (£8 million) has been collected. Recently, to mark the start of the House of One project, the pastor, imam and rabbi were each given one symbolic brick.

‘OUR OCEAN CONFERENCE’

A special meeting was organised by government officials in the USA. Called ‘Our Ocean Conference’, it was held on 16th and 17th June. Government officials, scientists, environmentalists, and business people from 80 different countries attended the two-day meeting.

Most of the discussions were about sustainable fishing, marine pollution and ocean acidification. Many parts of the world’s oceans are currently over-fished. This means not enough fish are left to

breed to increase the overall num-bers. Sustainable fishing means catching only a certain amount of fish. The ones that are caught can then be replaced by younger fish as they become adults.

Coral reef (NOAA)

Plastic items that have been thrown away cause some of the worst ocean pollution. Over time, this floating plastic gradually breaks down into smaller and smaller bits.

Tiny floating pieces of plastic cause two big problems. One is that fish and birds, especially those that feed at the surface of the ocean, can easily swallow them. The sec-ond problem is that the pieces of plastic attract toxic, or poisonous, chemicals that have been dumped or washed into the ocean. The floating plastic acts like a sponge: it attracts and soaks up the chemicals. Seawa-ter around the plastic then becomes toxic. Fish and birds that eat the small bits of plastic can be poisoned.

Scientists say the world’s oceans are becoming more acidic. The cause is believed to be extra carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Most of this extra CO2 comes from burning fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal. Oceans absorb some of the carbon dioxide in the air. This makes the seawater more acidic. Therefore, the more CO2 in the atmosphere the more acidic the oceans become. This acidification can badly affect coral reefs.

In 2009 the American govern-ment set up a large marine sanctuary

in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Called the Pacific Remote Islands National Marine Monument, it cov-ers an area of 199,480 square kilo-metres (77,020 square miles). This sanctuary, which is not far from Ha-waii, is divided into several areas. Each is around a remote island, reef or coral atoll. All of these places are controlled by the USA. Within these areas fishing is restricted and undersea drilling for oil and gas banned.

During the conference Barack Obama, the president of the USA, made an announcement. He said that he planned to increase the size of the Pacific Remote Islands Na-tional Marine Monument to just over two million square kilometres (780,000 square miles). This would make it the largest protected area in the world. Mr Obama says that all fishing is to be banned in the en-larged area.

The president of Kiribati, Anote Tong, was at the conference. Kiri-bati is a Pacific island nation. It is made up of over 30 coral atolls spread out over a large area of the Pacific Ocean north and south of the Equator. Mr Tong declared that there would be a ban on all commercial fishing around the Kiribati islands. This ban will start at the beginning of next year.

Newsademic.comEditor: Rebecca Watson

Acknowledgements:

News story photographs by gettyimages

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© Newsademic 2014


ISSUE 226 GLOSSARY PUZZLE

INSTRUCTIONS: Complete the crossword. The answers are highlighted in orange in the news stories. There are 25 words highlighted and you need 20 of them to complete the crossword. Once you have solved the crossword go to the word search on the next page

1 2 3

4 5 6

7

8

9 10

11

12

13

14 15 16

17 18

19

20

ACROSS

2 Adjective Describes something imaginary, fictional, or not real

4 Noun A protected area for birds, sea creatures or animals 10 Verb Given an official name, title or purpose 11 Verb React to someone’s action to harm or upset you by

doing something to hurt them back 13 Noun When a group of people tries to take control of its

country by force 15 Verb Discussed with others in order to reach an

agreement 17 Adjective Not very strict, merciful or tolerant 18 Verb Become different or went in a different direction 19 Adjective Describes something that is meaningful

because it represents something else 20 Verb Suddenly disappeared

DOWN

1 Noun Something, usually a covering, used to stop heat from escaping

3 Adjective To do with business or buying and selling things 5 Noun (Plural) Methods used to gain something or achieve

an advantage 6 Noun The appearance of height, width and depth in a

drawing or painting 7 Adjective Likely to cause arguments 8 Adjective Being between two other similar things or levels 9 Adjective Strongly supporting a particular group or sect 12 Verb To discover the meaning of something, especially a

code 14 Noun An island made up of a circular coral reef that

surrounds a lagoon 16 Noun A large attack


ISSUE 226GLOSSARY PUZZLE CONTINUED

INSTRUCTIONS: Find 19 of the 20 crossword answers in the word search. Words can go vertically, horizontally, diagonally and back to front. After finding the 19 words write down the 20th (or missing) word under the puzzle.

L A I C R E M M O C A G V C Y W T E

A A G Z L Z C H E T Z T N O R Y H V

I B C C Q H Q H O D S E Y Q E B A I

S T N I M L G L E U G C G D H E J T

R N J N H K L H L O S N I S P M V C

E E R W Y T S K T S C X X T I X V E

V I T Z L I Y I M S O N R I C J C P

O N I A N D A M A X R L U N E A K S

R E X A L T H N F Y G B C S D T T R

T L V V E I C A C M D J E U O D U E

N W D D E T A N G I S E D L D Y Y P

O Z F S U A E T V F R K N A L U M P

C V B A A G F E E S O A B T P Y U C

F M R B R V R J H U I I T I B T I N

J Y W U M G S X Q F C I L O B M Y S

C D S B E R R H I J Q D I N R F N O

A N S D R N A I R A T C E S W L G X

I N T E R M E D I A T E Z T H L J H

MISSING WORD ANSWER =

ISSUE 225 A

NSW

ERS

Y T I S R E V I D O I B T D K R Y G

S R O V C F K H A G G R E P V V K N

R I O A S E H L J X N R E N C A J I

E E I S Q G M E U N U B X B D H D D

V M D D L S Y Z E T A R O B A L E L

O A E E B U J V R S W L L O N I D O

R S T T D W P O K Z S S I J G B N F

T S R C U O T M B K U A O G O L E F

N A E E P F R L O L O J L T V E P A

O C S L J L S R A C I F A I W C S C

C R E G B Y I C O X B N X F V C U S

M E D E J H I N H C I H Q D D A S T

Z B Y N J G O T T C H N N Y T H S C

E J B O O X O F A H P Z U S W D H E

E F Y L M C I L B S M L D G C A G L

F D O Q E R X R S N A R N M M W X A

N C Q F V N G E N E R A T I O N H I

E X O S K E L E T O N F J I Q K Y D

If you wish to earn additional Demics log in to www.newsademic.com, go to the Prize Competitions area and submit the missing word. Puzzle entries must be submitted by 10 pm on 9th July 2014 (GMT/UTC).*

E X P O S U R E

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Demics are tokens that Individual and Family Subscribers can earn. They are awarded for answering this Glossary Puzzle and/or the Daily News question – accessible by logged in users – correctly. Demics earned can be used by Family and Individual Subscribers in the Newsademic online store.

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C1

E2

X P O S3

U R E B4

O T A N I C A L

C E5

N

E6

L A B O R A T E X T

F C7

O R R O D E D

A8

F S O E9

C10

O M P U L S O R Y K V C S11

P L G12

E N E R A T I O N U

H D L R L S

I S13

B14

I O D15

I V E R S I T Y O P

B A N E T Y G E

I L G S O P16

I N

O I E N N17

E G L E C T E D

U V R I A E

M18

A S S A C R E T N L D

E D19

I A L E C T

T20

O R T U R E D H

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Newsademic British English edition 226bulletin.stpauls.br/bulletin/newsacademic/Newsademic.Issue.226.B.pdf · 26th June 2014 Newsademic.com™ – British English edition page 3 SPIDERS