NEWS PICTURES PAGE 1Which was the biggest news story in your country last week? Which was the most interesting news picture you saw last week?Look at the pictures from recent news and tell your teacher what the stories are about.

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Get the students to discuss the pictures and then tell them which news stories the images actually depict.1 Local lawmakers in the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia voted to seek a referendum on breaking away from Spain on Thursday, setting themselves up for a battle with an implacably opposed central government in Madrid. The Catalan Parliament in Barcelona voted 87 to 43, with 3 abstentions, to send a petition to the national parliament seeking the power to call a popular vote on the region’s future.

2 Australia can expect even longer and hotter heat waves than the one now scorching wide swathes of the country, a climate research group said on Thursday, raising questions about its long-term position as an agricultural powerhouse. A blistering heat wave has settled over Australia’s south and southeast for nearly a week, with soaring temperatures causing worry after players and fans alike collapsed at the Australian Open Tennis Tournament in Melbourne.

3 France’s president is reported to be sneaking around on a motorcycle to have a secret affair with an actress. Who takes the brunt of the heat? In a twist, it’s increasingly looking like his jilted first lady, who has been hospitalized since she found out. The question on many French lips this week is not, “How could Francois Hollande have done such a thing?” but rather, “Do we really need a first lady?” That’s in part a reflection of a French willingness to forgive infidelity by men in public office and in part because the French have never fully embraced Valerie Trierweiler, a journalist who has been living with Hollande since he split with the mother of his four children in 2007.

4 A U.S. court has rejected Conrad Murray’s bid to have his conviction for the involuntary manslaughter of Michael Jackson overturned. The Los Angeles appeal court ruled there was substantial evidence of guilt laid out at his trial in 2011. Murray was sentenced to four years in jail, but was released last October after serving two years of his term.

5 A celebrated portrait by Francis Bacon of his lover and muse George Dyer could raise up to 30 million pounds ($49 million) at auction in London next month, Christie’s said on Wednesday. A Bacon triptych sold last year set an auction record of $142 million. The “Portrait of George Dyer Talking” from 1966 is one of the most famous images of Bacon’s lover and was exhibited at his Retrospective at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1971, a Christie’s statement said. The Irish-born Bacon met Dyer in London’s Soho district in 1963, drawn to him by his fragility and need for protection. An anxious, constant smoker and problematic drinker, Dyer went on to dominate Bacon portraits for the rest of the decade. Dyer committed suicide in 1971.

6 An explosive device wounded 28 anti-government protesters in the Thai capital on Friday and other violence was reported after several days of relative calm when the movement appeared to be running out of steam. Police said the device was thrown at protesters marching with their leader, Suthep Thaugsuban, near Chulalongkorn University in the city center and the estimate of the number of injured came from the Erawan Medical Center, which monitors Bangkok hospitals.

7 The South Sudan’s army said Friday it has been unable to contact its forces fighting in the key oil-town of Malakal as rebels claimed to control it. Malakal, the main town in northern Upper Nile state, has become one of the most bitter battlegrounds in the conflict now raging for over a month in the world’s youngest nation. On Monday, rebels staged an assault to seize back Malakal - which has switched hands twice - but both the government and rebels have insisted they are in control.

8 The U.S. National Security Agency has been gathering nearly 200 million text messages a day from around the world, gathering data on people’s travel plans, contacts and credit card transactions, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported on Thursday. Code-named “Dishfire,” the NSA program collects “pretty much everything it can,” the Guardian said, citing a joint investigation with the UK’s Channel 4 News based on material from fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Teacher’s notes Total pages 2 / student pages 1 / week of 20.01.14 / low-intermediate+ (A2+)

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