IS THIS THE APOCALYPSE???

The world lives in fear because of the newest pandemic: swine flu …This flu gets transmitted from swine to swine, from swine to human and from human to human. In 2 weeks already over 1000 people have been infected and up to now around 8 people have died because of it.

In Mexico, pandemic level 5 (of 6) has already started. This means that almost every 10th person is infected and that’s why schools and other public places are closed. Events have been cancelled.

The symptoms of swine flu are:

a runny nose,
sore throat,
diarrhoea,
vomitting,
nausea,
coughing,
lethargy,
lack of appetite,
and fever

If you have most of the above symptoms over a short period of time, call a doctor. There is no medicine that can fight the virus completely. There are just 2 medicines that can block or weaken the virus. The low rate of death shows that you can survive the flu and develop anti- bodies against it.

source: Wikipedia, Morning news SAT1

The IB student Programme

There are 3 programmes / phases for students in the IB. These programmes are called:

• Primary Years Programme (PYP) : Grade 1 to 5
• Middle Years Programme (MYP) : Grade 6 to 10
• Diploma Programme (DP) : Grades 11 and 12.
  

More services and information are on the official website of the IBO

Visit the website here:
http://www.ibo.org/programmes/
source IBO.org

The history of chess

Chess was invented in India during the Gupta Empire (280-550 BC) rule. It was first called Caturanga. The Arabs took this game, changed the name and created new rules. The Arabs called it Shatranj. With the conquest of Muslims, armies attacking Persia, the Muslim spread this game till it reached Europe. There the name change many times for example:

• Spain: ajedrez
• Portugal: xadrez
• Greek: zatrikion.

Chess was popular in Europe and the people started to change the rules in Spain and Italy. The game got known
As queen’s chess or mad queen chess
Because the queen was the most powerful figure in the game.

This was the first chess game from the gupta empire (280-550 CE)


The first modern championship was in London in 1851. The winner was a German named Adolf Anderssen. The champion from 2007 on is Viswanathan Anand, he won this title 2 times and is still the champion today.



Even today chess still turns like you see on this picture of a 3 player chess board.

Funny chessboard made.

source: wikipedia

Dutch lawmaker filed charge

This man got charged because of inciting religious hatred in speeches and a film he made about Islam last year. The lawmaker is named Geert Wilders and is in the Dutch parliament of the right-wing party for freedom. Nine people filed him with the court appeal. They charged him because of a 15 min long film called “Fitan” he made about terrorist attacks and to say that Islam is a threat for western society. The movie made complaints in the whole of Europe, the organization of the Islamic conference as well as from the USA which warned that this could spark riots. The movie starts with a picture of Mohamed with a turban shaped like a bomb. Then it shows translated portions of the Quran and then pictures from the 9.September and in the background you hear calls from the people who where in the trade center when the plane crashed.

source:BBC.com


photo from CNN.com

Pennsylvanian teen charged for killing school enemies

A Pennsylvanian teen got charged like an adult because he planed to kill classmates he did not like and then holding the gun at him to kill himself. Richard Yanis stole 3 hand guns from his father and then he told the police he planned to shoot classmates and at the end himself. Yanis (15) was charged for attempted murder in an adult court because juvenile law in Montgomery County does not include crimes with deadly weapons. The investigations started after Richard’s Father reported that 3 hand guns from a locked locker in the basement of his house where stolen. His son took a Smith & Wesson 357 Caliber revolver, a Smith & Wesson 22 Caliber and a colt 45Caliber.

source:BBC.com

Bird flu kills more than 20.000 chickens

In Hong Kong over 80.000 chickens got killed because of Bird flu. They got killed on Tuesday after they discovered it in dozens of birds that had died at a farm in this area. The birds in an area of 3 kilometers (2 miles) where discovered dead. In a farm in this area had reported 60 dead chickens. After many tests they found out that these chickens had bird flu. Also in a other farm the government discovered Bird flu. These chickens had the H5 virus. This Virus killed people in Africa, Europe and Asia. Until 2003 over 200 people died on the H5N1. Not many strand of this Virus can be transferred by Human to Human transmission.

source: BBC.com

Suicide bomber atack in Afghanistan

On Thursday, suicide bombers struck again in Afghanistan. A bomber detonated a prepared car at the entrance of an Afghan intelligence headquarter. Officials say that at least 1 police officer died. This attack was done in the city of Khost, the capital of the Khost province. This attack also wounded many passengers, including some agents from the intelligence center. Tahir Sabarai, the province deputy governor said that the bomber killed 1 officer and wounded 8 nearby people. The head of this province said that 2 officers got killed and 9 passengers got wounded. A second car next to the building exploded too. The military and some officers stormed the buildings around...
the photo shows a young suicide bomber in training.

source: BBC.com

Russia sends more troops to Africa

In the last weeks, Pirate attacks in Africa have grown in an abnormal fashion. Russia sends military troops there to secure tankers with oil and Gas. In this area, there is already an aid ship called Neustrashimy. It helped the crew of ships in many scenarios. But 1 ship is not enough for such a huge area so some more ships need to pack their crew and move there. The Russian government said in September their ships would work alone but the Neustrashimy grouped earlier also with the British ship HMS Cumberland to fight against the Pirates. NATO has already sent many ships (number unknown) to the Horn of Africa.

source:BBC.com

Mars Lander „Phoenix” stopped working

Last week the mars Lander „Phoenix” which landed on May 25, finally stopped working. This Lander landed near the pole of Mars. It needed to search for water in the form of ice.



After landing, it started to work and found ice a few centimeters under the sand. But a few days after a sand storm blew over the Lander and because of that, its solar panels that recharge its batteries ran low and stopped working. This sand storm went on for weeks and Houston (main control) thought that everything was over. But when the sandstorm went away the solar panels started to work again and after a short time the Lander got energy again. After this it went to work again but in November the Martian winter came and it stopped working again. On November 2 the last data was sent to earth. Now the representatives from NASA hope that the lander survives another disaster, like the sandstorm. Because of this mission to Mars, many people now know more about the soil on mars and can wonder if there ever was life on that Planet.

source: BBC.com