Room 613 Student Blogs - 2005/2006

Michelle Bachelet, just sworn in yesterday becoming Chille’s first woman president. Ms. Bachelet is a medical doctor and was previously a defence minister. Michelle and her mother were held and tortured by Chille’s dictatorship. They ran away to Australia after being released and lived mostly in Sydney and spent time in Melbourne.”Our strength will be the women,” Bachelet, 54, told a large crowd(mostly female) of thousands downtown as she made her initial address as chief of state from the presidential palace, La Moneda. “In Chile, there will be no forgotten citizens. This is my promise.”

“We want a more prosperous, more just, more equal, more inclusive future,” Ms. Bachelet told thousands of cheering Chileans from the balcony of the government palace in Santiago.”I shall keep my word. I shall tell you what I think and I shall do what I say. I give you my word as a woman,” she said. Dr.Bachete is only the second elected female leader in South America!

This is where I received my information,

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/chiles-leader-takes-pragmatic-line/2006/03/12/1142098343668.html

We’ve all heard about Iran planning to develop nuclear weapons, but what about North Korea? On Wednesday, North Korea fired two short-range missiles in the direction of China, this raised suspicion in the United States as to whether this was a test, it certainly did seem to be. Even though North Korea claims they have nuclear weapons, the U.S. officials are hesitant about jumping to conclusions, considering what happened in Iraq, I don’t blame them. Surprisingly enough, countries around North Korea don’t judge them as a threat. Even South Korea doesn’t think of them as a big danger. China has a reason to be nonchalant about North Korea’s missile launching, since they are its last main supporter. So should we all panic? No, well at least not yet. The short range missiles aren’t a big hazard to anywhere that’s more than 60 miles away from their launch sight. If North Korea ever developed long range missiles, then we’d have a little problem. These missiles could reach Alaska, Hawaii and other Western states.

March 7 a musher of a dog sled team died on March 7. His name is Noah Burmeister. People say [he was operated on] Tuesday and stayed in the hospital. Then on Thursday morning 6:00 he died. I don’t know what will happen to his dog sled team. But I bet the team will be ok.

In Washington, studies in science labs have come up that sun-spawned cosmic storms that have caused havoc with orbiting satellites and power grids have been thought to be 50% stronger in the next 11-year solar cycle than the last one!  Astronomers have volunteered to do a long-ranged forecast to find any solar activity that might start now in 2006 or later in 2008, but they didn’t give any predictions on any of the solar storms.  The astronomers still hoped to create early warnings to power companies, satellite operators, and other power and satellite companies around the world to prepare for these storms. These solar storms can be more than a happening, they can cause satellite failures, disruptions in electrical grids and blackouts, and can be a living nightmare for astronauts in outer space [where they] can be severely violent.  To all astronauts, be very careful and stay on Earth, who knows what might happen up there.  This is a newscast from yours truly, John.

The 2006 winter olympics is being held in Torrino, Italy. The U.S. snowborder Shaun White, competed in the olymics snowboarding the Half Pipe. The Half Pipe is a snowmade pipe with it’s top cut off.

The red head from California, 19 years old, spead down the HalfPipe at 46.8 seconds, recieving the gold medal. The U.S. was hoping for a repeat of the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, where they received gold, silver, and bronze medal. But instead a guy from Finland took bronze. Silver went to another U.S. competitor, and Gold was received by the Flying Tomatoe, A.K.A Shaun White. This is what you said after receiving the gold medal, ” I’m a little overwhelmed right now. I can’t explain it.” Shawn was a favorite in the Olympics, and expected to take first. Congrats on your first olympics medal Shaun!

Just recently a young woman of only 28 years old at the time of her death was killed in Iraq. People say she was far better known in iraq because of her establishment in being fearless and to succeed on her task to draw attention to civilians who have been killed or wounded in Afghanastan and Iraq. about two years ago she set up a organization called the campaign for ” victims of conflict”. Patrick leahy a D-VT as a result of her lobbying pursuaded congress to approve a $20 million compensation to help wounded civilians of this conflict. it was very painful for many people in both countries to think back to the tragic road bomb that took her out of their lives. the us military refuses to tally any deaths and most go unnamed. Yet almost everyday there are one or more people killed assassinated, or kidnaped . these are rarley reported yet they affect the lives of the victims families.
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0405/223107.html

Two stars were surprisingly kicked out of the Milky Way! These stars are of a new type of object astromoners have said to be “exiles”. These are stars that were once part of a binary system that moved too close to the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The pair was torn apart, and the star was triggered off on a tragectory that will take it out of our galaxy. These events happen every 100,000 years (we were pretty lucky).

Bob Woodruff and James Vogt are newsmen for World News Tonight and they were both injured by a bomb that went off on a roadside in Iraq. They were both there to cover the news of the war and they were riding in an armored vehicle when the bomb went off. The men were in the hospital in Iraq, then moved to a military hospital in Germany and now they are in the United States but still in a hospital and still seriously injured.

The two newsmen had been traveling in a United States Military Humvee but then they saw Iraqi soldiers in armored vehicles and the men asked the U.S. soldiers if they could travel with the Iraqi soldiers. The American soldiers hesitated but then they agreed and only 10 minutes later, the men were blown up in the bomb.

This is an example of the dangers that are killing soldiers and civilians in Iraq. The military reports that the roadside bombs in some areas are numerous because there were lots of them made in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was in power. The bombs are left over and are still active. No one knows where the bombs are and they blow up unexpectedly. there is no time to react because these are sudden and powerful explosions.

A penguin named Toga has been stolen from the Amazon World Zoo.The Mother and Father of Toga are Kyala and Oscar, had laid an egg, It had hatched and then they were living happily togther, that is untill Toga the offspring was stolen from the zoo. The police figure that someone stole the penguin for a “present” for someone. After that Kyala and Oscar missed Toga alot and It showed but eventually they moved on and suprisingly they started to build a new nest and the staff of the zoo, were hoping that Kyala would lay another egg. She did lay an egg and It is supposed to hatch somewhere around 40 days. Even though everyone wishes that Toga will return, It’s still wonderful news that a new offspring is on the way. Kath Bright, the zoo manager, said yesterday: “This is fantastic. Kyala and Oscar seem a happy pair of penguins and we are keeping our fingers crossed”. Please hope the best for Toga and the new baby penguin coming!-SaraH.

Osama bin Laden a known terrorist, who has been silent for more than thirteen months has spoken again. The Al-Qaeda chief has sent an audiotape, offering the United States a truce. President Bush rejected the offer immediately saying “We do not negotiate with terrorists. We put them out of business.” Although Osama bin Laden did promise there would be more attacks in the “heartland” of America, the United States will not raise the national alert level. “It is no accident that we have not been hit for more that four years”, insisted Vice President Dick Cheney. On the other hand Cheney does admit that U.S. citizens should be careful he claims that “the enemy that struck on 9/11 is weakened and fractured, it is still lethal.” Last week, an U.S. air strike in Pakistan killed eighteen people. Four of which were involved in Al-Qeada. One, the son-in-law of Osama bin Laden’s main deputy, and another a bomb expert. When asked if he agreed with attack Pakistan’s Prime Minister said, “Clearly every countries sovereignty needs to be protected and safeguarded.” Although the white house refused to comment on the attack, they said before the attack. “The terrorists started the war. And the president made it clear that we will end it at a time and place of our choosing”. I thought this topic was interesting because Osama bin Laden’s United States #1 enemy and we all thought he was forced into hiding. Then after thirteen months we get a tape from him imposing another threat on the U.S.

• http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060120/afp/060120135026top.html

• http://dsl.sbc.yahoo.com/index.html Click Movie and scroll down then click Terrorist Safe Haven.
  

Gaza City, Israel- One Palestinian militant is comfirmed dead after an Israeli airstrike. He was one of three Palestinians who were in a car on the outskirts of Gaza City. The soldiers were planning on attacking the city. Fortunately, an Israeli aircraft saw the danger and opened fire on the vehicle. The attack killed one man and wounded the others. Israel and Palestine are bitter enemies, seeing as Palestine was forced to give up some of it’s land by the United Nations, after they agreed to let the Jewish people have a country of their own. Palestine wants some, if not all, of the stolen land back, but the Israeli’s are prepared to fight for it. This is the reason that they’re at war, and the reason that things like this happen between them.

Have you heard?! Liberia has just elected the FIRST women President! Her name is, Ellen Jonhson Sirleaf and was sworn in Monday. ”It is time for us, regardless of our political affiliations or persuasions, to come together to heal and rebuild our nation,” states 67-year old Sirleaf during her inaugrial speech. “Sirleaf government is backed up by 15,000 U.N. troops” writes The International Herald Tribune, in their article. Ms Sirleaf was born in 1938, working her way through college, Ellen mopped floors and waited on tables. In 1971 she graduated from Harvard with an M.P.A. She was inprisoned twice in Liberia for political reasons. “We know that your vote was a vote for change, a vote for peace, security….. we have heard you loudly” Ms.Sirleaf had also said during her speech “We reconize this change is not a change for change’s sake, but a fundamental break with the past” ~ Allie~