More teachers 'need Holocaust training', say MPs

Saturday, January 23, 2016 Add Comment
Too few teachers - particularly history teachers - are being trained to teach the Holocaust in England, the Education Select Committee says.
Although good Holocaust teaching material is available, the majority of teachers are "self-taught" with little professional development, MPs say.
They also call for steps to be taken to preserve the words of Holocaust survivors for future generations.
Ministers say all pupils must study the Holocaust and what it teaches us today.
This is why it is unique in being the only subject named as a compulsory part of the history curriculum, a spokesman for the Department for Education said.

'Personal testimony'

He added: "We know that good schools will include a significant event like the Holocaust in their history lessons, without being told to do so by government. We trust teachers to introduce this subject in the most appropriate way for their pupils."
The Committee discovered a wealth of good practice and enthusiasm in Holocaust education, with teachers taking students beyond facts to a deeper understanding of what it means to be an active and informed citizen.
But committee chairman Neil Carmichael said: "Teaching young people about the Holocaust and its legacy continues to be a vital part of their education.
"In the course of our inquiry, we heard from a number of inspiring witnesses who help to explain the nature, scale and significance of the Holocaust to students in classrooms today.
"However, too few teachers, particularly history teachers, are being trained to teach the Holocaust and our report calls on the government to act.
"We expect the Department for Education to ensure the support it gives to Holocaust education is as effective as possible."

More on the Holocaust:

Auschwitz visits

The report stresses the importance of students hearing directly the personal testimony of Holocaust survivors and the impact it had on them and their families.
The government should consider giving more young people the opportunity to visit Auschwitz and other sites such as Wannsee, Sachsenhausen or Ravensbrück, it adds.
Following the Prime Minister's Holocaust Commission report, plans are being made to preserve survivor testimony, to create a new national memorial and secure the long-term future of Holocaust education.
The report is published in the build-up to Holocaust Memorial Day on Wednesday.

Norfolk headless body inquiry finds missing women

Saturday, January 23, 2016 Add Comment
A police inquiry attempting to identify a headless body found more than 40 years ago has located 263 missing women safe and well around the country.
The body was found in August 1974 at Cockley Cley, near Swaffham, Norfolk.
Det Insp Andy Guy said as part of the inquiry it gathered together more than 500 missing women cases to eliminate possible matches.
Looking at these cases, police have found a number alive and have informed them if relatives want to contact them.
Night dressImage copyrightNorfolk Police
Image captionPolice were still continuing their investigation to identify the woman, who was found in a pink nightdress tied and wrapped up, and her killer
Police also traced a further 52 women, listed as missing, who they found to have died.
Det Insp Guy, who took on the case in 2007, said police were still continuing their investigation to identify the woman, who was found in a pink nightdress tied and wrapped up in a National Cash Registers' plastic sheet, and her killer.
One line of inquiry is that she may be a woman known as The Duchess, who lived in Great Yarmouth and may have worked as an escort.
The woman, who disappeared in the mid-1970s, is thought to have come from Denmark, which fits in with a DNA profile of the body suggesting the woman came from and had lived in that part of Europe.

Unusual rope

Rope found at the siteImage copyrightNorfolk Police
Image captionUnusual rope from Dundee was found with the body
Police are also keen to find out more information about an unusual piece of rope found with the body.
Det Insp Guy said officers investigated the rope and found that it was made of four strands, rather than the more usual three or five strands.
He talked to a rope expert who told him the rope composition "suggests it was made for use with agricultural machinery".
The rope was traced to Dundee, where that type of rope was made, but there the trail runs cold as the firms have long since gone out of business.
Det Insp Guy said: "The Duchess lived in the Great Yarmouth docks and was well-known and a bit of a character.
"We know she spent some time in custody (but the records have long since been destroyed) and we know people who knew her and spent time with her, but nobody knows her name."
He called on anyone with information about this woman or The Duchess herself to contact Norfolk Police in confidence.

MONSTER BLIZZARD OF 2016 STRIKES US EAST COAST, TRACKED BY NASA AND NOAA SATELLITES

Saturday, January 23, 2016 Add Comment
NEW JERSEY- The monstrous ‘Blizzard of 2016’ predicted by weather forecasters for days has struck a wide swath of the US East Coast from the Gulf coast to the Carolinas to New York and soon into New England, with full fury today, Friday, Jan. 22.
NASA and NOAA satellites are tracking the storm which is already inundating the biggest population centers, affecting some 85 million people in 20 states up and down the Atlantic Coast, as it moves in a northeasterly direction.
This afternoon, NASA and NOAA released a series of eyepopping satellite images showing the massive extent of the storm, which may drop historic amounts of snow on Washington DC and other cities over the next 24 to 48 hours.
The two agencies released a particularly striking image, shown above, showing the storm swarming over virtually the entire eastern half of the continental US as it was barreling towards the East coast cites.
It was taken Friday afternoon by the NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite showing the approaching blizzard around 2:35 a.m. EST on Jan. 22, 2016 using the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument’s Day-Night band.
States of Emergency have been declared by Governors of states from the mid-Atlantic to New England, including North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia, the District of Columbia and the list is growing.
The heaviest snowfall is expected in and around Washington DC with estimates of 24 inches of snow or more. 18 to 24 inches may fall along the metropolitan Northeast corridor on Baltimore, Philadelphia, Trenton and New York City.
The heavy, blinding snow was already hitting Virginia and Washington by Friday afternoon. Governors, Mayors and Federal officials warned drivers to get off the roads by early Friday afternoon.
Widespread treacherous driving with icy roads, sleet, rain, low visibility and whiteout conditions are causing numerous auto accidents as the blizzard bashes the region.
“The winter storm that caused damage during the night along the Gulf Coast has deepened and has started to spread heavy rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow northward into the Mid-Atlantic region. NASA’s GPM and NOAA’s GOES satellites are providing data on rainfall, cloud heights, extent and movement of the storm” wrote NASA’s Rob Gutro in an update on Friday.The National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland said “An area of low pressure centered over the southeastern U.S. will continue developing into a major winter storm which will impact a large portion of the East Coast from the southern Appalachians through the Mid-Atlantic States from Friday into the weekend. Snowfall totals may exceed 2 feet in portions of these areas, including the Baltimore and Washington D.C. metropolitan areas.”
The monster storm has already caused at least ten deaths. Thousands of motorists are stranded.
High winds up to 55 mph are expected to batter the New Jersey shore, causing significant beach erosion, coastal flooding and property destruction in the same areas devastated by Superstorm Sandy. Thousands of people have been evacuated.
The blizzard has also impacted the US Presidential campaigns and forced New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to temporary cancel campaign appearances in New Hampshire on Friday and Saturday, to deal first hand with the storm back home.
Heavy ice and snow accumulations could cause falling tress resulting in downed power lines and days long power outages during brutally cold temperatures.
Many airports have been closed and some seven thousand flights have also been canceled.

New frost-reduction technology inspired by desert beetle

Saturday, January 23, 2016 Add Comment
BLACKSBURG, Va., Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Materials scientists at Virginia Tech have developed a new frost-reduction technology that could be employed on airplane wings and windshields.
The technology, which limits the growth of frost, was inspired by the Namib Desert beetle, famous for its ability to survive and collect water in one of the hottest and driest places on Earth.
Standing water in the Namib Desert, a coastal desert in southwest Africa, is nonexistent. The Namib Desert beetle, or fogstand beetle, survives by capturing airborne water on its shell. Bumps on the top of the beetle's shell encourage moisture droplets to form, while its smoother sides repel moisture. The juxtaposition helps channel the condensation directly to beetle's mouth.
Researchers at Virginia Tech mimicked the strategy to confine frost formation by overlaying water-attractive patterns on a slick water-repelling surface. The microfabrication patterns are created by chemical treatments using a technique called photolithography.
Frost forms as tiny water droplets freeze and bridge connections with nearby droplets. If these droplets can be kept apart, and confined to small surface areas, frost will fail to form.
"Fluids go from high pressure to low pressure," Jonathan Boreyko, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and mechanics at Virginia Tech, said in a press release. "Ice serves as a humidity sink because the vapor pressure of ice is lower than the vapor pressure of water. The pressure difference causes ice to grow, but designed properly with this beetle-inspired pattern, this same effect creates a dry zone rather than frost."
Boreyko and his research partners at Oak Ridge National Laboratory tested the anti-frost technology on a limited scale, but they hope it could eventually be deployed at an industrial scale.
"We made a single dry zone around a piece of ice," Boreyko said. "Dew drops preferentially grow on the array of hydrophilic dots. When the dots are spaced far enough apart and one of the drops freezes into ice, the ice is no longer able to spread frost to the neighboring drops because they are too far away. Instead, the drops actually evaporate completely, creating a dry zone around the ice."
The technology could save time, money and energy in aerospace and wind energy industries, where large amounts of harsh chemicals are currently used to defrost airplane wings and wind turbines.
The beetle-inspired technology is described in a new paper, published this week in the journal Scientific Reports.

Recent lottery winner shot, killed during home invasion in Georgia

Saturday, January 23, 2016 Add Comment
GEORGIA (WALB) – Authorities in Georgia are searching for several suspects who shot and killed a man during a home invasion, and friends and family of the victim say he was targeted because he recently won the lottery.
Craigory Burch Jr. had recently won $400,000 in a lottery, and now authorities are investigating his murder in Ben Hill County.
His girlfriend, Jasmine Hendricks, said their door was blown open by a shotgun blast and three masked, armed men entered.
“When they came in, he said, ‘Don’t do it bro. Don’t do it in front of my kids.’ He said, ‘Please don’t do it in front of my kids and my old lady. Please don’t do that bro. Please don’t.’ He said, ‘I’ll give you my bank card.’”
Hendricks said Burch threw his pants to the robbers at that time. She said she is certain the suspects were motivated by Burch’s recent winnings.
She’s sure they were after some of the 400-thousand dollars he had won.
“Ever since he hit the lottery we kept getting calls, text messages, all that, saying, ‘be careful because people are out for him to rob him,'” she said.
Hendricks says the men shot Burch shortly after realizing his wallet wasn’t in those pants, killing him instantly.
“They took my man from me,” she said. “They took my son’s daddy from him. Both of my sons.”
Burch’s mother, Leslie Collins, said she is desperate for answers.
“I couldn’t live with myself if I don’t know what happened to my child,” she said.
Hendricks and Burch’s mother are begging for justice.
“I ain’t worried about nothing about the house,” Hendricks said. “No nothing. I want to know who killed him. That’s what I’m worried about.”
Collins said: “I love CJ. I just want somebody to know, whoever has any information. Please, please contact the police department. I just beg you, please. He didn’t deserve to be gunned down like this in his own home.”
Friends say Burch recently used some of his lottery winnings to buy Christmas gifts for people in need.

Storks shun migration for junk food

Friday, January 22, 2016 Add Comment
Storks feeding on rubbish dumps instead of migrating are more likely to survive the
winter, research shows.
The bird is among a growing number of migratory species that have changed their behaviour due to human influences, says an international team.
Until recently, all white storks in Europe migrated south for the winter, but now more are flying shorter distances to snack on food on dumps.
The white stork breeds from Europe to north-west Africa and western Asia.
White storks in Europe have traditionally flown south to spend the winter in Africa but in recent decades an increasing number have stayed closer to home, drawn to the food discarded at landfill sites.
A team lead by Dr Andrea Flack of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany used GPS devices to study the migratory habits of 70 young storks from eight different countries during their first migration.
The research, published in Science Advances, tracked birds hatched in Armenia, Greece, Poland, Russia, Spain, Germany, Tunisia and Uzbekistan.

High calorie stopover

The study found that storks from Russia, Poland and Greece followed the traditional migratory route of flying south as far as South Africa.
However, birds from Spain, Tunisia and Germany lingered north of the Sahara; birds from Armenia flew only a short distance; and, surprisingly, birds from Uzbekistan stayed in their home country.
The scientists say that most of the birds that stayed north of the Sahara survived by feeding on rubbish dumps, enabling them to obtain food without the added energy expenditure of long-distance flight.
Meanwhile, the birds staying in Uzbekistan probably obtained food from fish farms, suppressing their usual migratory habit of flying to Afghanistan or Pakistan for the winter.
Dr Flack said the white stork appeared to have changed its behaviour to live closer to humans where food is in good supply.
"There is some sort of human impact that causes these birds to change their migration strategy," she told BBC News.
"Those that stay north of the Sahara seem to have advantages from feeding on these landfill sites in Morocco.
"For a white stork it's a good place; they find a lot of food there. But of course it's a risk; one wrong food and they're dead."

Human impact

The researchers say that while human influences such as food may be beneficial to migratory species, there could be long-term implications for the ecological roles they play.
For example, storks feed on crop pests such as locust swarms in tropical Africa.
White storks will consume a wide variety of prey including insects, frogs, toads, tadpoles, fish, rodents, snakes, lizards, and earthworms.
And commenting on the research, Stuart Butchart from Birdlife International highlighted other aspects of human activity that had a clear detrimental impact on migratory species.
"While there are other examples of migratory birds benefiting from human modifications to the environment, such as Blackcap (formerly a summer migrant in the UK) now wintering in the UK to take advantage of warmer winters and garden bird feeders, these are exceptions.
"Many more migratory species are declining owing to habitat loss and degradation on their breeding, passage and wintering ranges, driven by intensifying and expanding agriculture, logging, and destruction of coastal mudflats by land reclamation, among other factors."

Canada shootings: Four killed in Saskatchewan

Friday, January 22, 2016 Add Comment
Four people have been killed and several injured in shootings in the western Canadian province of Saskatchewan, police say.
They say a male suspect is now in custody and children have been moved to safety after the shootings at La Loche Community School and another location.
Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said earlier that five people had been killed, but this was later corrected.
The school shooting was "every parent's worst nightmare", Mr Trudeau said.
"The community is reeling."
Mr Trudeau, who was speaking in Davos, Switzerland, also praised "the first responders who acted quickly and bravely".
Witnesses at the school described screaming and more than half a dozen shots.
Kevin Janvier, acting mayor of La Loche, said that his 23-year-old daughter Marie, a teacher, was one of the victims at the school.
He also said police had told him that the gunman first shot two of his siblings at home and then made his way to the school.

'Shock and sorrow'

At a news conference, Maureen Levy, a senior officer at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), said: "There's no risk to public safety at this time. This is truly a tragedy."
She provided no further details.
RCMP said they were called about "an active shooter" at 13:00 local times (19:00 GMT) and detained the suspect 45 minutes later, Canada's CBC broadcaster reports.
"Words cannot express my shock and sorrow at the horrific events today in La Loche," Brad Wall, the premier of Saskatchewan, said in a statement.
"My thoughts and prayers are with all the victims, their families and friends and all the people of the community."
About 900 students attend La Loche Community School for kindergarten through to grade 12 (the last year of high school).
"I ran outside the school," Noel Desjarlais, a Grade 10 student, told CBC.
"There was lots of screaming, there was about six, seven shots before I got outside. I believe there was more shots by the time I did get out."
La Loche is an aboriginal community of about 3,000 people.
It is located about 500km (311 miles) north-west of the city of Prince Albert.

US snowstorm: Massive US blizzard advances north

Friday, January 22, 2016 Add Comment
A massive blizzard bringing more than 2ft (61cm) of snow and punishing winds is advancing up the US East Coast.
More than 50 million people across more than a dozen states have been warned to stay at home as it moves north.
The nation's capital, Washington, could lie under a record 30in (76cm) of snow by the time the storm passes on Sunday.
Eight people have been killed, six states have declared states of emergency and thousands of flights have been cancelled.
The weather system affects a huge swathe of the country, from Arkansas in the south to Massachusetts in the north-east.
Supermarkets ran out of food amid a rush for supplies before the first snowflakes fell on Friday.
In summary:
  • More than 6,000 flights have been cancelled for Friday and Saturday
  • The US federal government closed down at noon on Friday
  • President Barack Obama is remain at the White House, officials said
  • States of emergency declared in Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia and parts of other states
  • Eight people have been killed in car crashes in Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky and elsewhere
  • Washington's transport system - the second busiest in the US - will close all weekend
  • Many events, including two sold-out concerts by singer Garth Brooks in Baltimore, have been postponed
Washington's mayor, Muriel Bowser, said this was a major storm with "life and death implications".
White House in snowImage copyrightReuters
Digging out in Evansville, IndianaImage copyrightAP
Image captionDigging out in Evansville, Indiana
On Friday afternoon, as the first snow fell in Washington, the National Weather Service said it could be one of the worst storms in the city's history.
Residents in the capital and surrounding suburbs in Virginia and Maryland have been warned the snowfall could eclipse the district's record of 28in that fell during a two-day period in 1922.
As the weather system approached the country's most populous city, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio urged residents to be ready.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican presidential candidate, returned from the campaign trail in New Hampshire to take charge of snow preparation.
Media captionSnow arrives in Washington DC
Media captionAdvice for citizens of Washington DC from around the world on how to survive the cold
Catholics in Washington, Baltimore, and Delaware were told by archdiocese officials that missing Mass this Sunday was excusable given the terrible conditions.
Supermarket shelves in many areas were laid bare. In Baltimore, shopper Sharon Brewington remembered how she and her daughter were left with just noodles and water when the last big snowstorm struck in 2010.
"I'm not going to make that mistake again," she said.
National Weather Service director Louis Uccellini said the system had "the potential of being an extremely dangerous storm that could affect over 50 million people".
Do you live on the US east coast? How are you preparing for the blizzard? Or do you live somewhere else in the world that receives a lot of snow? If so, how do you prepare? You can email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your comments.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:

Nepal’s Himalayas – the battleground and training zone for Mira Rai

Friday, January 22, 2016 Add Comment
I grew up in a village of only four houses in the middle of the jungle in the hills of Bhojpur district, eastern Nepal. Our family was poor so I had to work alongside my parents and brother, and walked for hours every day to collect firewood and grass for our goats and cows. I had to climb trees and got so good at it my friends said I was like a monkey.
I carried 10kg on my back since before I can remember and would frequently walk for two days up and down steep hills, just to get salt, cooking oil and other goods from our nearest market. Slowly, I started to love those walks.


I become a Maoist guerilla when I was about 14. The civil war was at its peak and the Maoist rebels came to my village. I was fascinated by their speeches and talking to female combatants. I’d always wanted to leave my village and do something with my life. The Maoists said they would give me opportunities, and that women and men were treated equally. I was the only girl from my village to join them.
I was too young to fight, but I was trained. I was moved to a jungle camp, where we built everything ourselves. That increased my self-confidence and made me self-reliant. I started running almost two hours a day and loved the sound of my footsteps on the stones and rocks. I stayed with the rebels until they were incorporated into the Nepalese army and I was disqualified by the UN for being a child soldier.
Until May 2014 I didn’t know that ultra-running athletics existed. My trainer from my guerilla days told me about a 50km race around Kathmandu. I didn’t know I should carry food and water and I didn’t wear proper running shoes. I almost fainted from hunger, but someone gave me food and I finished it.
That race changed my life. I was invited to Italy to race in the Dolomites. It was my first time abroad and on a plane, and I spoke little English and missed my connecting flight, but I won the 57km race and set a new record.


The longest run I’ve done is 110km in Spain, when I came second. I’ve visited eight countries, and every one is amazing. Wherever I go it strikes me how busy life is. In Nepal, people are more relaxed, doing nothing but still surviving. I believe God might be behind this. There are many temples looking after Nepal.
I think Nepal has more natural beauty than any country I’ve visited. I went to upper Mustang near the Chinese border, west of Kathmandu, for a race. It was like heaven, the white mountains, red rock, dried but beautiful trees. Simply beautiful.
My day starts at 5am with beans and egg – if it’s available. I run for five or six hours a day, even in winter, in the northern hills of the Kathmandu valley. I cannot live without running. I get to see the sun rise over the hills. I am addicted to the beauty.
As a Nepali woman, it’s difficult to break social barriers, and I never believed I could live this way. Becoming a Maoist combatant was a good step. Now youngsters are inspired by me. They say, we are doing the same as you, running in the hills, carrying water on our back, walking for hours on sloppy earth, rocks and stones.
My happiest moment was when I won a race in France after the Nepal earthquake. People at home were devastated by the destruction but the news brought a smile to their faces. I received some overwhelming messages and realised I was doing something good for my country.
I will run as long as my health allows. I’m like the sea, where the water flows and flows. I just want to run and run.

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