newsademic issue 213 b

8/12/2019 Newsademic Issue 213 b

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26th December 2013

British English editionIssue Number 213

Newsademic .comThe informative easy to read introduction to world news

In this issue

Bolivias first satellite

UN Syria appealFirst domesticated cats?

Prisoner release in Russia

Fighting in South Sudan

Chocolate companysacquisitionTime

Person of the Year Arct ic sea ice increases

Aust ral ian troops leave Afghanistan

Tsunami record cave

Picasso raffleChange and Yutu

The real Ark?

Yellowstone supervolcano

North Korean purge

Spider food

Wi-Fi experimentVolkswagen Kombi ends

Tunisias interim primeminister Glossary Crossword andWordsearch Puzzle

Supporters of Michelle Bachelet celebrate her victory in Chiles presidential election

An election for the president of Chiletook place on 15th December. Soon af-terwards the countrys electoral com-mission, or the organisation in charge ofthe election and vote counting, officiallyannounced the results. It declared that,with just over 62% of the votes, MichelleBachelet had won.

In Chile presidents are elected forfour-year terms. They are not allowed to

stand in successive elections. Ms Bache-let has been Chiles leader before. She became the countrys first woman presi-dent eight years ago. Between 2006 and2010 she was a popular leader. When shehanded over to Sebastin Piera in 2010,over 80% of Chileans thought she haddone a good job.

The election on 15th December wasa run-off. Chile has a rule that says a

person must get over 50% of the votesto win a presidential election. This is

similar to many other countries that have presidential systems of government. Ifno one gets more than 50% then a sec-ond round, or run-off, is held. The twocandidates who got the highest numberof votes take part in the run-off.

The first round of the presidential elec-tion was held on 17th November. Therewere nine candidates. Ms Bachelet got47% of the votes. This was nearly twice as

many as her closest rival, Evelyn Matthei.On the same day elections were held forChiles National Congress, or parliament.The National Congress is made up of theChamber of Deputies (lower house) andthe Senate (upper house).

In the run-off election 62% of the people voted for Ms Bachelet and 37% forMs Matthei. The two women knew eachother when they were very young. Bothof their fathers were senior officers inthe air force. Their families lived on the

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same military base in northern Chile.Then, Ms Bachelet was six years oldand Ms Matthei four. They were notclose friends because of the age dif-ference. But sometimes they played

and rode their bicycles together.When a military force suddenlytakes control of a country it is knownas a coup dtat, or coup (pro-nounced coo). This year marks the40th anniversary of the 1973 mili-tary coup in Chile. General AugustoPinochet led the takeover. He washead of Chiles army. Pinochet or-dered soldiers to surround the presi-dential palace and arrest the presi-dent, Salvador Allende. To avoid

being captured Allende committedsuicide. Pinochet then took chargeof the country.

Michelle Bachelet

Ms Bachelets father supportedAllende. The father of Ms Mattheiwas on Pinochets side. Soon afterthe coup Ms Bachelets father wasarrested. He was held in a militaryschool and tortured. The father of MsMatthei was in charge of the mili-

tary school. Six months after he wasreleased Ms Bachelets father had aheart attack and died. Many yearslater an investigation was held. Af-terwards the people in charge of theinvestigation declared that the fatherof Ms Matthei was not to blame forMs Bachelets fathers torture.

After Allende was elected in1970 many people thought that hewanted Chile to become a commu-nist state. The economy was getting

worse and the countrys currencywas losing its value.

At first many politicians and people supported Pinochet and thearmy. They thought Pinochet would

organise new elections. Yet this didnot happen. The general said that alltraces of communism had to be re-moved. He believed that elected poli-ticians would not be able to do this.

All political parties and trade un-ions were banned. The National Con-gress was closed. Many supportersof Allende were arrested. Over 3,000of them were never seen again. Most

people think they were murdered.Thousands more were imprisoned andtortured. They included Ms Bacheletand her mother who were arrested in1975. After they were released theyfled to Australia. Later they went tolive in East Germany, which was partof the Russian-led Soviet Union.

Pinochet reorganised the country.Civilians, not military people, wereappointed to run the country. Theeconomy improved. Medical services

became better. Drinking water supplies to the towns were modernised.

In 1988 Pinochet arranged a ref-erendum, or vote in which all adultscan take part. People were asked ifthey wanted him to stay on as presi-dent for the next eight years. Muchto his surprise he lost: 57% votedno and 43% yes.

The following year elections were

held. Different political parties wereallowed to take part. In 1990 Pino-chet handed over to Patricio Aylwin,who had been elected as the countrys

president. Pinochet then went back toleading the army. He retired in 1998and died eight years later.

Ms Bachelet returned to Chilein 1989. She continued her studiesand planned to become a paediatri-cian, or childrens doctor. The fol-lowing year she started working for

the ministry of health. She becameinterested in military plans and tac-tics. In the mid 1990s she studiedmilitary strategy in both Chile andthe USA.

Ms Bachelet was appointed asChiles health minister. In 2004 she became the countrys first womanminister of defence. By this time MsBachelet was a well-known figurein the country. As a divorced motherand a grandmother, many women inChile admired her.

Politicians and political partiesare often described as being fromthe left, right or centre. Left, or left-wing, politicians believe the gov-ernment is responsible for publicwelfare. They also want everyone tohave a share of the countrys wealth.

Right, or right-wing, politiciansthink its not the governments job tomake sure there is equality. They be-lieve people are responsible for cre-ating their own wealth and spendingtheir own money. Politicians in thecentre are at the midpoint betweenleft and right. They believe in a mixof both left and right policies .

Mr Piera is described as beingon the centre right. When he waselected in 2010, he was Chiles firstright-wing president since Pino-chet. Ms Matthei is also a centreright politician. Ms Bachelet iscentre left. Before the election shesaid that she would reduce the gap

between rich and poor. Ms Bache-let also plans to improve health careand offer free university education.Yet to do this she will have to in-crease the taxes people pay.

In her victory speech Ms Bache-let, who is now 62, said we believein hard work, in the people, and we

believe that good ideas will prevail .Ms Bachelet will officially becomethe new president on 11th March2014.


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B OLIVIA S T UPAK K ATARI

On 21st December many peoplecrowded into a square in the cen-tre of La Paz, the capital of Bo-

livia. There, on a giant screen, theywatched a Chinese Long Marchrocket lift off. The rocket was car-rying Bolivias first satellite intospace. The satellite launch was alsoshown live on Bolivian television.

Bolivia was one of the countriesin South America that did not haveits own communications satellite.The countries that already have theirown satellites are Brazil, Argentina,Chile, Venezuela, and Colombia.

Chinese Long March rocket (CAST)

In 2010 Bolivia and China madean agreement. China would helpscientists from Bolivia to design and

build a new communications satel-lite. It would then be launched intospace on top of a Chinese rocket.A Chinese bank agreed to providemost of the money that was neededfor the project. This is a loan, so theBolivian government has to repay

the money.The satellite has been called Tu-

pak Katari. It is named after an in-digenous leader who fought againstthe Spanish. Spanish soldiers orconquistadors arrived in this part ofSouth America about 500 years ago.

Tupak Katari, which is alsocalled Tksat-1, will orbit the Earthabove the Equator. It is expected to

become fully operational, or startworking, next March. Technicians

in Bolivia will control the satellite.Most of Tksat-1s equipment willhelp to improve communications inthe country.

Currently millions of people

living in remote areas of Boliviaare not able to receive television,radio or mobile phone signals.This will change when the satellitestarts working.

As well as improving communi-cation signals the satellite will doseveral other things. These includeweather forecasting, navigation andsecret military communications.Scientific equipment on board can

provide a lot of useful information.This includes what type of soil thereis in different parts of the country.Tksat-1 will also monitor, or re-cord, the growth of Bolivias townsand cities.

Evo Morales has been the Bo-livian president since 2006. Hetravelled to China to see the rocketlift off. This was the first time thata leader of another country haswatched a satellite launch in China.Mr Morales also met with the Chi-nese president, Xi Jinping. In re-cent years China has helped to trainsatellite engineers in several othercountries such as Nigeria, Pakistanand Venezuela.

Mr Morales said he was veryhappy that Tupak Katari had finally

been launched. The cost of the pro-

ject is believed to be about US$300million (183 million).

UN R EFUGEE APPEAL

On 16th December the United Na-tions (UN) started or launched anew appeal for Syria. It hopes toraise US$6.5 billion (4 billion).This urgent request for money isthe UNs biggest ever humanitarian

appeal. It estimates that around 75%of the 22 million people who live inSyria will need help in 2014.

The war in Syria began nearlythree years ago. The fighting is be-

tween the Syrian armed forces andthose who are opposed to Syrias president, Bashar al-Assad. Mral-Assad and his family have con-trolled the country for over 42 years.

Damascus

Aleppo

TURKEY

JORDAN

SYRIA

IRAQLEBANON

As the fighting spread, somemembers of the Syrian armychanged sides and joined the op-

position. Fighting has been taking place in many parts of the countryincluding the two largest cities, Da-mascus, the capital, and Aleppo. Sofar its thought the fighting has beenthe cause of at least 125,000 deaths.Many of those who have been killedwere civilians.

Some of the anti-governmentfighters, or rebels, formed an or-ganisation known as the Free SyrianArmy (FSA). In 2012 a group calledthe Syrian National Coalition (SNC)was set up. This group is supposed to

represent all those who are opposedto Mr al-Assad and his government.

However, several other armedgroups are now also fighting againstthe Syrian army. People from otherArab countries such as Iraq have setthem up. These are Islamic militantgroups. Their leaders want to createan Islamic state in Syria. If this hap-

pens everyone living in the countrywould have to follow very strict Is-lamic laws.


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The SNC, the FSA and the Is-lamic militant groups all want todefeat the Syrian army. Yet they donot always agree with each other.Recently, one of the militant groups

attacked an FSA base.Many Syrians in certain parts ofthe country support Mr al-Assadand his government. Like the presi-dent, they believe all the rebels areterrorists who want to destroy Syria.

UN Syrian refugee camp in Jordan

Countries such as Russia andIran have worked with Syria formany years. They support Mr al-Assad. Yet several other Arab na-tions, such as Qatar and Saudi Ara-

bia, have been assisting the rebels.The leaders of countries such as theUSA, the UK and France have alldeclared that they want the rebels towin. However, they are reluctant tohelp, as they dont want to assist theIslamic militant groups.

Most people think that the waris unlikely to end soon. One reasonis that the five senior members ofthe UN Security Council (the USA,

Russia, China, France, and the UK)disagree about what should happenin Syria.

As the war continues the refugee problem gets worse. The UN saysthat more than two million Syrianshave crossed into Turkey, Iraq, Jor-dan, and Lebanon. Most are nowliving in large refugee camps.

Furthermore, the UN estimatesthat 6.3 million Syrians, still livingin the country, have been forced

to leave their homes. The price of bread in Syria has gone up by 500%.Many people no longer have enoughto eat. The UN wants wealthiercountries to support its appeal. It

says if the money is not given therewill be a humanitarian disaster inSyria.

F IRST DOMESTICATED CATS ?

A team of researchers working inChina has made an important dis-covery about cats. What they havefound might mean that cats were do-mesticated several thousand yearsearlier than previously thought.

Today, cats are the most popular pets in the world. They are foundin almost every place where peo-

ple live. DNA studies show that petcats are related to the Near EasternWildcat. This wildcat lives in NorthAfrica and parts of the Middle East.

Pet cats have not changed muchsince they were domesticated. Theyare still similar to wild cats. Whatsmore it would be easy for a pet catto live in the wild. Pet dogs are dif-ferent. They are descended fromwolves. Yet most dogs would notsurvive in the wild for very long.

Cats are able to see in the dark.Compared to humans they also havea much better sense of smell andhearing. Cats can hear the tiny nois-

es that mice and other small animalsmake. Even pet cats will hunt andkill small mammals and birds.

Many people believe that hu-mans first began owning cats inancient Egypt. Cats can be seen inmany Egyptian carvings and paint-ings. Some of these are about 3,700years old. However, some recentdiscoveries may mean cats weredomesticated much earlier than this.For instance, a very old grave was

found in Cyprus in 2004. Insidewere two skeletons, one human andthe other a cat. The grave was about9,500 years old.

The researchers have been work-

ing at a place called Quanhucun, incentral China. There the remains ofan ancient village have been found.People were living in this villageabout 5,300 years ago. From whatthe researchers have discoveredthey know that the villagers grew atype of millet. The seeds or grainsof this plant are used to make flour.The villagers also kept domesticated

pigs and dogs.In the village the researchers

found the bones of dogs, deer, pigs,cats, and rodents (rats and mice).Special scientific tests were done onthe bones. From these the research-ers were able to work out what theanimals fed on. The dogs and pigs,and the rodents all ate millet. Thecats fed on the rats and mice. Thetests even showed that the rodentsthe cats ate had eaten millet.

Near Eastern Wildcat

The researchers also found theremains of pots. These were usedto store millet grain. They were de-signed so rats and mice could not getinside them. The researchers believethe villagers had a rodent problem.Therefore, they were happy for catsto live in the village, as they helpedcontrol the rats and mice.

These cats were probably localwildcats. Yet if they were related to


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the Near Eastern Wildcat they mayhave already been domesticated. Ifso, they would have been broughtto China from somewhere closer tothe Middle East. More work will be

needed to find out if this is true.

K HODORKOVSKY RELEASED

Each year in December, VladimirPutin, the president of Russia,agrees to take part in a large pressconference. Reporters working forRussian newspapers and televisioncompanies are invited. Mr Putinthen answers their questions. Thisyears conference took place on19th December.

Mr Putin was president of Russia between 2000 and 2008. For the fol-lowing four years he was the coun-trys prime minister. In 2012 he wasre-elected as Russias president. MrPutin has therefore won three presi-dential elections.

President Putins news conference

Before the last election there

were several large street demonstra-tions. The people who joined the

protests were unhappy. They saidthat Mr Putin should not be allowedto take part in another election. This,they claimed, was because he had al-ready been president for eight years.However, most Russians support MrPutin. In the election he won with64% of the votes.

During the press conference MrPutin made an announcement that

surprised many people. He said thatMikhail Khodorkovsky would bereleased from prison. Mr Putin ex-

plained that Mr Khodorkovsky hadalready spent ten years in prison and

his mother was ill. Mr Khodorko-vskys prison term was expected toend next August.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky speaking with PresidentPutin in 2002 (www.kremlin.ru)

Mr Khodorkovsky used to be therichest person in Russia. Yet after be-ing imprisoned he became the coun-trys most famous political prisoner.

Just before the Russian-led SovietUnion began to break up Mr Khodor-kovsky set up a bank. This was oneof Russias first banks that was notrun by the government. Russia heldits first democratic elections in 1991.The elected government decidedto sell many of its assets, or thingsthat it owned. These included facto-ries, buildings and oil and gas fields.

Nowadays, people argue that theseassets were sold far too cheaply.

In 1995 Mr Khodorkovsky usedmoney he made from his bank to

buy several oil fields. He set up anoil company called Yukos. It wasvery successful and Mr Khodor-kovsky became the richest personin Russia. Businessmen who madelots of money from buying Russiangovernment assets in the 1990s areoften called oligarchs.

Mr Putin became president in2000. He decided to change manythings that the previous governmentdid. Mr Khodorkovsky suspected

that Mr Putin wanted Russia to go back to being a one party state. He began donating, or giving, moneyto political groups that opposed the

president and his party.

In 2003 Mr Putin and Mr Kho-dorkovsky argued during a meet-ing. The argument was shown ontelevision. Mr Khodorkovsky ac-cused government officials of beingdishonest and corrupt. Eight monthslater he was suddenly arrested. Hewas accused of not paying the cor-rect amount of tax. After being heldin prison for two years Mr Khodor-kovsky was put on trial. He wasfound guilty of tax evasion and sentto a prison camp.

Mr Khodorkovsky says that he didnot do anything wrong. Many peoplein other countries said his trial wasunfair. They claimed he was impris-oned for political reasons. Yet Rus-sian officials have always insisted hewas punished for breaking tax laws.

Mr Khodorkovsky was releasedthe day after Mr Putins press con-ference. He immediately left Russiaand travelled to Berlin, the capitalof Germany. Mr Khodorkovsky isno longer wealthy. His companieswere taken over by the Russian gov-ernment. Most people believe thathe will return to Russia. Some even

predict that Mr Khodorkovsky willstand against Mr Putin at the next

presidential election in 2018.

F IGHTING IN S OUTH S UDAN

On 21st December, Riek Macharannounced that he was in charge ofthe anti-government, or rebel, forcesin South Sudan. Mr Machar is thecountrys former vice president.Fighting in South Sudan broke outsix days earlier. Many people fear itwill become a civil war.


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Sudan was a British colony until1956. Soon after the country be-came independent, fighting brokeout between the north and south. Inthe northern part of Sudan the ma-

jority of people speak Arabic andare Muslims. In the south most are black Africans, who follow Christi-anity or traditional African religions.

R e d S e a

KENYA

ETHIOPIA

EGYPTLIBYA

CHAD

CENTRAL AFRICA NREPUBLIC

UGANDA

SUDAN

SOUTHSUDAN

Port Sudan

O i l p

i p e l i n

e s

Juba

Akobo

The United Nations (UN) helpedto arrange a peace treaty in 2005.This ended the war. About two mil-lion people were killed during thefighting. Twice as many were forcedto leave their homes. As part of thetreaty it was agreed that the peopleliving in the south would be allowedto decide if South Sudan should be-come a separate country.

In 2011 a referendum, or vote inwhich all adults can take part, washeld in South Sudan. Nearly 99%of the people voted yes for inde-

pendence. Then, six months later,South Sudan officially became theworlds newest country.

Sudan used to make a lot ofmoney by selling its oil to othercountries. Most was sold to China.Roughly 70% of the oil that Sudansold came from oilfields that are

now in South Sudan. However, the pipelines, which transport oil fromthese oilfields to the Red Sea, are inSudan. These pipelines go to a placecalled Port Sudan. Here the oil is

loaded into ships.After South Sudan became aseparate country the plan was for itto continue to send its oil along the

pipelines to the Red Sea. South Su-dan would then pay Sudan for usingthe pipelines. But both sides haveargued about the price.

The recent trouble began on15th December. Fighting brokeout in Juba, South Sudans capitalcity. Salva Kiir, the countrys presi-dent, said soldiers, who supportedMr Machar, had tried but failed totake over the government. When amilitary force takes over a countryit is known as a coup dtat, or coup(pronounced coo). Mr Kiir accusedMr Machar of planning a coup. Yetat the time Mr Macher said he wasnot involved. Last July, Mr Kiir dis-missed, or sacked, Mr Machar fromhis position as vice president.

In South Sudan there are a number of tribal or ethnic groups. Thetwo largest are the Dinka and the

Nuer. Mr Machar is from the Nuertribe and Mr Kiir is a Dinka.

The UN has several camps inSouth Sudan. After the fightingstarted thousands of people went tothese camps for safety. The rebels

attacked a UN camp in a town calledAkobo. Two UN peacekeeping sol-diers from India were killed.

People from other countries suchas Uganda and the USA have beenworking in South Sudan. Planeswere sent to fly them out of thecountry. In the town of Bor the re-

bels fired at an American plane.Mr Machar claims that the rebels

are now in control of large parts ofSouth Sudan. This, he says, includes

the area where the oilfields are. MrKiir has agreed to meet officials fromother African countries to try to finda way of ending the fighting.

CHOCOLATE DEAL

On 20th December Hersheys an-nounced that it had agreed to buya company in China. The Chinesecompany is called Shanghai GoldenMonkey. When one company buysanother it is often called a deal oran acquisition .

The Hershey Company is basedin the USA. It is one of the largestchocolate making companies in theworld. Milton S Hershey foundedthe chocolate company over 110years ago. Then, milk chocolate wasan expensive luxury . Hershey want-ed to find a way of mass-producingmilk chocolate so everyone could

buy it.

Hershey first bought some farm-land in the state of Pennsylvania.There he was able to get large sup-

plies of fresh milk. He then createdhis own recipe, or formula, for milkchocolate. The first Hershey choco-late bar was made in 1900. A few

years later Hershey began build-ing a large factory on the farmlandhe had bought. It opened in 1905.Hersheys soon became the worldslargest chocolate company.

With the bosss help, a new townwith workers houses, schools,churches, and shops grew uparound the factory. The town wasnamed Hershey. Today, the com-

pany employs around 14,000 peoplearound the world. Its total sales, or


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revenues, last year were about US$7 billion (4.3 billion).

The company still has its head-quarters and main factory in Her-shey. In the town there are streets

named Chocolate Avenue and Co-coa Avenue. (Chocolate is madefrom cocoa beans or seeds.) Thestreetlights are shaped like a Her-sheys Kiss. This is a popular choco-late sweet, which the company firststarted making in 1907.

The town of Hershey in Pennsylvania

The Shanghai Golden MonkeyCompany (SGM) was set up in 1996.It makes sweets and snacks that are

popular in China. These includewafer sticks, which are flavouredwith seaweed, spicy dried tofu, andstrawberry-flavoured cheese sweets.SGM has about 5,000 workers andannual sales of US$225 million(137 million).

People in China are now buyingmore and more sweets and chocolates.Some of Hersheys chocolates arealready sold in China. But these are

made elsewhere and imported into thecountry. This year Hersheys made anew sweet for China. The sweet is thefirst that Hersheys has made for an-other country. Made out of condensedmilk it is called the Lancaster. Thesweet is named after a town in Penn-sylvania. This is where Hershey firststarted making candy in 1886.

SGM is the first company thatHersheys has bought outside theUSA. Officials at Hersheys say

SGM will help the company in-crease its sales in China. The acqui-sition of SGM is expected to costUS$584 million (357 million).

P ERSON OF THE YEAR 2013

Time is a well-known Americanweekly news magazine. Each De-cember the magazine chooses itsPerson of the Year. Time s choicefor 2013 is Pope Francis, the leaderof the Roman Catholic Church.

Time first started selecting itsMan of the Year in 1927. Sincethen it has done so every year. The

person selected appears on the frontcover of the magazines final issuein December. In 1999 Time changedthe title from Man of the Year toPerson of the Year.

The first Time s Man of theYear was Charles Lindbergh. Hewas a pilot. In 1927, Lindbergh wasthe first person to fly across the At-lantic Ocean from New York, in theUSA, to Paris, the capital of France.

Time says its Person of the Yearis someone it thinks has had the big-gest effect on world news over thelast 12 months. The person may havedone something good or bad. Yetwhatever they did, it must have madea difference or caused changes.

The magazine insists that Per-son of the Year is not meant to be

an award or honour. In the past it hasselected people who have becomemass murderers. Both the leader of

Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, andJoseph Stalin, a former leader ofthe Russian-led Soviet Union, have

been Man of the Year. Stalin waschosen twice.

Winston Churchill, a former UK prime minister and wartime leader,was also selected twice. Other dou-

bles are four American presidents,

Franklin D Roosevelt, Richard Nixon,George W Bush, and Barack Obama.

Time s Person of the Year is notalways a single person, or even a per-son at all. For example, in 1983 the

personal computer was chosen. Twoyears ago the Person of the Yearwas The Protester. In 2011 therewere many street demonstrations inArab countries. These included Tu-nisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Syria,and Yemen. The protesters werecomplaining about similar things.They claimed that the leaders, poli-ticians and police officials in theircountries were corrupt or dishonest.They demanded that proper elections

be held. These demonstrations arenow known as the Arab Spring.

Cover of Times last issue of 2013

Pope Francis, who is from Argen-tina, was selected to be head of theRoman Catholic Church nine monthsago. This was after the churchs

previous leader, Pope Benedict theSixteenth, decided to retire, or standdown. Pope Francis often talks aboutthe importance of protecting childrenand the elderly, especially those whoare poor and need help. This is thethird time that the leader of the Ro-man Catholic Church has been on


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the front cover of Time s final issueof the year. The previous two were in1962 and 1994.

This years runner up, or the person in second place, was Ed-

ward Snowden. Mr Snowden usedto work for the American NationalSecurity Agency (NSA).

Last March Mr Snowden suddenlyleft his job and travelled to HongKong, in China. There he passed se-cret information to two newspapers.People who take the risk of doing thisare often called whistleblowers orleakers. The newspapers then print-ed stories about the NSAs operations.The stories claimed that the NSAsecretly listened to thousands of tel-ephone calls. These included the mo-

bile phone calls made by many Euro- pean and South American leaders. MrSnowden is now living in Russia.

In 1999 Time chose Albert Einstein(1878 1955), the famous scientist,to be its Person of the Century.

ARCTIC SEA ICE

The European Space Agency (ESA)recently released information aboutthe volume of sea ice in the Arctic.The information showed how muchsea ice there was in October, or twomonths ago. When compared withsimilar information from last yearit shows that the amount of ice has

greatly increased.This information about the Arctic

sea ice surprised many people. Asaverage world temperatures have

been increasing, most expected theice to continue to shrink. Some haveeven predicted that all the Arctic seaice will be gone in 30 years time.

An ESA satellite recorded the in-formation about the sea ice. CalledCryoSat-2, it was launched at the

beginning of 2010. The satellite was

specially designed to measure andmap ice on land and sea.

For some time scientists have been worried about sea ice in theArctic. Normally, areas of sea icemelt in warmer summer months.The sea then freezes again duringthe cold winter. Yet over the last 30years, more ice seemed to be melt-ing than refreezing. So the amountof ice and its extent, or the area itcovers, have been getting smaller.

For many years older satellites wereable to measure the area of sea covered

by the ice in the Arctic. Yet they wereunable to work out how thick it was.This is one of the things that Cryo-Sat-2 has been designed to do.

CryoSat-2 uses a special type ofradar to measure the distance be-tween it and the top of the ice. Thesatellite is also able to record its dis-tance from the surface of open seanearby. By subtracting one figurefrom the other it can work out thethickness of ice above the sea.

However, most of the ice in icefloes, or floating ice, is under the

seas surface. The proportion of seaice above and below the surface isknown to be 1/8 above and 7/8 be-low. So, if the thickness of the iceabove the surface is known, it iseasy to work out its total thickness.

Knowing the total amount ofice is important. In some years thewind can be strong enough to pushice floes on top of each other. Thismeans the ice may not cover sucha large area. Yet in some places it

could be twice as thick. Thereforefrom an ordinary satellite picturemore ice looks as if it has melted.

The ESA says that the total amountof ice last October was about 6,000cubic kilometres (1,440 cubic miles).This years figure is roughly 9,000cubic kilometres (2,160 cubic miles).However, many scientists say the in-crease is probably temporary. So theice may start to shrink again eithernext year, or within a few years. It isestimated that the amount of sea icein the Arctic in the early 1980s was20,000 cubic kilometres (4,800 cubicmiles). So this Octobers figure ismuch less than it was 30 years ago.

N EWS C AST

T OY CAR A teenager from Roma-nia has built a life-sized plastic car.He made it out of 500,000 Lego

bricks. The Lego Company, whichis from Denmark, makes differentcoloured plastic bricks that can eas-ily fit together. Lego is one of theworlds most popular toys. Life-sized Lego cars have been made

before, but this one is different. Itworks. The car has four air-pow-ered engines and over 250 pistons,all made from the plastic bricks. A

businessman from Australia helpedto provide the money for the project.The car was sent to Australia to betested. There, after some parts were

put back together, it was given a testdrive. The car reached a speed of 19

kilometres (12 miles) per hour.

Maps showing difference in extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice from 2010 to 2013 (ESA/CPOM)


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CryoSat-2 can also measure thethickness of ice on land. Again, atype of radar is used. The echo ofthe radar bounces off the land belowthe ice. The time it takes the echo

to return to the satellite is meas-ured. From this its possible to workout the thickness of the ice on topof the land. So, any change in thethickness of ice in Antarctica and inGreenland, in the Arctic, can nowalso be recorded.

AUSTRALIAN COMBAT TROOPS LEAVE A FGHANISTAN

On 16th December Tony Abbott,the Australian prime minister, an-nounced that all his countrys com-

bat troops had now left Afghanistan.Combat troops are the soldiers thatare specially trained to fight.

Australian combat troops firstarrived in Afghanistan soon afterthe war started in 2001. Since thenaround 26,500 Australian soldiershave served in the country. Duringthe war 40 have been killed and 261seriously injured.

The Australian soldiers were part of the International SecurityAssistance Force (ISAF) in Af-ghanistan. NATO (North AtlanticTreaty Organization) commanderslead this force. Most of the ISAFtroops in Afghanistan are from the

USA. Yet others come from at least45 countries.

In 2001 an Islamic militant group,called al-Qaeda, attacked the USA.Members of the group hijackedfour passenger planes. Three weredeliberately flown into buildings in

New York City and Washington DC,the capital. The other crash-landedin a field.

Then, the Taliban controlledAfghanistan. During this time

everyone had to follow very strictIslamic laws. The Taliban allowedal-Qaeda to operate its trainingcamps in Afghanistan. The govern-ment of the USA demanded that

the Taliban hand over the al-Qaedaleaders. When the Taliban refused,American troops invaded the coun-try. NATO member countries andmany others, such as Australia, of-fered to help the USA in its fightagainst al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

TURKMENISTANTAJIKISTAN

PAKISTAN

UZBEKISTAN

AFGHANISTAN

IRAN

Kabul

Kandahar

URUZGAN

Soon after the invasion, theTaliban and al-Qaeda fighterswithdrew to the mountainousarea along the border with Paki-stan. But they did not give up. TheUSA helped to organise elections.Since 2003, Afghanistan has hadan elected president and electedmembers of its National Assembly,or parliament.

The United Nations (UN) set upISAF in 2001. At first its job was tofight against Taliban and al-Qaedafighters. ISAF troops were sent todifferent parts of the country. There

they have helped to train Afghani-stans new army and police force.The countrys new army is calledthe ANA (Afghan National Army).Most Australian soldiers were basedin Uruzgan province, in the centreof the country.

However, from their secret bases in the mountains, Talibanand al-Qaeda fighters have contin-ued to attack ISAF troops and theANA. They have also carried out

bombings and shootings in largertowns and cities including Kabul,the capital.

Several years ago Barack Oba-ma, the president of the USA, made

an important announcement aboutAfghanistan. He said that all Ameri-can combat troops would leave thecountry by the end of 2014. Othercountries that have military forcesin Afghanistan then declared thattheir troops would leave beforethis date.

For the last two years Americanand ISAF soldiers have been hand-ing over parts of Afghanistan to theANA. The ANA took control ofUruzgan over 12 months ago. Sincethen the Australian forces have

been helping the Afghan soldiers.Before the handover in Uruzgan,troops from the Netherlands werealso based in the province. They leftin 2010.

Some people suspect that the Tali- ban are waiting for the American andISAF forces to go. Once this happensit will try to take over the countryagain. These people think the ANA isunlikely to be able to stop this fromhappening. They say the only way toend the war is to arrange peace talkswith Taliban leaders.

Australian soldier in Afghanistan

Mr Abbott explained that around400 Australian support troops would

be staying in Afghanistan. Based inKabul and Kandahar, they will con-tinue to help with military trainingand advice. Mr Abbott also declared


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that Australia would give the Af-ghan government A$100 million(54.5 million) each year. The primeminister said he was proud of whatAustralian soldiers had achieved in

Afghanistan.

T SUNAMI CAVE

Scientists from a university in Singa- pore have been working in a cave inIndonesia. Digging into the sand on thecaves floor they discovered a numberof layers. Each one was formed by agiant Indian Ocean tsunami. The lay-ers show when tsunamis struck this

part of Indonesia. The layer recordgoes back thousands of years.

A tsunami is a huge surge, or sev-eral surges, of seawater. As the frontof the surge or wave gets closer tothe coast it increases in height. Tsu-namis can happen when powerfulearthquakes make a large part of theseabed suddenly move up or down. Atsunami can be hundreds of kilome-tres long and travel great distances.

Tsunami cave in Sumatra (EOS/NTU)

Tsunami is a Japanese word. Itmeans harbour wave. Hundreds ofyears ago Japanese fishermen were

puzzled by these giant waves. Theyfished far away from the coast. If atsunami happened, they would finda destroyed or badly damaged har-

bour on their return. Yet far out atsea they would not have seen anygiant waves.

Over the last ten years there have been two deadly tsunamis. In 2004a powerful earthquake under theIndian Ocean created a tsunami thataffected 14 countries. It killed over

230,000 people. Most of those whodied were in Indonesia, Thailand,Sri Lanka, and India. In 2011 therewas a huge undersea earthquake offthe north east coast of Japan. Theearthquake and the tsunami that fol-lowed killed 19,000 people.

The cave in Indonesia is on thenorth west coast of Sumatra. Thisis the largest island in Indonesia.This part of the country was struck

by the 2004 tsunami. The cave isabout 91 metres (300 feet) from thesea. Its entrance is quite high, whichmeans only a tsunami wave canreach it. The cave is also home tomany bats.

When a tsunami wave reaches theshore it is full of sand, small stonesand other things picked up from theseabed. Tsunami waves that enteredthe cave left this debris on the cavesfloor. Then, over many years, thislayer of sand would be covered by batdroppings, or guano. When the nexttsunami filled the cave, it left anotherlayer of sand on top of the guano.

When the scientists dug into thecaves floor they were able to seelayers of sand and guano. Each layerof sand was left by a tsunami. Scien-tific tests on things found in the sand

and guano can date the different lay-ers. The tsunami record in the cavegoes back about 7,000 years.

Layers in the cave therefore showwhen tsunamis struck northern Su-matra in the past. The scientists arecontinuing their work. However, thecave record suggests tsunamis inthis part of the world are not evenlyspaced. Some are only a few yearsapart, yet the gap between others ishundreds of years.

P ICASSO PRIZE

An American man won an unusual, but valuable, prize, on 18th Decem- ber. His raffle ticket was picked by

a computer system. A raffle is a wayof raising money. People can buytickets that are numbered. The win-ning numbers are then randomly

picked, or drawn, from all the tick-ets that have been sold.

The mans prize was a 23-centi-metre (nine inch) by 30-centimetre(12 inch) drawing. Pablo Picassodrew the picture in 1914. Calledthe LHomme au Gibus (Man withOpera Hat), it is worth around US$1million (610,000).

LHomme au Gibus by Picasso

Picasso (1881 1973) was born

in Spain. Even though he didntmake much money from his worksof art in his younger years, he later

became very wealthy. To many people, Picasso is the 20th centurysmost famous painter. Today, his pic-tures are very valuable.

Picasso painted in a style knownas Cubism. Some artists began

painting in this style in the early1900s. In Cubist works of art, ob-

jects, including people, are painted


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as if they have been broken into pieces. Each piece is painted as if itis seen from a different angle fromthe others. The final picture looks asif all the pieces have been roughly

put back together again.

Ancient ruins of the city of Tyre

The winning raffle ticket wasdrawn at Sothebys in Paris, the capitalof France. Sothebys is a well-knowninternational auction company.

An organisation called the Inter-national Association to Save Tyre(IAST) arranged the raffle. It worksto preserve the ruins of an ancientcity. Tyre was founded on the shoresof the Mediterranean Sea over 4,000years ago. It is believed to be one ofthe worlds oldest cities.

Today the ruins of Tyre are insouthern Lebanon. Thousands ofyears ago it was a Phoenician city.The Phoenicians lived along thecoast of modern-day Syria, Leba-non and Israel between BCE 1550and 300 CE. They were expert ship

builders and seafarers . Using theirwooden sailing ships Phoenician

sailors traded goods around thecoast of the Mediterranean Sea.

Throughout history Tyre was at-tacked many times. Alexander theGreat captured and deliberatelydamaged the city. Later the Romans,Arab conquerors and Christian cru-saders all occupied Tyre.

The IAST says that Lebanon doesnot have the money that is neededto look after the ruins. Recently oneof its wealthy supporters agreed to

lend the IAST some money. Thismoney was used to buy the Picassodrawing. The IAST then advertisedthe Picasso raffle on its website.There were 50,000 tickets, which

were all sold online. Each one cost 100 (84). No one was allowed to buy more than 50.

The IAST says the raffle raisedabout US$5 million (3 million).The money will be used to help torepair the ruins of Tyre. Before or-ganising the raffle the IAST spokewith Picassos son, Olivier. He saidhis father would have been pleasedthat the drawing was used to raisemoney for the ancient city. The per-son who won the Picasso picturesays he plans to hang it on a wall inhis house.

CHINA S M OON LANDING

On 14th December a Chinese un-manned spacecraft successfullylanded on the Moon. This was thefirst soft, or controlled, touchdownon the Moons surface for 37 years.The only other nations to have donethis are the USA and the formerRussian-led Soviet Union.

Computer generated picture of the Change 3lunar lander and Yutu on the Moons surface

The spacecraft that landed on theMoon is called Change 3. Change1 was launched in 2007. It then or-

bited, or went around, the Moon fortwo years. Change 2 began orbitingthe Moon in 2010.

Change 1 and 2 were whatsknown as lunar orbiters. Change3 is a lunar lander. It was launchedinto space on top of a powerfulrocket on 2nd December. Change 3

was carrying a six-wheeled vehicle,or rover. This lunar rover is calledYutu, which means Jade Rabbit.

The Change name comes froman ancient Chinese folktale, or leg-end. In the folktale a woman calledChange swallows some magic pills.She then flew to the Moon, whereshe became a goddess. The womantook Yutu, her pet white rabbit, withher. The legend says that Changeand Yutu still live on the Moon.

From the Earth we can only eversee one side of the Moon. The otherside is often called the dark side orthe far side. The time it takes theMoon to orbit the Earth is about thesame time that our planet takes tospin once on its own axis. So it isalways the near side of the Moon wesee in the night sky.

The near side of the Moon is dif-ferent to the far side. The near sidehas large, flat, darker areas called

basins. These are lava plains. Sci-entists believe that magma, or veryhot liquid rock, coming up from

below the Moons surface formedthese lava plains. This happenedmany millions of years ago. Thelava plains are often called seas ormare (the Latin word for sea).

Change 3 landed on a lava plaincalled Sinus Iridum (Latin for Bayof Rainbows). Scientists in Chinacan remotely control the Jade Rab-

bit lunar rover. A few hours after thelanding the rover was driven downsome ramps and onto the Moonssurface. Change 3 and Yutu thentook some pictures of each other.

Yutu has several cameras. It alsohas two mechanical legs. These candig into the soil. The rovers radar can


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see or penetrate deep below the sur-face. Yutu will take measurements ofthe soil and dust. The rover should beable to detect if this part of the Moonhas any valuable elements such as ti-

tanium and uranium. In future it may be possible to mine these elementsand transport them to the Earth.

Yutu will explore an area ofabout three square kilometres (1.2square miles). The rover has solar

panels, so it gets its power from theSun. During the lunar nights Yutuwill shut down until the Sun reap-

pears. Yutu is expected to operatefor about three months.

The next Chinese lunar spacemission, Change 4, will take placein 2017. Part of this spacecraft will

probably return to the Earth carryingsamples of Moon rocks and soil. Af-ter this China may launch a mannedspace mission to the Moon.

T HE REAL N OAH S A RK ?

A man, who works at the BritishMuseum in London, the capital ofthe UK, claims to have found anancient description of Noahs Ark.Dr Irving Finkel is an expert ondeciphering or reading cuneiformscript. The description is written ona 3,700-year-old clay tablet.

The story of Noah is mentionedin ancient Jewish, Christian and Is-

lamic writings. The first book of theChristian Bible is called Genesis .In this book there is a story abouta great flood. God tells Noah thathe is going to send a flood to pun-ish people for their sins. God thenorders Noah to build an enormouswooden ark, or boat.

Once the ark has been finished,God sends two of every animal to

Noah to be loaded into it. In thestory, apart from the fish in the sea,

Noah, his family and the animals inthe ark are the only survivors of theflood. When the floodwaters recede,or go down, the ark comes to reston the mountains of Ararat. Mount

Ararat is in modern day Turkey.Experts calculate that if the sto-ry were true the flood would havehappened about 4,800 years ago. In2012 a man in the Netherlands builta wooden copy, or replica, of NoahsArk. He used the same measure-ments listed in the Book of Genesis .

Many years ago experts discov-ered a very similar story. It waswritten on clay tablets. The story isincluded in a tale called the Epic ofGilgamesh . This tale comes fromthe Sumerian civilisation. The cityof Sumer was in Mesopotamia, ormodern day Iraq. Sumer was found-ed about 6,000 years ago.

Cuneiform tablet

The Epic of Gilgamesh waswritten in the cuneiform script oralphabet. This script is made up ofdifferent wedge-like shapes andlines. A pen made from the stemof a reed plant was used to write it.

Cuneiform was written on soft, wetclay tablets. These were then left todry out and harden. The name of thescript comes from the Latin wordcuneus , which means wedge.

Quffa boat

In the story the Sumerian godtells a king, called Atra-Hasis, to de-stroy his house and build a boat. TheSumerian story is almost exactly thesame as the story of Noah. Most ex-

perts are therefore sure that the storyin the Book of Genesis was copiedfrom the Epic of Gilgamesh .

In 2008 a man took a cuneiformtablet to the British Museum. Themans father was in the air force.He had been in Iraq between 1945and 1948 and brought the tablet

back with him. When he died it was passed to his son.

Dr Finkel was asked to translatethe tablet. He was surprised to findthat it described the boat that Atra-Hasis was told to build. Yet unlike

Noahs Ark, the huge boat wasround. Its diameter was 67 metres

(220 feet). The boats walls weresix metres (20 feet) high. It had twolevels and a roof. Inside, it was di-vided into sections for the differentanimals. The boat was made fromreeds and ropes. These were cov-ered in bitumen, or pitch, to makethem waterproof.

Today, some people who live insouthern Iraq still make round boats.Called quffa, they are for one ortwo people. So they are very much


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

USA

UK

TUNISIA

SYRIA

SOUTHSUDAN

SINGAPORE

RUSSIA

ROMANIANORTHKOREA

MEXICO

LEBANON IRAQ

INDONESIA

GERMANY

FRANCE

DENMARK

CYPRUS CHINA

CHILE

BRAZIL

AUSTRALIA

AFGHANISTAN

BOLIVIA

smaller than Atra-Hasiss boat. DrFinkel says there are many cuneiformtablets that tell the story of the flood,yet until now none have been foundthat described the shape of the boat.

Most experts think the greatflood story is a myth. They argue thatthe floodwaters must have been veryhigh to leave a boat near the top ofthe mountain. If this happened all ofmodern-day Iraq and Egypt, as wellas the rest of the Middle East, wouldhave been covered in water. Yet itsknown that cities in this part of theworld were not flooded at this time.

YELLOWSTONE SUPERVOLCANO

An American team of seismologists,scientists who study earthquakes,have been working in part of theYellowstone National Park, in theUSA. They have discovered that the

huge magma chamber under part ofthe park is much bigger than previ-ously believed. Magma is molten, orvery hot liquid, rock.

Yellowstone Park was set up in

1872. It is thought to be the worldsfirst national park. Yellowstone cov-ers a large area. Most of the park is inthe state of Wyoming. It also extendsinto Idaho and Montana. There arelarge herds of bison and elk living inYellowstone. It is also home to manygrizzly bears and wolves.

Part of Yellowstone is abovewhats known as a geological hot-spot. This means the area oftenhas volcanic or earthquake activ-ity. Large areas of the park caneven move up and down by a fewcentimetres. This depends on the

pressure of the magma in the largechamber below. There are frequentearthquakes. Yet most of these arenot very powerful.

Volcanic activity does not alwaysmean volcanic eruptions. In part ofthe park hot water and steam eruptfrom the ground. These are knownas geysers. The most famous one is

called Old Faithful. At regular inter-vals , it forces out a narrow jet of hotwater about 40 metres (130 feet) intothe air. Old Faithful is one of morethan 300 geysers in Yellowstone Park.

The volcanic activity happensaround a place known as the Yel-lowstone Caldera. This is in thenorth west of Wyoming. The calderais a huge circular shaped area. It isabout 55 kilometres (34 miles) wideand 72 kilometres (55 miles) across.Almost all the way around the cal-dera is a range of hills or higherground. Calderas are formed whenthe ground sinks or collapses after avolcanic eruption.

Scientists believe that the Yel-lowstone Caldera was formed by


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several huge volcanic eruptions.The most recent was about 640,000years ago. Others happened 1.3 mil-lion and 2.1 million years ago. TheYellowstone Lake covers part of

the caldera. A river, called the Yel-lowstone River, flows in and out ofthe lake.

The Yellowstone Caldera is of-ten described as a supervolcano.Eruptions from these are many thou-sand of times bigger than normalvolcanoes. Supervolcanoes happenwhere there is a large magma cham-

ber just below the Earths crust. Thisis why these places are called geo-logical hotspots. The YellowstoneCaldera is above one of the worldslargest hotspots.

Seismometers have been put allaround Yellowstone Park. Thesedevices, which are also called seis-mographs, record earthquakes. Theymeasure how powerful the tremors are, and for how long they last.

Yellowstone River flowing through part of theYellowstone Caldera

Earthquakes produce seismic

waves. These are waves of energy thattravel through underground rocks.Seismic waves slow down when theygo through magma. The team of sci-entists used the seismometers to re-cord where the waves were slower.From this information they workedout the size of the magma chamber.

The scientists now believe themagma chamber is about 88 kilome-tres (55 miles) long and 29 kilome-tres (18 miles) wide. It has a depth

of between 1.6 and 14.5 kilometres(one and nine miles). This is twoand a half times bigger than previ-ously thought.

Past eruptions of the Yellowstone

supervolcano covered the whole of North America in thick ash. Hugeamounts of volcanic ash in the at-mosphere must have quickly spreadaround the world. The climate prob-ably changed, as ash in the air willmake temperatures colder. From

previous eruptions it seems that theYellowstone supervolcano eruptsaround every 700,000 years. Yetexperts say it is difficult to predictwhen the next one will happen.

P URGE IN N ORTH K OREA

On 12th December a North Koreantelevision newsreader made an an-nouncement. He said that Jang Sung-taek had been executed . The news-reader said that Mr Jang had beenfound guilty of very serious crimes.

Mr Jang was thought to be oneof the most powerful people in thecountry. North Koreas leader isKim Jong-un. Mr Jang was his un-cle, as he was married to Mr Kimsfathers sister. Several people whowork with Mr Jang were also ex-ecuted. When a group of senior peo-

ple are violently removed from anorganisation in this way, it is called

a purge. North Korea and South Korea

used to be one country. In 1910 Ko-rea was taken over by Japan. Soonafter Japans defeat, at the end of theSecond World War (1939 1945),the North and South became sepa-rate countries.

In 1950 the North invaded theSouth. This led to the Korean War,which lasted for three years. TheUnited Nations (UN), with mainly

American troops, helped the South.China supported the North. The warended in a truce. Yet no peace treatyhas ever been signed between Northand South Korea.

The border between the coun-tries is where the two opposing ar-mies were facing each other whenfighting stopped in 1953. The bor-der, called the De-Militarized Zone(DMZ), is a narrow strip of landcovered in mines and barbed wire.Today, thousands of soldiers stillface each other across the DMZ.

JAPAN

CHINA

NORTHKOREA

SOUTHKOREA

East Sea(Sea of Japan)

YellowSea

DMZ

After the Korean War, North Ko-rea became a very secretive country.It is often described as the worldslast remaining Stalinist state. Theword Stalinist comes from the for-mer Russian leader Joseph Stalin(1878 1953). He became a dictatorwho controlled Russia under very

strict rules. Under Stalin there werefrequent purges. People who criti-cised him were often sent to prison,or sentenced to death.

Nowadays, South Korea holdsdemocratic elections for its politi-cians and president. Several of itslarge companies are world leadersin computer technology, shipbuild-ing and industrial design. It also hasmore internet connections than anyother country.


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South Korea has the worlds 12th- biggest economy. Yet its thought thatthousands of people in North Koreado not have enough to eat. There isnot much electric power. Only senior

people in the government and armyhave enough food and supplies.Most of North Koreas money is

spent on weapons. Within the lastten years the country has developedand tested a nuclear bomb. The

North Korean army is the fifth larg-est in the world.

North Koreas leader, Kim Jong-un

Its difficult to know what lifeis like for ordinary people in NorthKorea. The countrys leaders con-trol the newspapers and televisionand radio broadcasts. News reportsfrom other countries are blocked.

Members of one family have run North Korea since it became a sepa-rate country. Kim Il-sung ruled thecountry for 46 years. After his death,his son, Kim Jong-il, took over. KimJong-il died two years ago. He wassucceeded by one of his sons, KimJong-un. Not much is known about

the current leader, but he is onlyabout 30 years old.

Its thought that Mr Jang helpedMr Kim when he took over after hisfather died in 2011. No one outside

North Korea knows why Mr Jangwas killed. He may have been plan-ning to depose Mr Kim. Mr Kim

probably ordered his uncles execu-tion. He might have arranged the

purge to show others that he is a powerful leader.

S PIDER DIET

Spiders prey on, or catch and kill,flying insects or other spiders. A fewlarger ones eat small birds. For this

reason spiders are believed to bemeat-eaters, or carnivores.However, a recent study by two

scientists suggests that this may not be true. The scientists suspect thatmany spiders are really omnivores.This means they eat both meat (in-sects and other spiders) and partsof plants.

Spiders are arachnids. This namecomes from the Ancient Greek wordfor spider. People who are scaredof spiders have arachnophobia. Thisis a combination of the Greek wordsfor spider and fear.

There are thought to be around43,600 different types of spider.They can be found everywhere inthe world except for Antarctica. Allspiders have eight legs, but they dif-fer in size. The smallest have a bodylength of only 0.37 millimetres(0.015 inches). The largest, calledthe Goliath birdeater, can have a legspan of 25 centimetres (9.8 inches).All spiders are able to producesilk. It is from this that they maketheir webs.

Orb web spider

The scientists studied orb webspiders. These types of spiders arevery common. Their webs trap fly-ing insects. Yet grains of pollen,from plants and trees, and fungus

spores also get stuck in their webs.The pollen and spores are blown bythe wind.

Spiders do not have teeth and areunable to eat solid things. Instead

they cover their food with enzymes.These turn the food into a liquid,which the spiders then suck up.Many living things have enzymesthat help to digest, or break down,food. Normally they work insidethe body.

The scientists noticed that thespiders ate some of the grains of

pollen, which were attached to theirwebs. They even ate the pollenwhen flying insects were caught intheir webs. This, the scientists say,shows that the spiders were not eat-ing pollen because it was the onlyavailable food. Instead the spidersseem to know that the best diet is amixture of plant and meat.

From their experiments the sci-entists worked out that roughly 25%of what the spiders ate was pollen.The other 75% is flying insects. Thescientists say that, as they eat thisamount of pollen, orb web spidersare not carnivores but omnivores.Even though they only studied orbweb spiders the scientists suspectthat many other types of spider havea similar diet.

W I -F I EXPERIMENT

A group of 15-year-old schoolgirlsin Denmark recently set up an ex-

periment. They wanted to find out ifsleeping next to their mobile phonesaffected their concentration .

The schoolgirls story was re- ported in several newspapers. Thereports suggested that the experi-ment showed Wi-Fi was bad for

peoples brains. Some people criti-cised the newspaper reports. What


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the girls did, they argued, was not a proper scientific experiment.

Wi-Fi is the name of a populartechnology. It allows electronicdevices, such as computers and

mobile phones, to connect to theinternet using radio waves. Thismeans there is no need for anywire connections.

For their experiment the girls planted 12 trays of garden cress. Thisis a small plant that grows very quick-ly. At their school they put six of thetrays in one room and six in another.One room contained wireless routerequipment. The other room did nothave any wireless equipment.

After 12 days the girls noticedthat the plants in the two rooms weredifferent. In one they looked nor-mal. Yet the plants in the room withthe routers had turned brown. Theylooked as if they had died. The girlssaid that there were equal amountsof light in both rooms. They alsogave all the plants the same amountof water.

Garden cress

Many people have wonderedif Wi-Fi and mobile phones affect

peoples health. In the Netherlandssome researchers have claimedthat wireless radio signals havedamaged the leaves and bark ofsome trees.

However, Wi-Fi radio waves, orsignals, are not strong. For example,the radio waves are similar to those

produced by microwave ovens. Nowadays many people have these

ovens in their kitchens. They areused to quickly heat or cook foods.The radiation from a microwaveoven is roughly 100,000 times morethan the radiation from Wi-Fi sig-

nals. This type of radiation is calledelectromagnetic radiation.Some scientists have suggested

reasons for the cress turning brown.For instance, wireless equipmentgives off heat. So the room withthe wireless equipment was prob-ably warmer than the other one.Whats more, they say, it is wrongto compare garden cress with a hu-man brain. So far nobody has evershown that Wi-Fi signals harm peo-

ples health.Even though some people com-

plained about the newspaper reportsthey did not criticise the schoolgirls.They said they were impressedthat the children had set up the ex-

periment. What was wrong, theyexplained, was writing about theexperiment as if it was done under

proper scientific conditions.

LAST V OLKSWAGEN K OMBI

A factory in Brazil has announcedthat it will stop making VolkswagenKombis at the end of December.The factory is the only one in theworld that still makes the vehicles.Production of the famous car will

therefore come to an end. The firstVolkswagen Kombi was made 63years ago.

Today Volkswagen is one of themost successful car making com-

panies in the world. Volkswagenis German for peoples car. Inthe 1930s Adolf Hitler became theGerman leader. Then, only a few

people owned cars, as they werevery expensive. Hitler wanted to

build a simple car, which ordinary

Germans could afford to buy. Thiswas what Volkswagen called itsType 1.

After the end of the SecondWorld War (1939 1945) the Type

1 became the famous VolkswagenBeetle. The Kombi was originallycalled the Type 2. The first Type2s were made at Volkswagens fac-tory, in Wolfsburg, in 1950. Overthe years the vehicles have beencalled many names. These includethe Volkswagen (or VW) trans-

porter, camper van, bus, microbus,minibus, and even hippie van.

Volkswagen Kombi

When they were first made,Kombis had an unusual design.The engine was at the back and thedriver sat above the front wheels.The vehicles became very popularin many countries. They were oneof the first in which beds could befitted. They also had many otheruses. For instance, in Germany theywere used as ambulances and policecars. However, some people thoughtKombis were more dangerous than

other cars. If they crashed the driverand the front seat passenger werenot protected.

At the end of the 1970s newlaws about car design were intro-duced in many countries. Thesemeant that all cars had to havecertain safety features. As it would

be difficult to include these in theKombi, production in Germanyended in 1979. However, factoriesin other countries such as Mexico


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and Brazil continued to make them.Similar safety restrictions in Mexi-co meant its Kombi factory closedin 1995.

The Kombi factory in Brazil was

opened in 1957. Since then around1.5 million Kombis have been madein the country. The cars are very

popular. This is because they areless expensive than other van-likevehicles. In Brazil, Kombis are usedas school buses, ambulances, andhearses, or vehicles that carry cof-fins. Some owners have even turnedtheir Kombis into mobile roadsidefood and drink stalls.

The factory that makes Kom- bis in Brazil is near So Paulo, thelargest city in the country. It usedto make around 600 Kombis everymonth. New safety laws mean thatall new vehicles in Brazil will nowhave to have airbags and specialanti-locking brakes. The factoryowners say that fitting these to theKombis simple design would betoo expensive. So, from the end ofDecember, the factory will no long-er make them.

N EW PRIME MINISTER IN T UNISIA

Mehdi Jomaa was appointed as Tu-nisias interim prime minister on14th December. Mr Jomaa will now

try to form whats known as a care-taker government.

At the beginning of 2011 a revo-lution took pace in Tunisia. Afterhuge street protests, the countrys

president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali,was forced to leave the country. MrBen Ali had run Tunisia for over 20years. The demonstrators were an-gry about government corruption,the power of the police and the lackof proper elections.

What happened in Tunisia issometimes called the JasmineRevolution. Soon afterwards simi-lar protests started in several otherArab countries such as Egypt,

Yemen, Libya, Bahrain, and Syria.In these countries the demonstratorshad similar complaints. All these

protests are now often known asthe Arab Spring. So Tunisia waswhere the Arab Spring began.

Mehdi Jomaa, Tunisias interim prime minister

Elections for a new Assembly, or parliament, were held in Tunisia in2011. The Ennahda (Renaissance)Party got the most seats. Its leadersagreed with several other smaller

parties to form a new government.One of the new Assemblys mostimportant jobs was to write a newconstitution for the country. Theseare the rules by which Tunisia is to

be governed in future. Once the newconstitution is approved new elec-tions can be held.

Both Ennahda and the smaller parties, which agreed to work withit, are described as Islamist. Their

supporters believe that certain reli-gious laws should be included in thenew constitution. However, opposi-tion groups want Tunisia to becomea secular state. This means religionand the way in which a country isgoverned are kept separate.

The differences between the supporters of Ennahda and those whowant Tunisia to be a secular statehave caused problems. There have

been frequent street demonstrations

by both groups. Most have been inTunis, the capital city.

Over the last ten months two po-litical leaders have been killed, or as-sassinated. Both led smaller parties,

which do not want any religious lawsin the constitution. No one has beenarrested for the assassinations. Many

blame a group called the Salafists forthe murders. Members of this group

believe that everyone should live ac-cording to very strict Islamic laws. TheEnnahda Party insists it had noth-ing to do with the deaths of the two

politicians. Yet some complain thatEnnahda should do more to controlthe Salafists.

To try to solve the problems En-nahda recently agreed to hand over

power to an interim, or caretaker,government. All parties were in-vited to choose the interim primeminister. Eventually, they agreedthat Mr Jomaa should be given the

job. Mr Jomaa is an independent.This means he is not a member ofany political party.

Mr Jomaa now has to form a gov-ernment with other independents.As well as running the country, MrJomaas caretaker government willfinalise the new constitution. It willalso organise new elections. Theseare now expected to take place nextyear.

Newsademic .com

Editor: Rebecca Watson

Acknowledgements:

News story photographs by gettyimages

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Newsademic 2013


18/19


I SSUE 213GLOSSARY P UZZLE

I NSTRUCTIONS : Complete the crossword. The answers arehighlighted in orange in the news stories. There are 25words highlighted and you need 20 of them to complete thecrossword. Once you have solved the crossword go tothe 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

1 Noun (Plural) Soldiers from Europe who took part in militaryexpeditions to the Holy Land in 11th, 12th and 13th centuries

6 Noun (Plural) Sailors 8 Noun (Plural) The ideas or plans of a political party 9 Noun (Plural) People who look after scientific equipment

or work in a laboratory 11 Noun A person (especially in the 1960s) who rejects

normal lifestyles by having long hair, taking drugs andwearing colourful clothes.

12 Adverb Without using a particular order or method 14 Noun The act of paying attention to something without

being distracted by other things 16 Noun (Plural) Slight earthquakes 18 Verb To have brought animals or plants under human

control for transport, food, power or companionship 20 Noun (Plural) People who win or are victorious in a battle

or war

DOWN

2 Noun (Plural) The act of keeping things within set limitsor rules

3 Noun An act of one company buying another 4 Verb Deliberately killed someone as a form of

punishment 5 Verb Discovering the meaning of something, especially

a code 7 Adjective Describes something connected with

improving peoples lives and reducing suffering 10 Adjective Related to the study of rocks 13 Noun Something that is nice to own, do or eat, but it is

not necessary 15 Noun The act of avoiding something that you should do 17 Noun A long poem of that tells a legendary story of what

a hero has done 19 Noun The reflection of sound, or radar signals, by a

solid object


19/19


I SSUE 213GLOSSARY P UZZLE CONTINUED

I NSTRUCTIONS : Find 19 of the 20crossword answers in the word search.Words can go vertically, horizontally,diagonally and back to front. Afterfinding the 19 words write down the

20th (or missing) word under the puzzle.N O I T A R T N E C N O C U U Y D R

O A G N S R E D A S U R C Z L P X E

I O I C I M S T Y S A Z J M W C C S

T W O R F L L S R W P I O Q P Q E T

I H J J A P D O Z E O D R P D D O R

S I D E S T M Q P V N Q A K F W C I

I G W L B E I O T A R D M O S E C C

U M Q F R X L N R U O X Y E N I H T

Q R P T C I J D A M J R W K A P W I

C H E P C O E R E M U I Y Q L P W O

A Z B I Y T V S C X U Q E J U I G N

T K E O U G T R U A A H X V S H Y S

F S P C H I U L A C I G O L O E G S

U M E C C C S R O R E U Q N O C L R

R X T A S R E R A F A E S A C I P E

E O T M N T U U T B W Z D P P K T Q

S E L L K S N A I C I N H C E T U P

D E C I P H E R I N G G R U K E R O

MISSING WORD ANSWER =

I S S U E 2 1 2 A N

S WE R

S

N O I T A I L I C N O C E R N D S A

U O X C L V Z S A C R I F I C E D G

T C I Q O X S T E E B S S P E L T G

R J T T Y N Z G U K U E D Y C A T RI C K R A J A L M B I G Y E J C N E

E H I X A T Z P S Z P A H P O O A S

N N Y S O W I I N E R L X M Z V S S

T K F B A N D N R T D F M P E Y S I

S G A W K I P S A E O U C C W P E V

Q S H Y E S P Y T S N O K P W L S E

B E F S W I R P T A A M T S N M S U

R K K F R S U X L C C A H Y H Y M E

M V A I I R O P U E N C I R N O E Q

G Q N Y R R I E M N D J K C F K N H

P G Q E F G A L I X R W U I K P T S

E X T R A C T T H U E M Y M A F E Z

W N D I Z N Y G O L O C E I J B J P

I N A C C E S S I B L E A M B U S H

If you wish to earn additional Demics log

in to www.newsademic.com, go to thePrize Competitions area and submit themissing word. Puzzle entries must besubmitted by 10 pm on 8th January 2014 (GMT/UTC). *

E M P H A S I S

* Only applies to those who have purchased aNewsademic Individual or Family Subscription

Demics are tokens that Individualand Family Subscribers can earn.They are awarded for answering thisGlossary Puzzle and/or the DailyNews question accessible by logged in users correctly. Demics earnedcan be used by Family and IndividualSubscribers in the Newsademic

online store.

GET EXTRADEMICS*

E1

E2

I3

E4

X T R A5

C T

C6

O M M U N A L C S

O P O S

L H I7

N T E R8

R U P T E D

O A9

M B U S H N E S

G S A C S

Y I C O M

S10

A11

C R I F I C E D N12

U T R I E N T S13

G E C N U

G P14

E R S P I R I N G T B

R S L S15

S

T16

E S17

A N I T A T I O N A I

A S B A B D

R S L T O I

M18

I M I C R Y E I T E

F V C19

A M O U F L A G E S

F E N G

S E

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