UNITED STATES
Noise said to hinder learning
From the cacophony of day care to the buzz of TV and electronic toys, noise is more distracting to a child’s brain than to an adult’s — and it can hinder how youngsters learn. Children learn language from hearing it, but new research shows it is particularly hard for them to listen when other voices are babbling in the background. Researchers said the ability to process speech amid background noise does not mature until adolescence. That is a finding with implications for classroom design. Even premature babies are affected. One study found that they developed better when recordings of a mom’s voice were piped inside incubators to counter the white noise of the machines’ fan. The research is being presented at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
IRAQ
Critic’s home catches fire
A 13-year-old girl’s home burned after she criticized the governor of a central Iraq province in a TV interview, her father and police said on Saturday. Rawan Salem Hussein challenged Babil Governor Sadiq Madlool al-Sultani to an on-air debate on his contributions to “the cultural situation in Babil,” and said she would prove that he had “set Babil Province back 50 years.” Hussein’s father, Salem, said the fire at the family’s home in Hilla, south of Baghdad, occurred not long after the clip was broadcast on al-Baghdadiya TV. A police captain said a malfunctioning heater caused the fire, but Salem said that it had been turned off, and suggested that arson was the cause. The incident “raises a number of questions, especially the question of its timing,” he said. “Why, six hours after the broadcast of the video clip in which Rawan spoke about the governor, was the house burned?” Salem said he and Rawan were at a protest in Baghdad at the time of the fire.
BOLIVIA
Officers ordered to pay up
A judge on Saturday said he ordered five top ex-military officers to pay 1.1 million bolivianos (US$159,660) compensation to 30 people injured by, or who lost loved ones in, a 2003 massacre. Judge Eduardo Gonzales in the southeastern town of Sucre said on the radio that he upheld a lawsuit by people who were wounded or had family members killed. The five were convicted for being in command of troops who carried out the massacre in the town of El Alto near the capital La Paz. Troops cracked down violently on local people protesting against government attempts to export gas to the US. More than 60 people were killed and 500 injured. Outrage over the atrocity prompted then-president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada to resign and flee to the US.
SWEDEN
Asylum center death probed
Police are investigating a killing at an asylum center in Sweden after a fight broke out among residents. It is the second such incident in a month after a 22-year-old employee at a refugee center for unaccompanied minors was stabbed to death, prompting concerns that authorities were being overwhelmed by the number of asylum seekers in the country. Police said the fight broke out on Saturday afternoon in Ljusne, a town of about 2,500 people on Sweden’s east coast, about 240km north of Stockholm, but gave no further details. Swedish media said four people had been involved and a sharp object had been used. It appeared to be a fight among people living at the center and no staff were injured.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
The White House on Tuesday questioned the humanitarian commitment of the Episcopal Church after it refused to comply with a federal directive to help resettle South Africans granted refugee status by US President Donald Trump’s administration. On Monday, about 50 South Africans arrived for resettlement in the US after Trump granted them refugee status as victims of what he called a “genocide,” a claim rejected by the South African government. On Monday, the Episcopal Church said that it would end its refugee resettlement program with the US government rather than comply with the administration’s orders to help resettle the South Africans. White House
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