Category: World News

Hartlepool youngsters showcase their maths skills Shanghai-style

Year 6 pupils from Eldon Grove Academy, Hartlepool, demonstrated their flair for fractions at an open classroom event under the expert tuition of teachers Huang Wei-yi of the Shanghai Huangpu Luwan No1 Central Primary School and Peng Yu-yun of the First Central Primary School of Jingan District, China. The live lesson, watched by dozens of headteachers from across the North East at Hartlepool College of Further Education, was the culmination of a primary maths global exchange programme.

Israel declassifies documents in 1950s missing children saga

Israel has declassified reams of documents related to a decades-old mystery of young children who disappeared in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Some 200,000 documents were released online Wednesday from past government inquiries into the disappearance of about 1,000 children, mostly Jewish immigrants from Yemen and other Arab countries.

Deadline looms for flood grant applications

Flood-affected residents and businesses across Calderdale are being reminded that time is running out to apply for grants to repair and protect their properties, as the application deadlines are fast approaching. Calderdale was the worst hit area by the unprecedented floods last Boxing Day, with over 2000 residents and more than 1000 businesses flooded.

Deadline looms for flood grant applications

Flood-affected residents and businesses across Calderdale are being reminded that time is running out to apply for grants to repair and protect their properties, as the application deadlines are fast approaching. Calderdale was the worst hit area by the unprecedented floods last Boxing Day, with over 2000 residents and more than 1000 businesses flooded.

Second flight recorder recovered from Black Sea crash site

In this image from video and provided by the Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service, ministry diver adjusts a rope on a fragment of a plane engine, to lift it outside in Sochi, Russia, Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2016. The Defense Ministry says search teams have recovered another flight recorder from a military plane that crashed in the Black Sea, killing all 92 aboard.

10 Things to Know for Today

A Turkish news agency says Ankara and Moscow are working to ensure that the truce would come into effect at midnight, although there was no immediate confirmation from the Turkish Foreign Ministry. “People relate to aspects of my stories and that’s nice for me because then I’m not all alone with it,” she told The AP in 2009.

10 Things to Know for Today

A Turkish news agency says Ankara and Moscow are working to ensure that the truce would come into effect at midnight, although there was no immediate confirmation from the Turkish Foreign Ministry. “People relate to aspects of my stories and that’s nice for me because then I’m not all alone with it,” she told The AP in 2009.

The Latest: East Jerusalem housing vote delayed

The Latest on the aftermath of the U.S. allowing an anti-settlement resolution to pass through the U.N. security council : A Jerusalem city councilman says a municipal committee has delayed a vote on roughly 500 new homes in Jewish areas of east Jerusalem following a request from Israel’s prime minister. Council member Hanan Rubin told The Associated Press that Benjamin Netanyahu asked to delay Wednesday’s vote so as not to antagonize relations with the U.S. Rubin says the council did not want U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to mention the building in his anticipated policy speech on Wednesday, turning it into a “political issue.”

The Latest: East Jerusalem housing vote delayed

The Latest on the aftermath of the U.S. allowing an anti-settlement resolution to pass through the U.N. security council : A Jerusalem city councilman says a municipal committee has delayed a vote on roughly 500 new homes in Jewish areas of east Jerusalem following a request from Israel’s prime minister. Council member Hanan Rubin told The Associated Press that Benjamin Netanyahu asked to delay Wednesday’s vote so as not to antagonize relations with the U.S. Rubin says the council did not want U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to mention the building in his anticipated policy speech on Wednesday, turning it into a “political issue.”

Philippines Hunts for Crew of Ship Sunk by Typhoon Nock-Ten; AIR Comments

The Philippine coast guard pressed its search Tuesday for 18 crewmen from a cargo ship that sank at the height of Typhoon Nock-Ten, which struck the country on Christmas Day. Coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said 14 other crewmen have been rescued and one died after the M/V Starlite Atlantic sank off Mabini town in Batangas province, where the powerful typhoon passed Monday on its way out of the country into the South China Sea.

Philippines Hunts for Crew of Ship Sunk by Typhoon Nock-Ten; AIR Comments

The Philippine coast guard pressed its search Tuesday for 18 crewmen from a cargo ship that sank at the height of Typhoon Nock-Ten, which struck the country on Christmas Day. Coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said 14 other crewmen have been rescued and one died after the M/V Starlite Atlantic sank off Mabini town in Batangas province, where the powerful typhoon passed Monday on its way out of the country into the South China Sea.

One in five Swedish men are ‘risky drinkers’

Almost one in five Swedish men are at risk of suffering harmful consequences from drinking too much alcohol, compared to one in eight Swedish women, according to national health statistics. The figures come from Sweden’s Public Health Agency’s national health survey, which interviewed people aged 16-84 in 2013-2016 about their health, and were reported by news agency Siren.

One in five Swedish men are ‘risky drinkers’

Almost one in five Swedish men are at risk of suffering harmful consequences from drinking too much alcohol, compared to one in eight Swedish women, according to national health statistics. The figures come from Sweden’s Public Health Agency’s national health survey, which interviewed people aged 16-84 in 2013-2016 about their health, and were reported by news agency Siren.

Rebels deny Russian claims of regime talks

Syrian youths collect wood from rubble to be used for heating and cooking, on December 27, 2016, in the Damascus rebel-held eastern suburb of Zamalka. / AFP / AMER ALMOHIBANY A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on December 28, 2016, on page 1.

Vernon Philander: Lead of 80-plus will put SA in good stead vs SL in 1st Test

“We knew it was going to be tough scoring here – it’s always tough in PE,” said Vernon Philander A Getty Images South African all-rounder Vernon Philander on Tuesday said that ensuring Sri Lanka ‘s final three wickets to fall in a matter of just 25 runs would prove to be fruitful for the hosts, as they could possible take a good advantage and a healthy lead against the visitors. “A lead of 80-plus will put us in good stead.

Dinesh Chandimal: SL gave away easy wickets to SA in 1st Test

Dinesh Chandimal defended the aggressive approach by Sri Lankans, by saying that it wasn’t pre-planned to play aggressive, but it was the way it happened A Getty Images With Sri Lankan batsmen in the form of Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Perera and Kusal Mendis, all being dismissed on a similar occasion for aiming to be aggressive and playing ambitious strokes, against hosts South Africa in the first of the three-Test series at the St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth, Lankan skipper Dinesh Chandimal defended it by saying that it wasn’t pre-planned to play aggressive, but it was the way it happened. The opening three wickets was a cause of consternation.

Report: Kerry and Erekat orchestrated UN anti-settlement resolution

Egyptian news website Al-Youm al-Saba’a, which is considered to be Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s mouth piece, published a supposed protocol on Tuesday of a meeting that was held in Washington on December 12 between US Secretary of State John Kerry and US National Security Advisor Susan Rice and a Palestinian delegation headed by senior Palestinian Liberation Organization member Saeb Erekat. The protocol states that Kerry and Rice told the Palestinian delegation that the current US administration under President Barack Obama would be willing to cooperate with them in the UN Security Council given that the resolution would be a balanced one.

Kerry to lay out vision for Israeli-Palestinian peace

US Secretary of State John Kerry will lay out his vision for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a speech on Wednesday, days after the United States cleared the way for a UN resolution calling for an end to settlement construction while simultaneously declaring them illegal. The speech, less than a month before President Barack Obama leaves office, is expected to be the administration’s last word on a decades-old dispute that Kerry had hoped to resolve during his four years as America’s top diplomat.

LeEco breaks ground on 12 billion yuan Deqing car assembly

Cash-starved company says it’s on schedule to produce as many as 400,000 electric vehicles a year by 2018 LeEco, the cash-starved video streaming service and TV maker founded by Jia Yueting, has broken ground on a 12 billion yuan car factory in China, with assurances that it’s on schedule to produce as many as 400,000 electric vehicles a year by 2018. ) county of Zhejiang province, close to the tourist destinations of Moganshan and Hangzhou, will commence construction after more than four months’ of preparation work, said Zhang Hailiang, chief executive of LeSupercar, the LeEco unit that’s producing the vehicles.

Highway and bridge projects could benefit from ABS issues. Photo: Xinhua

Mainland regulators will for the first time let public private partnership projects raise funds through asset-backed securities within just two years, which market players believe can attract more private capital into the government-led infrastructure projects. Private companies now can exit PPP projects as early as two years into their operations, compared with the wait of more than a decade previously.

Hanukkah candelabrum lit up at Prague centre

Lights on a nine-branched candelabrum were lit up to celebrate the eight-day Jewish holiday Hanukkah in the Prague centre Tuesday evening. The participants in the ceremony paid respects to the victims of the latest terrorist attack in Berlin last week, which claimed 12 lives, including that of one Czech woman.

Poll: One-third of Czechs plan to make New Year’s resolution

Roughly one-third of Czechs, mainly young people under 29, plan to make New Year’s resolutions that most often concern a healthy lifestyle, according to a STEM/MARK poll conducted for the Naturhouse chain of diet advisory centres and released to CTK. More than a half of the polled have ever made a New Year’s resolution.

Survey: Czechs want to know their roots

Most Czechs consider it important to know their roots, but only less than a half seek information about their ancestors, according to a survey conducted by NMS Market Research for the Post Bellum organisation dealing with the 20th-century history and released to CTK on Tuesday. More than a half of Czechs consider their family destiny during the communist regime and under WWII as well as relations of their ancestors the most important topics from Czech history, the poll shows.

Court quashes verdict in Nagyova’s intelligence abuse case

A Czech court of appeal has again quashed the verdict acquitting Jana Necasova, former prime minister’s close aide and current wife, and several other suspects of military intelligence abuse, Czech Television reported on Tuesday. Necasova, still under her former name Nagyova, is suspected of abusing the VZ to gain information about the life of Radka Necasova, former wife of prime minister Petr Necas in 2012 in order to speed up his divorce.

KDU-CSL and TOP 09 heads have problems to crack

The chairmen of the Czech junior government Christian Democrats and the opposition rightist TOP 09, Pavel Belobradek and Miroslav Kalousek, respectively, had no reason to rejoice during the Christmas holidays, Lukas Jelinek wrote in daily Pravo on Tuesday. Belobradek, 40, who has led the party since 2010, may be faced with a serious rival in the election of the chairperson next year.

Samoans march through Mangere to remember ‘Black Saturday’

One of the darkest days in Samoan-New Zealand relations has been commemorated by a small group of artists and activists in Mangere on Wednesday. Led by Andy Leleisi’uao, around 25 people marched from the Samoan Consulate in Mangere via the Mangere Lawn Cemetery to Mangere Mountain to remember the eight killed on December 28, 1929, in what has been coined, ‘Black Saturday’ by historians.

Trump signals shift from Obama’s focus on multilateralism

For eight years, President Barack Obama’s foreign policy doctrine has been rooted in a belief that while the United States can take action around the word on its own, it rarely should. His successor, President-elect Donald Trump, has derided some of the same international partnerships Obama and his recent predecessors have promoted, raising the prospect that the Republican’s “America First” agenda might well mean an America more willing to act alone.

Petrol price tops $2 a litre

The national price of 91 petrol has topped $2 per litre, but with some stations still charging lower prices it pays to shop around. The price of 91 octane has continued to climb since the end of November after oil-producing nations decided to slash production for the start of 2017.