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2nd October 2014British English edition

Issue Number 233

In this issue

Giant tortoise disputeClimate Summit in New YorkAir strikes begin in SyriaNaming the Islamic StateNew Zealand’s electionLiving Planet Report 2014India’s prime minister visits USANew Neolithic graveTwo Mars missionsClown fish surpriseReferendum in Scotland‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ mosquitoes in BrazilMount Ontake eruptionRediscovered ratIg Nobel Prize awardsDemocracy protests in Hong KongNew world atlasSahara Desert’s ageNew leaders in AfghanistanGlossary Crossword and Wordsearch Puzzle

General Assembly Hall at the United Nations (UN) headquarters building, in New York City, in the USA.

The United Nations (UN) General As-sembly is held every year at the end of September. It is the UN’s biggest annual meeting. The General Assembly takes place at the UN’s headquarters in New York City, in the USA. It usually lasts for two weeks.

The General Assembly is the start of a new 12-month period, or session. This meeting marked the beginning of the sixty-ninth session of the United Nations General Assembly. So it is the 69th As-sembly since the UN was founded in 1945. Today the UN has 193 member countries. The leaders of each are invited to take part in the Assembly’s General Debate.

The UN was set up just after the Second World War ended in 1945. It replaced the League of Nations. This organisation was formed after the end of the First World War (1914 – 1918). The main purpose of the League was to stop

wars breaking out. It was not a success. The League of Nations failed to prevent the Second World War, which began in 1939. Towards the end of the war a de-cision was made to disband, or close, the League. A new organisation, called the United Nations, would then take its place.

A secretary-general leads the UN. Its current leader is Ban Ki-moon. He is a former diplomat from South Korea. Mr Ban became the UN’s secretary-general in 2007. He took over from Kofi An-nan, who is from Ghana. Each General Assembly has a president. This person is in charge of UN meetings for the next 12 months. He or she then hands over to a new president at the beginning of the next General Assembly.

UN member countries are divided into five geographical groups: African, Asian, Latin American and Caribbean, Western

U N I T E D N A T I O N S G E N E R A L A S S E M B L Y

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European and other States, and East-ern European. The five groups take turns to choose who is going to be the next General Assembly’s presi-dent. This year it was the African Group’s turn. The 55 member states within this group chose Sam Kutesa. He is a politician from Uganda. The president for the previous, or sixty-eighth, session was from Antigua and Barbuda.

The General Debate is one of the main parts of the General Assembly. During the debate the leader, or a representative, from each member country can make a speech. These happen one after the other. The lead-ers do not have to talk about the same subject. They can say whatever they want to about international matters, or affairs. Each speech is not sup-posed to last longer than 15 minutes. These speeches are often reported in the news. This is because they are a chance, or opportunity, for leaders to complain about, or criticise, what other countries are doing.

The General Debate began on 24th September. It ended on 30th Septem-ber. There were no speeches on 28th September, as this was a Sunday. Mr Ban gave the opening address. Mr Kutesa, the Assembly’s president, followed him. Dilma Rousseff, the president of Brazil, was the first member country leader to speak. The American president, Barack Obama, was next. The last person to speak in the General Debate was the foreign minister of Cape Verde.

Those who became leaders of their countries during the last 12 months spoke in the debate for the first time. They included Abdel Fat-tah el-Sisi, Egypt’s new president, Tony Abbott, the Australian prime minister and India’s prime minister, Narenda Modi. Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, also addressed the Assembly for the first time.

Fighting broke out in eastern Ukraine about five months ago. It is between rebel groups and the Ukrainian army. This conflict has led to arguments between Russia and the USA and the European Un-ion (EU). The USA and the EU say Russia is giving weapons to rebels. Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, says this is not true. American and EU leaders have imposed some eco-nomic sanctions on Russia. These are affecting Russia’s economy. Mr Putin is angry about the sanctions. He decided not to go to the General Assembly. Russia’s foreign minis-ter, Sergey Lavrov, gave a 15-min-ute speech instead.

The General Debate takes place in the General Assembly Hall. With seats for 1,800 people, this is the largest room in the UN’s head-quarters building, or complex. The hall is the only conference room in the UN complex that displays the UN’s emblem, or logo. This is a globe, or map of the world as seen from above the North Pole. On either side of the globe are ol-ive wreaths. These are a symbol of peace.

During the two weeks of the General Assembly special rooms are set up in the UN building. Member countries use these to hold their own bilateral talks. These are discussions between just two countries. For ex-ample, during the Assembly, David Cameron, the UK’s prime minister,

and Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s presi-dent, met. This was the first time that the leaders of these two coun-tries had spoken to each other since the revolution in Iran in 1979.

One of the bigger separate meet-ings took place on 25th September. It was about the Ebola outbreak, or crisis, in West Africa. Ebola is of-ten described as one of the ‘world’s most deadly diseases’. It is highly infectious. The disease is caused by a virus, which can easily be passed from person to person. Currently there is no cure for Ebola. Nor are there any vaccinations. The worst affected countries are Guinea, Si-erra Leone and Liberia. So far, over 3,000 people have died from the dis-ease in West Africa.

The UN’s headquarters, in New York City

Officials from the USA, Russia and the European Union (EU) held a number of talks. They discussed the fighting in eastern Ukraine and the Middle East peace process. This is the ongoing attempt to try to find a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli problem.

This year the leaders of at least 140 countries attended the Assem-bly. This was more than usual. As it is the one time of the year when nearly all the world’s leaders are in the same building at the same time, security is very strict. During the Assembly hundreds of police offic-ers surrounded the UN headquarters building. Police boats also patrolled the nearby East River.


LONESOME GEORGE DISPUTE

An argument, or dispute, has broken out about the preserved body of a famous giant tortoise. Government officials want to display the giant tortoise’s body in Quito, the capital city of Ecuador. However, the mayor of the Galápagos Islands disagrees. He says that the giant tortoise must be returned to the islands. The Ga-lápagos Islands are part of Ecuador.

Lonesome George in New York museum (AMNH)

Nicknamed Lonesome George, the giant tortoise died two years ago. Lonesome George was special. This is because he was the last one of a type, or species, of giant tortoise. Lonesome George was often called ‘the rarest creature in the world’. He became a symbol of both the Galá-pagos Islands, and all the world’s endangered animals.

The Galápagos Islands are an ar-chipelago, or group, of islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. They are about 925 kilometres (575 miles) from Ecuador’s coast. The islands have been separated from any other areas of land for millions of years. Many creatures that live on the is-lands, such as the giant tortoises, have evolved differently from those in other parts of the world. This means they are now found only on the Galápagos Islands.

Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) visited the Galápagos Islands in the 1830s. He was a naturalist from the UK. Naturalists are people who

study plants and animals. They mainly do this by watching, or ob-serving, them. Darwin studied the giant tortoises that lived on differ-ent islands. All were of the same species. Yet on each island the tor-toises were slightly different. For example, their shells were not all the same size and shape.

Darwin also noticed differences in other species on the Galápagos Islands. A type of bird (now called Darwin’s finches) had different shaped beaks on different islands. Later, Darwin became famous for his book about evolution. Called On the Origin of Species, it was published in 1859. Darwin’s visit to the Galápa-gos Islands helped him to devise, or come up with, his evolution theory.

Hundreds of years ago there were many giant tortoises on the Galápagos Islands. However, the crews of visiting ships killed tens of thousands for their meat and oil. By the 1970s only 3,000 remained. An-other problem for the tortoises was that other animals, such as rats and goats, were taken to the islands. The rats ate tortoise and bird eggs. By eating most of the plants, the goats damaged the tortoises’ habitat.

Lonesome George is thought to have been the last tortoise from the sub-species that lived on Pinta. This is one of the Galápagos’ smaller islands. The tortoise was first seen on the island in 1971. Later, Lone-some George was taken to a sci-entific research station on a bigger island. There, he was kept in a large pen with some females from other islands. It was hoped that he would breed with these tortoises. Yet the eggs the females laid never hatched.

Lonesome George was believed to have been about 100 years old. This is not a great age. Many Galá-pagos giant tortoises are known to

have lived twice as long as this. His body was sent to a museum in New York City, in the USA, to be stuffed and preserved. Lonesome George is now on display in New York City.

The museum will send the giant tortoise’s body back to Ecuador at the beginning of 2015. However, because of the dispute, it is not known if Lonesome George is to be put on show in Quito or the Galápa-gos Islands.

UN CLIMATE SUMMIT

Ban Ki-moon, the leader, or secre-tary-general, of the United Nations (UN), organised a meeting about climate change, on 23rd September. Called the Climate Summit, it was held at the UN’s headquarters, in New York City, in the USA.

Around 120 world leaders took part in the one-day meeting. Many had travelled to New York City to attend the UN’s General Assembly, which began on the following day.

The UN has organised many cli-mate meetings, or summits, over the past 25 years. These have been ar-ranged to try to work out how to pre-vent climate change and increasing average temperatures. Most people agree that there is only one way to do this. All countries need to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) they produce, or their carbon emis-sions. However, getting countries to agree to set targets for reducing their emissions is very difficult.


Scientists first noticed an increase of CO2 in the atmosphere about 60 years ago. Everyone agrees that most of this extra CO2 is the result of human activity. This is mainly the burning of fossil fuels, such as oil, gas and coal. In most countries, fossil fuels are used for generat-ing electricity, heating, transport, and cooking. Scientists say that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is now higher than it has been for at least 800,000 years.

Ban Ki-moon at the Climate Summit

Most scientists think that extra CO2 in the atmosphere (together with other gases such as methane) is acting like a greenhouse. The sci-entists believe that, as it traps heat, the CO2 is causing climate change in some parts of the world.

Records for world temperatures go back about 160 years. Scientists calculate that during this period there has been an average rise in world temperatures of around 1°C. Most scientists think that an average rise above 2°C will probably have severe effects on the Earth’s climate.

Not all scientists agree on what will happen if the average world temperature increase goes above 2°C. Yet many predict a rise in sea levels and more extreme weather. So there would be more heat waves, floods, droughts, freezing tempera-tures, and powerful storms. Some worry that areas only a few metres above sea level will become unin-habitable within the next 100 years.

Many countries are now trying to find ways of making ‘clean’, or sus-tainable, electricity. This includes wind, wave, solar, and hydroelectric power. Yet burning fossil fuels is still the easiest and least expensive way of generating large amounts of electric power.

In 2009 there was an important UN climate meeting in Copenha-gen, the capital of Denmark. Many of the world’s leaders took part. It was hoped that all countries would agree to set CO2 reduction targets. These targets would be legally bind-ing. Yet there were many disagree-ments. The meeting ended in failure. Since then, world leaders have often decided not to attend UN climate change summits.

In 2015, the UN’s annual climate summit is to be held in Paris, the cap-ital of France. Nearly every country has now agreed to set a legally bind-ing target to reduce its carbon emis-sions at this meeting. Therefore, Mr Ban organised his Climate Summit to remind world leaders of what they must do in Paris next year.

AIR STRIKES IN SYRIA

Warplanes from the USA attacked several cities in Syria for the first time on 23rd September. Air force planes from five Arab nations also took part in the attacks. These fighter planes came from: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Jordan, Bah-rain, and Qatar. The air strikes target-ed buildings and military equipment used by the Islamic State.

The Islamic State (IS) is a mili-tant Islamic group. It is also known by several other names. These include ISIS and ISIL. This or-ganisation was set up around three years ago in Syria. IS fighters and

supporters now occupy most of northern Syria and large areas of western and northern Iraq.

A war broke out in Syria in 2011. This conflict is also known as the Syrian Uprising. It began after the Syrian army fired at some unarmed protesters. They were complain-ing about the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, and his govern-ment. Mr al-Assad’s family has con-trolled Syria for over 40 years.

An opposition group called the free Syrian Army (FSA) was set up. It has been fighting against Syrian soldiers. FSA followers say that Mr al-Assad should leave the country. They want Syria to become a demo-cratic nation. Many other countries, such as the USA, France and the UK, support the FSA. Their leaders claim that Mr al-Assad has commit-ted many crimes against his people.

TURKEY

JORDAN

SYRIA

IRAQ

IRAN

SAUDIARABIA

Baghdad

Mosul

IraqiKurdistan

O Area controlled by the Islamic State (IS)

During the last three years several militant Islamic groups have been set up in Syria. Like the FSA, they want to depose Mr al-Assad. They too are fighting against the Syrian army. One of these groups has become the IS. The Islamic groups in Syria want everyone in the country to follow very strict religious laws. Of all the militant groups in Syria, the IS is the most powerful.

At the beginning of this year IS fighters took control of western Iraq. Then, in June, they suddenly seized the north western part of the


country. This included Iraq’s second biggest city, Mosul. IS fighters eas-ily defeated the American trained Iraqi army. They also captured many of their American-made weapons.

F-22 Raptor aircraft

IS fighters wear black clothes. Many people say they are fanatics. They treat Christians, people of oth-er religions, and Muslims who do not agree with them, very harshly. IS fighters organise frequent execu-tions and shootings. Many of the younger women they capture are tak-en away. Some reports say that these women are being forced to marry IS fighters.

IS leaders say they do not recog-nise countries like Iraq and Syria. Nor do they believe in democracy. They claim that they will eventually take over all the Middle East and even parts of Europe.

Many Kurds live in north east Iraq. Today this area is called Iraqi Kurdistan. It is part of Iraq, but the Kurds make many of their own de-cisions. Iraqi Kurdistan also has its own military force or army. Called the Peshmerga, it too is now fight-ing against the IS.

Over 40 countries have agreed to help Iraq and the Peshmerga. This anti-IS coalition is led by the USA. However, these countries do not want to send ground forces, or com-bat troops, to Iraq or Syria. They have agreed to provide air power,

weapons, military equipment, and humanitarian aid.

American warplanes have been attacking IS fighters in Iraq for several weeks. Recently, Barack Obama, the American president, announced that they would now at-tack the IS in northern Syria. This was a difficult decision. Any anti-IS coalition attacks in northern Syria will help the Syrian army and President al-Assad.

French warplanes have also been attacking the IS in Syria. American military commanders claim that the air strikes have been successful. The USA’s latest fighter planes are being used in these attacks. This is the first time that these F-22 Raptor aircraft have been used in a war.

American and other military lead-ers say that the IS must be defeated. Air strikes will help, but they will not solve the problem. These military leaders say that, with their help, the Iraqi army and Peshmerga soldiers will have to defeat the IS.

NAMING THE ISLAMIC STATE

The Islamic State (IS) is a militant Islamic organisation. Currently its armed followers are occupying large parts of northern Syria and western and north western Iraq. Muslim lead-ers and Islamic scholars in many countries condemn the IS. They say that newspapers and news broadcast-ers are wrong to use the name ‘Islam-ic State’. They are also unhappy with the use of the word ‘jihadist’.

Several years ago the IS was called the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI). It then joined another group in northern Syria. Its name changed to ISIS or ISIL. Both stand for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Le-vant. The Levant is a name used by

some to describe the area around the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea. After capturing a large area of northern Iraq three months ago, the group changed its name again. Now it calls itself ‘the Islamic State’ or ‘Islamic State’.

Members of the IS are violent. IS fighters have committed many atrocities. These include executions, beheadings and abductions. Most people who support the IS are Sunni Muslims. They treat people who fol-low other religions, including Shia Muslims, very badly. Anyone who does not agree with their beliefs is an enemy. The IS’s leaders claim to have created a caliphate. Many years ago a caliphate was a large Muslim area ruled by a single per-son. This person, who was called the caliph, was both a religious and political leader.

Islamic State fighters in Syria

In recent months hundreds of young Muslim men have left their homes in European countries to join the IS. First they travel to Tur-key. Then they cross the border into northern Syria. Muslim leaders and Islamic scholars in European coun-tries tell them not to do this.

News reporters often describe these young men as jihadists. The word ‘jihad’ means ‘struggle’ or ‘ef-fort’. Traditionally, Muslims use this word in three ways: the struggle to be a good Muslim; the struggle to build a good Muslim society; the strug-gle to defend Islam, with force if


necessary. Islamic leaders insist that it is wrong to call those who join the IS jihadists. Anyone who joins the IS, they say, is not being a good Muslim. Nor are they building a good Muslim society or defending Islam.

Muslim people all around the world criticise the IS. They say it is un-Islamic. What it is doing, they add, has nothing to do with the Is-lamic faith. Muslim leaders worry that using words like ‘Islamic State’ and ‘jihadists’ gives the organisation legitimacy. They believe using these words can encourage young Muslim men to join the organisation.

Some world leaders and news-paper reporters have decided not to call the group the Islamic State. For example, Barack Obama, the presi-dent of the USA, and American po-litical and military leaders, always use the ISIL name.

ELECTION IN NEW ZEALAND

A general election was held in New Zealand on 20th September. The National Party won the most seats in the country’s parliament. Its leader, John Key, was therefore re-elected as New Zealand’s prime minister.

John Key, New Zealand’s prime minister

In New Zealand elections for the country’s parliament (called the House of Representatives) are held every three years. Australia is the same. However, most countries

have a longer period between elec-tions. For example, it is four years in Germany, Spain and South Korea. The UK, Canada, South Africa, and India hold elections for their parlia-ments every five years.

Mr Key is the leader of the Na-tional Party. The other main po-litical group in New Zealand is the Labour Party. Mr Key became the National Party’s leader in 2006. He first became prime minister after the National Party beat the Labour Party in the 2008 election.

New Zealand’s parliament building, in Wellington

New Zealand uses a system called Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting to elect members of parliament (MPs). The parliament building is in Wellington, New Zea-land’s capital city.

The MMP voting system means that people get two votes. One is for the political party they want to gov-ern the country. The other is for the person they want as their local MP. The party votes are added up to find out what percentage of the total each party got. Seats in parliament are awarded using these percentages. If a party wins 20% of the vote, members of that party get 20% of the seats. As long as a party gets a minimum of 5% of the party votes, it is awarded at least one seat in parliament.

MPs win seats by getting the most votes in their local areas. Those who win the most votes get one of their party’s seats in parliament.

A party fills the percentage of the seats it was awarded with all the members who won their own local elections. If the party still has extra seats to fill, it chooses other mem-bers to be MPs.

New Zealand’s parliament has 120 seats. (Because of the MMP vot-ing system this can vary slightly.) Therefore, to have a majority a party must win at least 61 seats. A major-ity means a party has enough MPs to outvote all the others in the parlia-ment. If the party with the most seats does not have a majority it will form a coalition. This is when two or more parties agree to work together.

In the recent election the Nation-al Party won 61 seats. The Labour Party got 32. So Mr Key’s party now has a majority of ‘one seat’. This is unusual in New Zealand. The last time a single party had a majority was in 1994.

Mr Key made an announcement a few days after the election. He said that a referendum on New Zealand’s flag would be held. A referendum is a vote in which all adults can take part. The vote is to decide if the flag should be redesigned.

New Zealand used to be part of the British Empire. Its flag is blue with a Union Jack in the top left corner. (The Union Jack is the flag of the UK.) The flag also has four red stars with white outlines. They represent the brightest stars of the Southern Cross. The Southern Cross is in the Crux constellation, or group of stars. This constellation can be seen in the night sky, at any time of the year, in the southern hemisphere.

New Zealand has been an inde-pendent country for many years. Mr Key thinks that his country’s flag is out of date. He believes its design suggests that New Zealand is still dominated by the UK.


LIVING PLANET REPORT 2014

On 29th September the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) published its 2014 Living Planet Report. The report confirms that animal popula-tions are decreasing and most people are not living in a sustainable way.

Living Planet Report cover

The WWF is an international conservation organisation. It is based in Switzerland. Every two years the WWF produces its Living Planet Report. The first was writ-ten in 1998. Each report contains the results of two important areas of research. One is called the Living Planet Index (LPI) and the other, the Ecological Footprint. The LPI tries to measure the populations of verte-brates around the world. Vertebrates are animals that have a backbone. They include mammals, birds, rep-tiles, amphibians, and fish.

The report calculates what has happened to vertebrates between 1970 and 2010. All types of verte-brates have been badly affected dur-ing this 40-year period. The report claims that terrestrial vertebrates, or animals that live on the ground,

have declined by 39%. Marine ver-tebrates, or those found in the sea, are down by the same amount. The populations of freshwater verte-brates, or those that live in rivers and lakes, have dropped by 79%.

The report states that there are sev-eral reasons for the decline in these animal species. They include hunting and fishing. Habitat loss is a major problem. Humans cause this by us-ing more and more land for farming, constructing buildings and roads, and energy production. Water pollution and invasive species also cause habi-tat loss. The report warns that climate change is likely to further reduce ver-tebrate populations in future years.

The Ecological Footprint is a cal-culation of how much of the Earth’s resources an average person uses, or consumes. Some countries’ total ‘footprints’ are much bigger than oth-ers. On average wealthier countries’ ‘footprints’ are five times bigger than those of poorer ones. The countries with the biggest ‘footprints’ are Ku-wait, Qatar, the United Arab Emir-ates (UAE), Denmark, and Belgium. The USA is eighth on the list. Bang-ladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan are countries with some of the smallest Ecological Footprints.

The report also talks about bio-capacity. This is a measure of a country’s ability to produce what it consumes in a renewable and sus-tainable way. If a country goes over its biocapacity, it cannot sustain the way in which its people live, without taking resources from elsewhere. For example, if everyone on the Earth consumed as much as people in the USA do, we would need four planets, or four Earths. The figure for Germany is two planets. So the USA and Germany (and many other wealthier nations) are consuming other countries’ biocapacity.

The world’s population is now about seven billion. By 2050 it is expected to be 9.6 billion. This, the report says, means the amount of bi-ocapacity available for each person is likely to shrink.

Many people believe that the 2014 Living Planet Report is a warn-ing to governments, companies and individuals. They say habitat loss must be reduced and everyone needs to find ways of consuming less.

INDIAN LEADER VISITS USA

Narendra Modi, India’s prime min-ister, held several meetings with Barack Obama, the president of the USA, on 29th and 30th September. Their discussions took place at the White House. This building is in Washington DC, America’s capital city. It is the home and offices of the American president. A two-day visit to the White House by a foreign leader is unusual.

Mr Modi and Mr Obama at the White House

India has a parliamentary system of government. The prime minis-ter runs the country. Normally, he or she is the leader of the political party that has the most seats in the elected parliament. India also has a president. This person is the coun-try’s head of state. Yet they have few political powers.

In India, Mr Modi is a very popu-lar leader. He became the country’s prime minister four months ago.


This was after the party he leads, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), won the election easily. Elections for India’s parliament are held every five years.

Mr Modi comes from a poor fam-ily. After leaving school as a teenager he worked as a chaiwala (a tea seller) at railway stations. He is a vegetarian and does not drink alcohol. It’s said that Mr Modi gets up at five o’clock every morning to meditate and do yoga. Some people describe him as a hardliner. This is a person who ex-pects others to follow strict rules.

After arriving in the USA Mr Modi spent several days in New York City. He frequently talks about the need for India to become a manu-facturing nation with more exports. This means factories in India mak-ing many things, which are then sold in other countries. In New York he made a speech at Madison Square Garden. This is a large hall that is normally used for music concerts. Tens of thousands of Indian-Ameri-cans went to the hall to listen to him.

Before travelling to the White House Mr Modi had meetings with 17 American business lead-ers. These people are the bosses of some of the USA’s biggest compa-nies. They included the leaders of Boeing, the aircraft manufacturer, Google, one of the world’s biggest internet companies, IBM, a large technology company, and Goldman Sachs, the world’s most successful investment bank. The Indian prime minister asked each of these compa-nies to ‘do more’ in India.

Mr Obama and Mr Modi said that their countries should work to-gether. They agreed that there is a strong connection between their na-tions. This is because India and the USA are the two largest democra-cies in the world. Mr Obama praised Mr Modi for his desire to help many

of the poorest people in India. Mr Modi presented Mr Obama with a formal invitation to visit his country.

Some people thought that Mr Modi’s visit to the White House would cause problems. This was be-cause the Indian prime minister was observing, or celebrating, a nine-day Hindu festival called Navratri. During this festival Mr Modi does not eat. He only drinks water or lemon-flavoured water. People working at the White House insisted that this did not affect his talks with Mr Obama.

NEW LONG BARROW

An unusual grave has recently opened in the UK. People who want to be cremated when they die can have their ashes placed within it. The grave is what’s known as a long barrow. People who lived in ancient Britain around 5,000 years ago built these types of graves.

Long barrow under construction

Archaeologists say there are about 300 long barrows in the UK. However, only a few are well pre-served. Long barrows are large mounds of earth. The elongated mounds cover stone built chambers. Inside these chambers are many niches. These are where the bones of the dead were placed or stored. Entrances to long barrows were of-ten carefully positioned. This was so they aligned, or lined up, with the sunrise on certain days of the year.

All the long barrows in the UK were built during a period called the Neolithic. Archaeologists divide the early history of man into three pe-riods, or eras. They begin with the Stone Age. Then comes the Bronze Age, which is followed by the Iron Age. The Neolithic was at the end of the Stone Age. (It is also known as the New Stone Age.) During the Ne-olithic people used stone tools and lived in villages. They also began to grow certain plants for food and domesticate wild animals. The Neo-lithic happened at different times in different parts of the world. For example, in Egypt the Neolithic was between 7000 BCE and 4500 BCE.

Stone chamber in the long barrow

In ancient Britain the Neolithic began around 4000 BCE and lasted for 2,000 years. Many Neolithic monuments can be seen in the UK. They include stone circles, circu-lar enclosures, burial mounds, and causeways. Many are made from ditches and earth piled up in mounds or banks. Some larger enclosures are 300 metres (1,000 feet) across. It is still not known what they were used for. The most famous Neolithic monument in the UK is Stonehenge.

The new long barrow has been built on farmland. It is not far from Stonehenge. Tim Daw owns the land. It was his idea to build the ancient grave. Construction work took nine months. The barrow’s in-ner chamber is 70 meters (230 feet) long. The chamber and entrance are


made of the same stone as nearby long barrows. Inside are similar niches. The entrance to the long bar-row is aligned to the sunrise on 21st December. In the northern hemi-sphere this is Midwinter’s Day.

Inside the long barrow there is room for 3,000 urns. These are the pots in which ashes from cremated bodies are placed. A lockable iron gate is just inside the entrance. Mr Daw did not want any religious symbols outside or inside the bar-row. Instead the iron gate displays a double helix. This shape, or struc-ture, is often used to describe DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). DNA is in nearly every living organism, in-cluding humans. It contains genetic instructions, or codes, that make liv-ing things unique.

Mr Daw is now selling the spaces in the long barrow’s niches. The space for one urn costs £1,200 (US$1,940). So far over 50 people have paid to reserve a place for an urn in the barrow. One woman’s ashes have already been placed in-side it. She recently died of cancer at the age of 40.

MARS MISSIONS

Two unmanned spacecraft, or space probes, have begun to orbit Mars. One, called MAVEN, was launched by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). The In-dian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) designed the other one. This spacecraft is part of India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM).

Both spacecraft were launched ten months ago. MAVEN reached Mars on 22nd September. Its orbit is elliptical. At its closest point, MA-VEN is 150 kilometres (93 miles) above Mars’ surface. When farthest

away, the spacecraft is 6,200 kilome-tres (3,853 miles) from the planet.

India’s MOM is also known as Mangalyaan. This means ‘Mars craft’ in the Hindi language. It ar-rived on 24th September, two days after MAVEN. Mangalyaan also has a highly elliptical orbit. The closest it gets to Mars is 422 kilometres (262 miles).

Artist’s impression of MAVEN

India is the first country to get a spacecraft to orbit Mars at its first attempt. In the past there have been over 40 missions to Mars. Only about half have succeeded. Now there are five spacecraft orbiting the planet. Two rovers, or remotely con-trolled vehicles, are on Mars’ sur-face. NASA controls both of them.

Mars is often called the ‘Red Planet’. Together with Mercury, Venus and the Earth, Mars is one of the Solar System’s four rocky plan-ets. (The other planets are mostly made of gases.) The Red Planet is Earth-like but smaller. It’s known that Mars was very different about four billion years ago. Then it had flowing water, thick clouds and an atmosphere with large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2). Now Mars is dry, dusty and very cold. Nearly all its atmosphere has gone.

There are many unanswered ques-tions about Mars. What happened to the planet’s climate? Where did all Mars’ water and CO2 go? Was there ever life on Mars? The two new space missions may be able to an-swer some of these questions.

Even though most of it has al-ready gone, Mars’ atmosphere is still escaping, or leaking, into space. MAVEN will measure this. Using this information, scientists will be able to work out what happened to the planet’s atmosphere.

Unlike the Earth, Mars has a very weak magnetic field. The Earth’s magnetic field acts as a shield. It protects our atmosphere from so-lar winds. Explosions on the sur-face of the Sun create solar winds. They contain millions of tonnes of magnetically charged particles, or atoms. Many scientists think Mars’ atmosphere was ‘stripped away’ by solar winds. MAVEN will find out if this is true.

There are millions of tonnes of methane gas in the Earth’s atmos-phere. Microbes produce this gas. Many of these tiny organisms live in the digestive systems, or tracts, of animals.

Artist’s impression of Mangalyaan

Some scientists suspect that there are methane-producing microbes on Mars. If so (because of the planet’s harsh climate) they are likely to be deep underground. Mangalyaan will find out if there is any methane in what’s left of Mars’ atmosphere. If the spacecraft finds this gas, mi-crobes are probably producing it. Mangalyaan will also take photo-graphs of the surface of Mars and its two moons, Phobos and Deimos.

The price of the two space mis-sions is very different. The MOM


cost 4.5 billion rupees (£45 million). It is one of the least expensive space missions ever launched to go to an-other planet. MAVEN is far more expensive. It cost US$671 million (£415 million).

CLOWN FISH STUDY

An international team of research-ers have completed a study on baby clownfish. Surprisingly, they dis-covered that some clown fish larvae swim hundreds of kilometres to look for a new home.

There are nearly 30 different types, or species, of clown fish. The larg-est are around 18 centimetres (seven inches) long. Different clown fish species have different colours. How-ever, the most common types are or-ange with white markings, or patches.

Clown fish

Clown fish are found in the Pa-cific and Indian Oceans. They pre-fer the shallow warm waters around coral reefs. The researchers studied clown fish that live on two coral reefs in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Oman. Clown fish live amongst the tentacles of a sea anemone. They are the only fish that are not affected by anemones’ stings.

Usually adults do not swim more than a few centimetres away from their anemone ‘homes’. The clown fishes’ skin is covered in a type of slime, or mucus. This is similar to

the anemone’s slime. The anemone is tricked, or fooled, by the clown fish’s mucus. It thinks the fish is a part of its own body.

Clown fish feed on algae and zo-oplankton, or very tiny marine crea-tures. Sea anemones and clown fish have what’s known as a symbiotic relationship. This means they help each other. The clown fish look after their anemone by eating parasites and removing any dead tentacles.

The anemones’ tentacles give the clown fish protection from preda-tors. The fishes’ faeces, or excre-ment, provide nutrients, such as nitrogen, that sea anemones need. Some marine scientists think clown fish do other things to help anemo-nes. For instance, their bright col-ours might lure smaller fish towards them. Clown fish may also improve the flow of seawater that surrounds the anemone.

A small group of clown fish will live among the tentacles of one sea anemone. This group will include the breeding male and female. All clown fish are born male. They can change into females if needed. So, if the breeding female dies the breeding male becomes a female. It then mates with one of the group’s other males.

Females can lay thousands of eggs at one time. They do this on a flat surface close to their sea anem-one. The breeding male then looks after the eggs. The eggs take about one week to hatch. Adult clown fish stay close to their anemone. Yet the larvae that hatch from the eggs do not do this. They move about.

Near Oman there are two popu-lations of clown fish. They live on separate coral reefs. These are 400 kilometres (250 miles) apart. The researchers caught several hundred clown fish from both reefs. Then, they clipped, or cut, small samples

from a fin of each fish. The clown fish were then released back into the sea. The researchers recorded the DNA in each sample. These DNA samples showed that six percent of the fish caught by the researchers had swum from one reef to the other.

The baby clown fish are only about one week old when they move to the other reef. The researchers sus-pect that ocean currents help them to complete their long journey.

SCOTLAND’S REFERENDUM

Scotland is part of the United King-dom (UK). On 18th September peo-ple living in Scotland were able to take part in a referendum, or vote. The referendum was held to decide if Scotland should become an inde-pendent country or remain a part of the UK. The result was announced early the following morning.

THE UNITEDKINGDOM

EnglandWales

Scotland

NorthernIreland

REPUBLICOF IRELAND

FRANCE

London

Edinburgh

Cardiff

Belfast

The UK is known by several names. As well as the United King-dom, it is also called Britain or Great Britain. Today the UK is made up of four separate states: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ire-land. The UK’s monarch, Queen Elizabeth the Second, is the ruler of


each state. A prime minister and an elected government run the UK. The UK’s king or queen is a figurehead. He or she has very few powers.

Originally England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland were separate kingdoms. England took over Wales around 700 years ago. In 1603 Queen Elizabeth the First of England died. She had no children. The leaders of England then asked King James the Sixth (1566 – 1625) of Scotland to be king of England and Scotland. He accepted. This arrangement is called ‘the Union of the Crowns’. King James was a distant relative of Queen Elizabeth.

Around 100 years later Scotland had many problems. The parliaments of England and Scotland decided to form one kingdom with one parlia-ment. The parliament in London, England’s capital city, would run both England and Scotland. This agree-ment, or treaty, was finalised in 1707. It is known as the ‘Treaty of Union’ or ‘Acts of Union’. Then, Scotland and England (which included Wales) became the United Kingdom.

English governments and wealthy English landowners had controlled Ireland for hundreds of years. Ireland formally joined the UK in 1801. In 1919 an independ-ence war broke out. Two years later, the UK government signed an agree-ment with the Irish leaders who wanted their own government. This ended the war. Ireland then became a new nation called the Republic of Ireland. However, most people who lived in north east Ireland did not want to join this separate country. So Northern Ireland is still a part of the UK.

For many years the parliament in London (also called Westmin-ster) governed the whole of Eng-land, Scotland, Wales, and Northern

Ireland. In 1997 it was decided that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ire-land would have their own separate smaller parliaments or assemblies. Now people living in these places elect their own local leaders. These leaders can make certain laws. How-ever, important laws, about tax, for-eign affairs and international trade are made by Westminster. The set up of local parliaments and assem-blies is known as ‘devolved power’ or ‘devolution’.

Queen Elizabeth the Second

The first elections to the Scot-tish Parliament, and the Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies took place in 1999. The Scottish Parlia-ment is in the city of Edinburgh. (It is often called Holyrood, after the area of the city where the parlia-ment building is.) The Assemblies of Wales and Northern Ireland are in the cities of Cardiff and Belfast.

In recent Holyrood elections, the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) has won the most seats. This party is led by Alex Salmond. As Scot-land’s leader, his official title is ‘First Minister’. Mr Salmond, and most people who vote for the SNP, want Scotland to be an independent

country. Two years ago, the UK’s prime minister, David Cameron, agreed that an independence refer-endum would be held. People living in Scotland, he said, could then de-cide if they wanted to be part of the UK or a separate country.

Many Scottish people believe Scotland would be more success-ful if it were an independent nation. Yet others disagree. They argue that being a bigger country is important. What’s more, Scotland has been a part of the UK for over 300 years. About 3.6 million people voted in the referendum. Roughly 45% vot-ed ‘yes’ to leave the UK, and 55% voted ‘no’.

The UK’s king or queen never speaks about politics. However, some reports said that Queen Eliza-beth was very pleased to hear the result. Before the vote, she was worried about the possible break up of the UK. A few days after the referendum, Mr Salmond made an announcement. He said that he had decided to step down as Scotland’s first minister, and resign the leader-ship of the SNP.

‘GOOD’ MOSQUITOES

Researchers in Brazil have recently released thousands of mosquitoes. The insects were bred in a laborato-ry. All have been deliberately ‘mod-ified’, or infected with a type of bac-teria. It’s hoped that these modified, or ‘good’, mosquitoes will reduce the number of people suffering from dengue fever.

A virus causes dengue fever (pronounced den-gee). Aedes mos-quitoes spread this disease. These insects feed on human blood. A mosquito will become infected if it bites a person who has the virus


in their blood. If this mosquito then bites another person it can pass on the disease. The dengue virus does not seem to harm the mosquitoes that carry it.

People who suffer from den-gue fever get very ill. Symptoms include headaches, sickness and severe pain in muscles and joints. People also get a fever, or feel both very hot and very cold. Those with dengue fever often develop a skin rash. It looks like measles. After a few weeks most people recover. Yet, in some cases, dengue fever can be fatal. It’s thought that the virus can-not be passed from one person to another. There are no vaccines for dengue fever.

Aedes mosquito

The number of people around the world getting dengue fever has been increasing. Countries with tropical climates are worst affected. Mosquitoes thrive in hot and humid weather. The ones that transmit den-gue fever are mainly found in urban areas, or places where most people live. To reproduce, the mosquitoes need stagnant water and warm night temperatures. Female mosquitoes lay their eggs in this water. After hatching, the mosquito larvae grow into adults.

One of the best ways of getting rid of dengue is to stop mosqui-toes reproducing. This means that all stagnant water must be drained. Anything that collects water needs to be emptied. Pavements and roads

have to be checked to make sure there are no puddles.

For many years there was no dengue fever in Brazil. Yet the dis-ease returned in 1981. Since then the number of people getting den-gue fever each year has increased. In Brazil there have been 3.2 million cases of dengue fever and around 800 deaths in the last five years. The country now has the highest number of dengue infections in the world. Other countries have also had prob-lems. For instance, 12,000 people got dengue fever in Singapore last year. Four died.

The mosquitoes were released in a part of Rio de Janeiro. This is one of Brazil’s largest cities. The insects, both male and female, have been infected with a certain type of bac-terium. Called wolbachia, it cannot be passed, or transmitted, to humans. The bacterium stops the dengue virus multiplying inside the mosquitoes. It also affects their breeding.

The ‘good’ insects, which have just been released, will now mate with ‘wild’ (or ‘bad’) mosquitoes. These are ones that do not carry the bacterium. When a ‘bad’ female mates with a ‘good’ male the eggs she lays do not hatch. Yet when a ‘good’ female mates with a ‘bad’ male her eggs do hatch. However, all of her offspring will carry the wolbachia bacterium.

This way of controlling dengue-carrying mosquitoes was developed in Australia. It has already been tested in Vietnam. These tests were successful. Most mosquitoes in an area are ‘good’ about ten weeks af-ter the bacterium-carrying ones are released. Researchers in Brazil are now breeding many more ‘good’ mosquitoes. These will be released in different areas of Rio de Janeiro and other parts of Brazil.

MOUNT ONTAKE ERUPTS

Mount Ontake erupted just before noon on 27th September. There was no warning. Ontake is the second highest volcano in Japan. Its erup-tion sent white clouds of steam, gas and ash high into the sky. At the time many climbers, or hikers, were near the top of the volcano. Local rescue workers climbed the moun-tain to look for them. Shinzō Abe, Japan’s prime minister, ordered the army to help.

Japan has many volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. The country is close to where several tectonic plates meet. These are huge sec-tions of the Earth’s outer layer, or crust. Tectonic plates (often called ‘plates’) move about slowly on very hot liquid rock, or magma, deep underground. Volcanoes are often found close to where tectonic plates are being pulled apart or pushed together. This plate movement can create gaps in the crust. These gaps then allow hot liquid rock to rise to the surface. When magma reaches the surface it is called lava.

Mount Ontake eruption, in Japan

Volcanoes are often described as being active, dormant or extinct. Active volcanoes are those that have erupted during the last several hun-dred years. A dormant volcano is one that last erupted thousands of years ago. Extinct volcanoes are those thought unlikely to erupt ever again. Japan has 110 active volcanoes.


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

USA

UK

SYRIA

PERU

OMAN

NORWAY

NEW ZEALAND

KUWAIT

JAPAN

IRELAND

IRAQ

INDIA

FRANCE

ECUADOR

CHINA

CHAD

BRAZIL

Hong Kong

AFGHANISTAN

Japan is made up of four main islands: Kyushu, Shikoku, Honshu, and Hokkaido. The country’s popu-lation is about 127 million. Roughly 75% of Japan is very mountainous. Most Japanese people live in the non-mountainous areas. This means that parts of the country are some of the most densely populated places in the world.

Hiking in the mountains is a popular pastime in Japan. Walking, or climbing, to the top of volcanoes, which erupted a long time ago, is not unusual. Mount Fuji, or Fujisan, is Japan’s highest mountain. It is an ac-tive volcano. However, Mount Fuji’s last eruption was just over 300 years ago. Each year thousands of people climb Fujisan. Near the top are sev-eral buildings, or lodges. Here, peo-ple can rest or even stay the night.

Many hikers climb Mount On-take. At this time of year people

visit the volcano to see the surround-ing trees. As it is autumn, the leaves on the trees are changing colour. Most active volcanoes in Japan are monitored. Instruments called seis-mometers (or seismographs) are used to do this. These devices record earthquakes and smaller earth trem-ors. Many tremors near a volcano are a sign of a possible eruption. There are 12 seismometers on Mount On-take. However, none indicated that an eruption was about to happen.

Ontake’s latest eruption was what’s known as a phreatic erup-tion. These types of eruptions are difficult to predict. They are caused by magma boiling large amounts of underground water. This explodes out of the volcano. Phreatic eruptions contain very hot steam and ash, rocks and poisonous gases, but no lava.

When the eruption happened about 250 hikers were on Mount

Ontake. Around 200 managed to get back down. Falling rocks in-jured some. Others took shelter in mountain lodges. They were found the following day. Rescue workers and helicopters were forced to stop their search several times. This was because the volcano kept erupting. The top and sides of Mount Ontake are now covered in thick ash. Later, officials confirmed that the eruption had killed 47 people.

REDISCOVERED RAT

A large type of rat has been ‘redis-covered’ in Peru. It was thought that this species of rat died out around 500 years ago. Called the Machu Picchu arboreal chinchilla rat, it is about the same size as a small cat. The rat has been named after a fa-mous ruined city in Peru.


Machu Picchu was an Inca city. Its ruins are high on a ridge in the Andes Mountains. The Inca civili-sation was centred on modern-day Peru. At its most powerful, the Inca Empire included parts of what we now call Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. The Incas believed the Sun was a god. They used gold to decorate many of their cities.

Machu Picchu was probably built around 1450. Yet it was abandoned, or deserted, within the next 100 years. Europeans crossed the Atlantic Ocean and arrived in North and South America in the early 1500s. Spanish soldiers, called Conquistadors, be-lieved there were cities built of gold in Central and South America.

Machu Picchu arboreal chinchilla rat

Conquistadors arrived in what is now Peru in the 1520s. They easily defeated the Inca armies. The gold and silver they captured was sent back to Spain. Many Incas died of diseases that were brought to South America by the Spanish. The Incas had no immunity to the bacteria and viruses that caused them. These

diseases, such as smallpox, mea-sles and tuberculosis (TB), quickly spread throughout the Inca Empire.

The Spanish Conquistadors never found Machu Picchu. It’s therefore one of the few Inca sites that they did not destroy. Historians think most people living in Machu Picchu died from one of the ‘Span-ish diseases’.

Machu Picchu (Martin St-Amant)

Today, thousands of tourists visit Machu Picchu every year. The sur-rounding area is a National Park. A team of guards work at the ruined city. They also look after the park. In 2009 one of the guards found a large injured rodent. He looked after it for several days. The animal recovered. Then, not knowing how important it was, the guard released the rat in the forest. While looking after the rat he and some other guards took photo-graphs of it. Later they posted some of their pictures on the internet.

Almost 100 years ago two skulls from a large rat-type creature were dug up near Machu Picchu. They were found with some old Inca pots. The pots were about 400 years old. A living rodent with this type of skull had never been seen. The skulls were therefore presumed to belong to an extinct animal.

By chance some scientists saw the guards’ photographs on the

internet. They had never seen a rat like this before. A group of research-ers from Mexico and Peru thought it might be one of the ‘extinct’ rats. In 2012 they went to the National Park at Machu Picchu to try to find one. Each year the researchers spent sev-eral weeks searching. They eventu-ally caught one of the large rodents in the forest, which surrounds the ruined city.

The researchers believe that only a few of these rats live in this area. These animals are not found any-where else in the world. So the rats are likely to be an endangered spe-cies. While searching for one of the rats, the researchers made several other important discoveries. These include a new lizard and four new species of frog.

IG NOBEL CEREMONY

The award ceremony for the Ig No-bel Prizes took place at Harvard University, in the USA, on 18th Sep-tember. Every year since 1991 the American humorous magazine An-nals of Improbable Research (AIR) has awarded these joke prizes. They can be given to any scientist who has published his or her research work.

Each prize is for a different subject or category. They include medicine, physics, engineer-ing, chemistry, and biology. The Ig Nobel Prizes are a parody, or a joke version, of the famous Nobel Prizes. The awards are called ‘Ig Nobel’ because it sounds like the word ‘ignoble’, which means bad or shameful.

The Ig Nobel Prize ceremony is held a few weeks before the No-bel Prizes are announced. Nobel Prizes were first awarded in 1901. They were named after Alfred


Nobel (1833 – 1896). He was a very wealthy scientist and businessman from Sweden. Nobel left a large amount of money to pay for the prizes after he died. There are No-bel Prizes for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace. People who win them are known as Nobel laureates.

Ig Nobel ceremony

Each year the Nobel Prizes are awarded at a special ceremony. This takes place in Stockholm, the Swed-ish capital city. However, the Peace Prize ceremony is held in Oslo, the capital of Norway. This prize is given to the person, or organisa-tion, thought to have done the most to promote peace in the world. Last year’s Peace Prize was awarded to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). This organisation is based in the Netherlands. Its job is to try to de-stroy, or get rid of, all the world’s chemical weapons.

The AIR says it gives its Ig Nobel Prizes for research that ‘first makes people laugh, and then makes them think’. For instance, in the past Ig Nobel Prizes have been given to sci-entists who studied why woodpeck-ers don’t get headaches from the tapping they do, and if dung beetles enjoy what they eat.

Some famous scientists have won Ig Nobel Prizes. For exam-ple, 14 years ago Professor An-dre Geim, a Russian-born scien-tist, won an Ig Nobel Prize for

‘magnetically levitating a frog’. He used magnetic fields to make the frog float in the air. Ten years later Professor Geim was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for dis-covering an important new material called graphene.

In recent years real Nobel laure-ates have been invited to the ceremo-ny to give out the prizes. This year a team of scientists from Japan won a physics prize. They had studied why banana skins are so slippery when you step on them. Researchers from Norway were given a science prize. They had tested what reindeers do if they see a person dressed up as a po-lar bear. Two doctors from the USA were awarded a prize for medicine. They discovered that putting strips of pork meat inside a person’s nose cures bad nosebleeds.

Traditionally those who go to the Ig Nobel award ceremony throw paper planes onto the stage. Many of the scientists who are given the awards attend. When accepting their prize they can only speak for one minute. If they talk for any longer they are ‘booed off’ the stage.

HONG KONG PROTESTS

In China, 1st October is a national holiday. It commemorates the founding of the People’s Republic of China on 1st October 1949.

Tens of thousands of people who had the day off in Hong Kong on 1st October joined street demonstra-

tions. Those taking part want more democracy in Hong Kong. The street protests began after China’s lead-ers made an announcement about a forthcoming election. This election will be held in Hong Kong in 2017.

Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire in 1843. In 1898 China agreed to lease some extra land to Britain. The expiry date of the 99-year lease was 1997.

During 150 years of British rule, Hong Kong became a very successful city. Hong Kong has a large natural harbour. For many years China was not open to other countries. During this time most of the world’s cargo ships, taking goods to China, sailed to Hong Kong. In recent years the city has become an important financial centre. Many of the world’s biggest banks and fi-nance companies have large offices in Hong Kong.

Before the lease ended, officials from the UK and China held many discussions. The UK agreed to re-turn all of Hong Kong to China in 1997. Many of the talks were there-fore about how Hong Kong would be run after China took over. As a one party communist state, China has strict rules about what people can and cannot do. People in Hong Kong were used to ‘UK rules’, which are very different.

As a solution China agreed that Hong Kong’s laws and how the city was governed would not change for 50 years. This became known as ‘one country, two systems’. On 1st July 1997, a special ‘hand over’ ceremony was held. Hong Kong then officially became a part of China.

‘One country, two systems’ means people in Hong Kong have more po-litical freedoms than those in the rest of China. For example, they have a


right to hold peaceful demonstra-tions. Protests or demonstrations are not allowed in China. In Hong Kong news reporters and journalists are supposed to be able to report the news in an impartial way.

A person called the chief execu-tive leads Hong Kong. The UK gov-ernment wanted the people of Hong Kong to elect the chief executive every five years. Chinese officials did not agree. They decided that a group of people appointed by China would select this person. However, Chinese officials said that people in Hong Kong would be able to elect the chief executive in 2017, or 20 years after the hand over.

At the end of August, China’s leaders made an announcement about the 2017 election. They de-clared that only two or three can-didates would be allowed to take part. These candidates are to be chosen by China’s leaders. Those who want more democracy in Hong Kong say this makes the 2017 election meaningless.

Street protest in Hong Kong

On 22nd September groups of students began a protest outside the offices of the Hong Kong govern-ment. A few days later other pro democracy groups joined them. Po-lice used tear gas and pepper spray against those that were blocking the government offices. Other pro-tests then began in different parts of Hong Kong. These have closed roads and disrupted the traffic. The

protesters say that the people of Hong Kong should choose the 2017 election candidates.

Some are now calling the street protests in Hong Kong the ‘Um-brella Revolution’. This is because many protesters used their umbrel-las to protect themselves from the police tear gas and pepper spray.

Not everyone in Hong Kong agrees with the democracy protests. Many say the protesters are damag-ing the city’s reputation.

NEW ATLAS

The latest edition, or updated ver-sion, of the Times Atlas of the World was published on 25th September. For the first time this atlas includes maps of the landscape under the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. The official title of this large book is The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World: 14th Edition. The first version was printed in 1895.

Many people think that the Times Atlas is the most authorita-tive, or trusted, in the world. Most governments and news companies use it to check facts. These could be where countries’ borders start and end, and to which nation small islands belong. The atlas contains several types of maps. Some, called geographical maps, show landscape features such as the height and gra-dient of hills and mountains. Others, known as political maps, display the names and locations of places, towns, cities, and borders.

Comparing the atlas with its older versions shows how the world has changed. The last edition was pub-lished in 2011. So the new one shows the political changes that have hap-pened over the last three years. The index has 200,000 entries. These

are the names that appear on the maps. In addition the atlas contains information on: the Solar System, weather, the make up, or structure, of the Earth, where earthquakes have happened, and population figures. Also listed is information about the world’s largest mountains, rivers, lakes, and islands.

Usually maps of Antarctica and northern Greenland just show white spaces. This edition of the Times At-las is different. It includes detailed maps of what is under the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. This land-scape includes huge lakes, moun-tains and canyons.

Times Atlas of the World

The ‘under ice’ maps were most-ly made using small aircraft. These carried special radar, or echo-sound-ing, equipment. Radar signals cre-ated by this equipment, are directed, or aimed, at the ice below. The sig-nals go through the ice. When they hit rock they bounce back. The time it takes for the signals to return to the plane is then recorded. From this information it is possible to make a three-dimensional (3-D) ‘map’ or


image of the shape of the land un-derneath the ice.

The Antarctic map shows the Gamburtsev Mountain Range. These mountains are about the same size as the European Alps. Even the tallest peaks, which are 3,400 metres (11,155 feet) high, are buried under the ice. As these peaks are invis-ible, or cannot be seen, some people call them the ‘Ghost Mountains’ or ‘Ghost Peaks’.

There are many lakes under Antarctica’s ice. Called subglacial lakes, these are also shown on the maps. Lake Vostok is the largest known subglacial lake in Antarctica. It is one of the biggest lakes in the world. The ice above this lake is 3.8 kilometres (2.4 miles) thick.

The huge canyon under Green-land’s ice sheet can be seen in the atlas. This was discovered only last year. A canyon is a deep ravine, or gorge. It has steep cliffs on either side. Canyons are formed over many millions of years by rivers gradually eroding the rocks. In plac-es Greenland’s canyon is 800 metres (2,600 feet) deep and ten kilometres (six miles) wide. With a length of 750 kilometres (466 miles), it is the world’s longest canyon.

The new Times Atlas is 45 x 31 centimetres (18.7 x 13.2 inches) in size. It has 544 pages. Of these 263 are of maps and illustrations. The large book costs £150 (US$242).

SAHARA DESERT’S AGE

Many scientists believe that the Sahara Desert formed between two and three million years ago. An ice age in the northern hemisphere be-gan at roughly the same time. It was thought that these two events were connected. However, researchers

from Norway now say this may not be true. Their study suggests that the Sahara Desert is at least seven mil-lion years old.

The Sahara covers nearly ten percent of the continent of Africa. Many people think it is the largest desert in the world. Even though it is very cold, Antarctica has very lit-tle rainfall. This means Antarctica is a bigger desert than the Sahara. However, the Sahara is the world’s largest hot desert.

The size of the Sahara is 9.4 mil-lion square kilometres (3.6 million square miles). In Arabic its name means ‘the great desert’. The Sahara stretches from the Atlantic coast in the west to the Red Sea in the east. Its northern and southern bounda-ries are the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahel.

The Sahel is a region that also stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. It is mostly savanna, or grassland. The Sahel is dry, but it does have some rain. Sahel is an-other Arabic word. It means ‘coast’ or ‘shore’. So the Sahel is like a boundary. It separates the Sahara Desert in the north from places that have much more rainfall and veg-etation farther to the south.

Many people imagine that the Sahara Desert is all sand. Yet most of it is barren rock. The Sahara does have big areas of ‘shifting’, or mov-ing sand. These places are called ergs. Here some sand dunes are 150 metres (492 feet) high. There are several volcanic mountain ranges in the Sahara. The highest mountain in the desert is in Chad. Called Emi Koussi, it is a large volcano.

Only one permanent river cross-es the desert. This is the Nile, which is the longest river in the world. The Nile begins in Central Africa and then flows through Sudan and Egypt. It eventually empties into the Mediterranean Sea.

Some scientific work has recent-ly been done on sand dunes in Chad. It seemed to show that some dunes are around seven million years old. The researchers from Norway decided to build a simulation, or computer model, of the Sahara’s weather patterns.

The world’s continents have not always been in the places they are today. Over many millions of years they have ‘drifted’ towards, or away from, each other. Millions of years ago there was a different sea to the north of Africa. Called the Tethys

Satellite picture of the Sahara Desert


Sea, it no longer exists. About 11 million years ago, drifting land-masses reduced the size of the Teth-ys Sea. At roughly the same time, what we now call Arabia, or the Middle East, was pushed upwards.

The researchers programmed these changes into their simulation. They wanted to see what effect they had on the Sahara’s climate. The simulation showed that westerly winds, which brought lots of rain-fall, moved towards the south. So, very little rain fell on the Sahara. It got drier and drier. By about seven million years ago the Sahara had turned into the huge desert we see today.

AFGHANISTAN’S NEW LEADERS

A special inauguration ceremony was held in Afghanistan on 29th September. The event took place at the presidential palace in Kabul, the country’s capital city. It was organ-ised to officially appoint Ashraf Gha-ni as Afghanistan’s new president.

Hamid Karzai was the Afghan president for ten years. Mr Ghani has now taken over. This is the first democratic handover of power in Afghanistan’s history.

Mr Ghani’s appointment has taken a long time. Both the United Nations (UN) and John Kerry got involved in the election process. Mr Kerry is the USA’s secretary of state. After President Obama, Mr Kerry is the most senior American politician who deals with other countries.

The presidential election began six months ago. At first there were eight candidates. Dr Abdullah Ab-dullah got the most votes. Mr Ghani came second. As no one had more than 50% of the votes, a second round, or run-off, election had to be

held. The two candidates who get most votes in the first election then contest the run-off.

The second round was held in June. It led to many arguments. Collecting all the votes, or ballot papers, took a long time. Even-tually, the Election Commission declared that Mr Ghani had won. The Election Commission organ-ises all elections and the counting of votes. It said that Mr Ghani got 56% of the votes and Dr Abdullah 44%. Yet Dr Abdullah refused to accept the result. He insisted that many votes were fakes and others were miscounted.

Dr Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani

Thousands of troops from the USA and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) have been in-volved in a war in Afghanistan. It started when the USA led an inva-sion of the country in 2001. This was soon after a militant group, called al-Qaeda, attacked the USA. Then, the Taliban ruled Afghanistan under very strict Islamic laws. Tali-ban leaders allowed al-Qaeda to op-erate training camps in their coun-try. The USA demanded that they hand over all the al-Qaeda leaders who were in Afghanistan. After the Taliban refused an American force invaded.

The USA and NATO forces have not been able to defeat the Taliban. Most of the Taliban fighters moved to the southern mountainous areas close to the border with Pakistan. In

recent years American and NATO troops have helped to train a new Afghan army and police force. Now the Afghan army has taken over the fight against the Taliban. Nearly all American and NATO troops are ex-pected to leave Afghanistan by the end of this year.

However, the USA wants 10,000 soldiers to stay in the country. They could then help if the Afghan army has difficulties. Yet Mr Karzai has refused to sign an agreement giving the American soldiers per-mission to stay. He said that this was the responsibility of the new president. American military com-manders want to make plans for the end of the year. Yet they could not do this until the new president took over.

The UN arranged to check all the votes from the run-off election and recount them. Mr Kerry held talks with Mr Ghani and Dr Abdul-lah. They eventually agreed that Mr Ghani would be president. A new po-sition of chief executive was created for Dr Abdullah. The two men finally agreed to jointly run the country.

Dr Abdullah and Mr Ghani come from different parts of Afghanistan. Many Afghans hope that they will be able to work together. They fear that the Taliban will return if the coun-try’s government is not united.

Newsademic.comEditor: Rebecca Watson

Acknowledgements:

News story photographs by gettyimages

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ISSUE 233 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

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2 3 4

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9 10

11 12

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16 17

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20

ACROSS

4 Adjective Describes something that can be made to happen by law

7 Adjective Including all or nearly everything 9 Adjective Not running or flowing, such as water,

air etc. 11 Noun (Plural) Animals, plants or microorganisms that

live in or on another from which they get their food 13 Adjective Not favouring one side over the other 14 Noun An official ceremony to mark the beginning of a

new period 16 Verb To be in control of or more powerful than others 18 Noun Hobby or activity that you do for enjoyment 19 Noun (Plural) People who are honoured with awards

for great intellectual achievements 20 Verb Burnt a dead body during a funeral service

DOWN

1 Verb Strongly disapprove of something 2 Noun (Plural) Recesses in a wall, especially ones made

to hold statues 3 Verb To bring animals or plants under human control for

transport, food, power or companionship 5 Adjective Describes something that is legal or has

credibility 6 Adjective In balance according to size or number 8 Noun (Plural) People who enthusiastically support

extreme political of religious groups 10 Noun A measure of the steepness of a slope, hill or

mountain 12 Noun A copy of something serious that is funny or humorous 15 Adjective Being the only one of its kind 17 Adjective Causing death


ISSUE 233GLOSSARY 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.

E U Q I N U S T U N Y C F J G A K I

V T I C H Z V C M C D S U I Q A B N

I O A M E Y X E I Z H E C E R I J A

S U B C X M D A I T N C N D N B I U

N O E L I N I M C N A G V D J A E G

E T D R O T F T P D Z N I N T Y H U

H R G C E N S A S V E N A N G D I R

E M C W J T R E J A G T A F O O Z A

R X Y J I A C U M Y P N A M A R X T

P O J F S X R E C O G L G N D A C I

M N W I U B E A Q A D A G E I P G O

O O T E B N M W T J Q R U Z O M B N

C E N W B I A S E T A E R U A L O U

S N O M T C T S H D F C S K J A B D

N Q B I O H E H I B S A M F O T G J

W K G S W E D E T B R C A B U A O F

F E T X A S N K X L O J O Y T F H A

L A N O I T R O P O R P D S F O C B

MISSING WORD ANSWER =

ISSUE 232 A

NSW

ERS

I N D I G E N O U S D S A T L E D M

M N X K L V Z F B S Y B J D M J R S

M C T Q Y X S T D E B Q S E E L E I

U J T E Y C Z B U K H V R Y C A L L

N C S E L Z Z O N A I C Y R J F B A

I R E X A L Z P D Z H Q H A M O A B

T E V H K W I L N A R C B N Z V N I

Y S O O A G R G N T O B A I E Y I N

S E R R K T N T E N O X N M W P A N

Q R G I Z S S I T N E Y Q I W L T A

B V N Z W R R R T U C I U L N M S C

R E A O J S I X Q C C E E E H Y U E

M S M N G B O I U E A G T R N O S Q

G Q Q Y U C N E M N D P S P F K U H

P E Q T F H V L I X R W M E L I G A

P N I W C G H E D E T A L O S I E Z

W O D E Z N J E A Y Y T G C C B J P

N A T I O N A L I S T N Q A J I X Y

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 15th October 2014 (GMT/UTC).*

V I R T U A L

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S1

U S T A I2

N A B L E

N

I3

C4

O N T R I B U T I O N5

M O E O

M M L H6

O R I Z O N

U P L B7

Z

N N8

C9

A N N I B A L I S M10

L

V11

I R T U A L C G N E E

T T T E Q R S

I12

Y M13

I14

N D I G E N O U S C

S A O N C E H

O N N G D15

E L T A S A16

G I L E

L G A S N

A P17

R E L I M I N A R Y T

T O I S

R18

E S E R V E S

D E T19

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