Room 613 Student Blogs - 2005/2006

Queen Elizabeth II is with Prince Philip [and] arrived in Australia for five days. She will be at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne on March 15. Queen Elizabeth’s first visit to Australia was in 1954 and her last was in 2002. It is amazing that several hundred well wishers went to greet her arrival. This may be her last overseas tour,and she will be turning 80 next month. I found this at this website.      

A bus driving from Istanbul to Van with passengers crashed. The bus drove into a fast moving Kelkit River in Tokat provinces, 200 miles east of Ankara . The company operating the service said 39 people bought tickets but they say more people could have been on board, but it is not very clear how many people on the bus. One passenger managed to free himself and walk to a near by village to find help. A rescue team and divers found 16 bodies, most of them inside the bus. Some of the 16 bodies found were 12 miles down the river.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4789480.stm

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1705675&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

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 Baghdad, Iraq, gunmen dressed in camouflage kidnapped 50 security workers. Later Iraqi officers and US found 24 bodies scattered around the capital. The attackers went to the al-Rawafild Security Co. at 4:30 in the afternoon and forced the workers into cars. The people that did the kidnapping were a mix between Sunni and Shiite from eastern Baghdad.  While police were patrolling other areas gunfire and explosions killed several others. American Patrols found 18 more bodies in a building. All of them were men. In other parts of the city six more bodies were found. After all of this, on February 22, there was a bombing on an ancient Shiite shrine. Then there was a car explosion and killed 2 officers and injured 5 other people.

I found my information at

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,187139,00.html

Could you believe that this… ugly thing resembles a lobster?

Well, it does and it was found near Paris, France by some American-led divers in the south pacific. Scientists named the animal the Kiwa Hirsuta. The animal is also said to be so distinct from many other species, that they made a new family and genus for it. The Kiwa Hirsuta was found in waters 2,300 meters - or 7,540 feet - deep at a location 1,500 kilometers - or 900 miles - south of easter island last year. This crustacean is 15 centimeters long and is white. CNN reports that it is about the size of a “salad plate”. One suprising characteristic is that it has “sinuous hair-like strands on its pinchers. The Kiwa Hirsuta is also blind and its family is named Kiwaida. Thats all the info I could get, but I’ll let you know if there is anymore on the Kiwa Hirsuta.

Muslims all around the world are angry. They have been protesting, for about a week, because, there have been cartoons that are showing the muslims prophet Muhammad in a bad way. The cartoons first started in a newspaper last September, in Denmark. Then, other newspapers in Europe started printing them. Muslims do not allow anyone to publicate pictures of Muhammad. Muhammad was born in 570 in Mecca, which is now Saudi Arabia. Muslims beleive the angel Gabriel, gave Muhammad the words of god, which are now in the Koran. The Koran is the Islam holy book.

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.

Every 11 years the sun will reverse its magnetic field causing a cycle of solar flares, sunspots, and magnetic storms having effects on earth. Scientist[s] think that the next solar cycle will be in the late 2007 or early 2008. The storm will be 30 to 50 percent stronger then the last. These storms can effect satillite orbit, disupt telecommunication, and can take down electric power grids. The scientist[s] predicted this by using a new computer made by the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Using this computer Scientist[s] said that “For the first time, we can predict the strenght of the 11-year solar cycle.” The other time we had a solar cycle peak was in 2001. This new model can predict when the next solar cycle will come.

I found my information from this website.

We all know the Maldives as small little islands, but they have a huge history. Some of that history is what you will learn right now.

Here is one historic event that happened. (About how they got a republic government.) First, the Maldives went under a British protection in 1887, and were a dependency of the then-colony of Ceylon(now known as Sri Lanka) until 1948. Although the independence agreement with Britian was signed on July 26, 1965. For centuries before the island was adopted by a republican form of government in 1952, but the country was restored by 1954. Later, in 1968, a result of a referendum, the republic was once again established in a recently independent country(the Maldives). Also, in 1978 Ibrahim Nasir (authoritarian president since 1968) was removed and replaced from office. Ibrahim Nasir was replaced by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. (A more progressive person.) Gayoom was later elected to the sixth, five year term in 2003.

On December 26, 2004, a really powerful tsunami occured in the Indian Ocean, which devastated twelve Asian countries. The Maldives soon reported 82 deaths. Also, they suffered enormous damage. Seventy-nine islands were left with unsafe water. Last, a Parliament was voted in June, 2005 to shift to a multiparty democracy, President Gayoom agreed and supported the move.

So that’s a story of the Maldives history. More information of the Maldives is that the capital is Male. Also, the people speak 2 different languages in Maldives, which are, Maldivian Divehi and English. Speaking of people, the population of the Maldives is probably more than 300,000! That’s a lot! Anyway, here is a picture of the Maldivian flag.

I got my information at http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107755.html. Another site you could go to for other information about the Maldives is http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/mv.html.

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