Islamists and Sochi
Two men claimed responsibility for two suicide bombings in Volgograd, in which 34 people died. Now, the same Islamist militant group threatened with more attacks in Sochi.
In the warning, the attacks were called “presents” for the Russian President and any tourists who visit during the Olympics. The presents will be revenge for Muslim bloodshed in countries like Afghanistan, Somalia and Syria.
The bombings in Volgograd were carried out on behalf of a group from Dagestan. Dagestan is a part of Russia where militants rebel to create an Islamist state.
The Olympic Games are important to Putin. He wants to show how far Russia’s come since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Difficult words: bloodshed (killing of a lot of people), on behalf of (as a representation of), militant (person who fights to support a political cause).
Spacecraft wakes up
Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft has ended its hibernation. It returned a signal sent out by the European Space Agency last Monday.
The spacecraft hibernated for most of the past three years to save power. It will reach a comet in August. Unlike previous spacecrafts, Rosetta won’t just sail by. The spacecraft is designed to orbit the comet for more than a year to study it.
Comets are leftover remains from the formation of the solar system which happened around 4.6 billion years ago. Scientists hope that the spacecraft will provide more information about the solar system.
Difficult words: hibernation (sleeping), orbit (to move in a circle around something), reach (come to), sail by (to pass), leftover remains (parts which were not used to form the solar system).
Dolphins in Japan
Japanese fishermen wrangled hundreds of dolphins into a closed area in a hunt, which happens every year.
The fishermen hit the dolphins with their boats and wrestle them, as they need to select some of the animals. These will be sold to aquariums, but most of the dolphins will be killed for meat.
The killing of dolphins is called “pithing”. The sad thing about it is that the dolphins do not die immediately. It takes around 20 to 30 minutes for the dolphins to die.
Fishermen say that the cull is a traditional part of their lives and that they have been fishing dolphins and whales for thousands of years.
Difficult words: wrangle (make move to one place), hunt (catching and killing animals), cull (killing of animals).
Snow on a road
People in Minnesota had to deal with cold weather and heavy snow. A lot of snow has fallen at exactly the wrong time, during rush hour.
The icy conditions caused a chain reaction of crashes and spin-outs. A road had to be closed for most of the morning while emergency crews helped to clear it. Everything was caught on a traffic camera.
Police officers were called to around 70 crashes and more than 100 spin-outs. Several cities declared snow emergencies after the latest downfall, which reached almost six inches (15 centimetres) in some areas.
Difficult words: rush hour (when a lot of people travel to or from work), spin-out (when you can’t control the car), downfall (heavy fall of snow).
Bear visits people
Security camera footage shows a couple who are watched by a wild brown bear while they leave a house in California.
At first, they don’t know about the bear which was only metres away from them, but then the man saw it. Luckily, they were not hurt seriously by the bear. There was only a little bit of bruising.
The bear has been seen often around this neighbourhood. It eats trash and scares the residents. Although the bear doesn’t look dangerous, it should be probably relocated. It is still a wild animal.
Difficult words: bruising (little damage on your skin), trash (things you throw away).
Sinkhole near a house
A sinkhole opened up in front of an elderly woman’s house. She was forced to leave her home.
It is 20 feet (6 meters) wide and 15 feet (4.5 metres) deep, but it is not growing anymore.
Two houses on either side of the property have also been evacuated as a precaution.
The 72 year-old woman had been living in her house for over 20 years. She might never be allowed to live there again.
Difficult words: property (building or a piece of land), evacuate (send people away from a dangerous place), precaution (something you do to prevent something dangerous from happening).
Bill Gates loses at chess
Bill Gates, the founder of a giant computer company and one of the richest men in the world, was beaten in chess just in 71 seconds.
The winner was a young Norwegian. He won the World Chess Championship in November last year, and he has been called the “Justin Bieber of chess”. His boyish good looks have earned him lucrative sponsorships, a modeling contract and widespread media coverage.
Difficult words: lucrative (producing a lot of money), sponsorship (financial support for an activity), coverage (he is often in the media ).
Avalanche in Alaska
Around 4,000 residents from a town in Alaska are still cut off from the rest of the state after a series of avalanches over the weekend.
An enormous amount of snow, which is in some places 40 feet (12 metres) deep, fell down onto a highway. The highway is the only road to the town and it will probably remain blocked for at least a week.
Bitter cold temperatures have been moving southwards from the Arctic. In the Upper Midwest, some cities have had to close schools, and drivers were warned to stay off the roads because of dangerous driving conditions.
Difficult words: avalanche (mass of snow which falls down the side of a mountain), enormous (very big), bitter cold (very cold), Upper Midwest (upper middle and west side of the United States).
Watermelon explosion
Two men, who are known as “Slow Mo Guys”, have posted another video on YouTube. It has already gone viral.
They used a large firecracker to explode a watermelon when one of them sat close by. He got covered in its juice and pulp.
The two use a high speed camera that films at 25,000 frames per second. They have filmed various things in slow motion like water balloon fights and golf shots. The guys have been doing this for the past three years.
Difficult words: viral (very popular), firecracker (loud explosive firework), pulp (pieces of fruit), various (different in kind).
A lot of cocaine
A military aircraft detected a boat which was carrying suspicious packages. It was moving at a high speed off the coast of the Dominican Republic.
The aircraft fired warning shots, as the people on it wanted the boat to stop, but the boat didn’t. The smugglers threw several packages overboard during the chase. Military helicopters disabled the boat and the Coast Guard team boarded and arrested four smugglers. They also recovered 45 large packages of cocaine from the water.
The total amount of the cocaine was 1,133 kilograms. It is worth around 37 million dollars.
Difficult words: suspicious (making you think that something bad is happening), chase (following somebody quickly to catch them), disable (make something stop working).