Weekly news round-up: Australia’s Cricket World Cup defeat to India, earthquakes in Southeast Asia and screen legend Elizabeth Taylor dies
WONDERING what’s happening around the world this week? Steven Tannason and Connie Foong give you a run-down of issues big and small, events near and far. This week it’s about Australia’s loss to India in the Cricket World Cup, more earthquakes in South East Asia, and a tribute to Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor and her journey to stardom.
Cricket World Cup 2011: Australia vs India
After winning three consecutive Cricket World Cup, Australia says goodbye to the Cricket World Cup championship after India’s 5-wicket win in the quarter-final match.
Australia scored 260-6, while India scored 261-5 in the Ahmadebad match.
The defeat has prompted Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting to step down.
Ponting made the announcement at a press conference at the Sydney Cricket Ground at 1pm today.
Australia has won the Cricket World Cup, organised once every four years, in 1999, 2003 and 2007. Australia and New Zealand are set to jointly host the Cricket World Cup in 2015.
Earthquakes strike South East Asia
View Larger Map
More quakes have hit the region, this time in South East Asia.
A 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck the Golden Triangle region of northeastern Myanmar on Thursday night March 24, which was followed by a 5.5 magnitude earthquake in northern Thailand a day after.
According to the New York Times, as many as 50 people died as a result of the first quake, which also destroyed a bridge near the epicentre and damaged homes in southern China. Tremors could be felt as far away as Bangkok (Thailand), Hanoi (Vietnam) and Yangon (Myanmar’s largest city).
VOA Burmese reported aftershocks from the earthquakes on Sunday morning in Burma, Thailand, Laos. It caused little damage, but heavy rain had impeded residents efforts to rebuild. See video below.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23KxqvI09Y0[/youtube]
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the quake would not create a tsunami as it was situated far away from the coast.
The Golden Triangle is an area of around 367,000 square miles overlapping the mountains in Burma, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.
Elizabeth Taylor
Source: PD-PRE1964
You may not have had a chance to see her on screen (especially if you were born in the 1980s or later), but you would have probably heard about Elizabeth Taylor.
The English-American actress was an icon of Hollywood’s golden era and so news of Dame Elizabeth Taylor’s death on March 23, 2011 made the headlines last Wednesday. She was 79, and had died of congestive heart failure.
Known for her talent, luminous beauty and striking violet eyes, Elizabeth Taylor has starred in more than 50 films in her lifetime.
Born to American parents in London in 1932, her family moved to the United States in 1939, where she debuted as a child star at the age of 10. It was in Lassie Come Home that she found her fame.
Some of her best known films are Cleopatra (one of the most expensive films ever made, and for which she was the first actress to be paid $1 million), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (in which she gained 20 pounds for her role as Martha) and Suddenly, Last Summer.
She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for four consecutive times, and on the fourth, won for Butterfield 8. She clinched another Academy Award in 1966 for Best Actress in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
Taylor was also equally famous for a colourful private life.
She had married eight times to seven husbands, and was known for her AIDS/HIV charity work, as well as a close friendship with Michael Jackson, supporting him through his own trials.