Readable, teachable news.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Syria is a country in the Middle East.
Many Syrians have been protesting against its government, which has been accused of doing terrible things to its own people.
The leader of Syria is President Bashar al-Assad.
The fighting between the Syrian government and its opponents this year has been intense and very violent.
Many Syrians want al-Assad to step down as leader. They want to be able to elect a new leader. (Bashar al-Assad’s family has ruled Syria for more than 40 years.)
It’ll be the Toronto Maple Leafs vs. the Detroit Red Wings out in the fresh air on New Year’s Day.
It’s called the Winter Classic, and it’s an annual outdoor hockey game that features NHL teams playing on an outdoor rink.
Today, the NHL announced which teams will be playing in the special game. The game counts as a regular-season game.
Although it’s still 11 months away—the next Winter Classic will be held on Jan. 1, 2013—fans are excited. Because it’s outdoors, things like snow, rain and glare from the sun can affect the game, which makes it all the more interesting for spectators.
Thanks to zebra dung, cars could one day run on fuel made from old newspapers.
Today, we use mostly oil and gas to run our cars; oil and gas come from fossilized plants and animals. But fossil fuels are expensive, and there aren’t enough of them. Scientists are looking for cheaper and more plentiful fuels.
David Mullin is a biology professor at a university in New Orleans. He and his students are trying to make a fuel from plants. Plant-based fuels are called “biofuels.”
He knew that if he could break down “cellulose,” he could turn it into a fuel that could run vehicles.
There are two main political parties in the United States: the Republicans and the Democrats.
Right now, the Republicans have to choose someone to run for president against Democrat Barack Obama, in time for the presidential election on Nov. 6.
To pick a Republican candidate, every state in the U.S. holds an early election called a primary.
The front-runner in the Republican race is Mitt Romney, who was the Governor of Massachusetts and is now in business.
The ruler of North Korea, Kim Jong-il, passed away on Saturday.
He died, at age 69, of heart failure.
North Korea’s people know him as “Dear Leader.” They went into the streets to mourn his passing.
However, his death creates a lot of uncertainty about what will happen in North Korea.
Many world leaders are concerned about the situation there now.
One reason is that North Korea has nuclear weapons, so nearby countries like Japan and in particular South Korea, reportedly have their military on “high alert.”
Another reason for concern is that before his death, Kim passed control of the country to one of his sons, Kim Jong-un, who is in his 20s.
Kim Jong-un is largely unknown to other world leaders. In fact, until two years ago, the only picture the CIA had of him was as a student in short pants at a school he was attending in Switzerland.
A whole town in Germany had to be evacuated last week, while an enormous bomb was successfully diffused. Diffused means dismantled so it wouldn’t blow up.
The bomb was from World War II (WWII). It had been dropped on Germany by the Allies (the coalition of countries, including Canada, that fought Germany in the war) in the mid-1940s.
There are many unexploded bombs in the country, but this one – at 1.8 tonnes – was one of the biggest. There was another, smaller, bomb there too, which had been dropped by U.S. forces.
The bombs had been laying at the bottom of the Rhine river in a town called Koblenz.
When the water level in the river fell, due to a dry period, the bombs were discovered.
Because they had been sitting in water for a long time, they were very dangerous.
Canada and the United States are working together to make it easier for people to travel across their common border.
This week, U.S. President Barack Obama and Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, agreed to a “cross-border plan” to make it easier and quicker for Canadians to travel to the U.S. It will also help companies in both countries to do business together.
Harper has agreed to a “common perimeter”–a type of border all around North America–so more careful checking can be done on who and what comes across the borders from Canada. Canada has also agreed to get more information about people when they come into Canada from other countries and to put in American-style bomb detection machines for checking luggage.
Canadians — whether they were hockey fans or not — were glued to their TV sets on Monday night.
One of the sport’s greatest players was making his comeback.
Sidney Crosby had been off the ice since early January after suffering two blows that left him with a concussion.
On Tuesday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins’s captain came back into the game. And boy, did he put on a show!
Crosby scored a goal in the first five-and-a-half minutes of the game against the New York Islanders, flipping a backhander over the glove of goaltender Anders Nilsson.
The Penguins ultimately won 5-0 against the lacklustre Islanders.
Crosby took home four points, with two assists and then another backhand goal in the third period.
Not bad for a guy who hadn’t played in 10 months.
You may have seen pictures of Hawaii on postcards, with its beautiful beaches, lush gardens and fascinating volcanoes.
But the Hawaiian islands are also rich in history and culture.
On the north shore of Hawaii’s island of Oahu you’ll find the Polynesian Culture Centre. There, each group of Hawaiian islands is represented in the form of a mini-village from that particular island chain.
Canada has always done a lot of trading with the United States, the biggest buyer of the products and natural resources it sells.
But now companies in Canada are finding other countries to trade with, like India and China.
A new report written by experts at one of Canada’s biggest banks says that by the end of this decade — the year 2020 — Canada will only trade about 60 per cent of its goods with its neighbouring country, the United States. That’s down from 75 per cent right now.
