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1．Three university students in Santiago,Chile have developed a phant-powerd device to charge their mobile phones.The three engineering students got the idea for the device while sitting in their school’s courtyard.Their invention is a small biological circuit they call E-Kaia.It captures the energy plants produce during photosynthesis.Aphant uses only a small part of the energy produced by that process,The rest goes into the soil.E-Kaia collects that energy.The device plugs into the ground and then into a mobile phone.The E-Kaia solved two problems for the engineering studnts,They needed an idea for a class project.They also needed an outlet to plug in their phones.One of the student inventors,CamilaRupcich,says the device charges the energy released from the plant into low-level power to charge phones.The E-Kaia is able to fully recharge a mobile phone in less than two hours.I’m Jonathan Evans.
2．University of Washington researchers say they used a laser to turn hot water into cool water.
Five engineers from the university are the first in the 50-year history of the laser to refrigerate liquids under normal conditions with light beams. The group used a simple approach to the experiment. Lasers are known for producing hot temperatures. The University of Washington says they “essentially ran the laser phenomenon in reverse.” The discovery has a future in the computer and medical fields. Computer interiors could be cooled by lasers. In a medical laboratory, individual cells could be cooled to see how they react. “Few people have thought about how they could use this technology to solve problems because using lasers to refrigerate liquids hasn’t been possible before,” said researcher Peter Pauzauskie.The cool laser concept can also be used in manufacturing, telecommunications or national defense.The group has an interest in hearing from businesses or scientists who may have every day applications for the cool laser. The findings were published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
I’m Marsha James.
3．The United States is marking the 14th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks.
U.S. officials and many other Americans attended observances Friday to remember those killed and their loved ones. Nearly 3,000 people died on September 11, 2001 when hijackers used four passenger airplanes to carry out suicide attacks in the United States. In addition to the victims, the 19 hijackers also were killed. Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his group claimed responsibility for the attacks. U.S. forces killed him in a surprise raid on his hiding place in Pakistan four years ago. Friday morning, President Barack Obama, his wife and White House workers observed a public moment of silence in Washington. They gathered on the White House grounds at 8:46. That was the exact time when a hijacked airplane struck the World Trade Center. In New York, families of the victims gathered for a ringing of bells and reading of the names of those killed in the terrorist attacks. Moments of silence were held at 8:46 and 9:03 in the morning, when a second hijacked plane also hit the World Trade Center.
Near Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and other officials attended an observance at the Pentagon, the home of the Defense Department. They joined in remembering those killed when a hijacked airplane hit the Pentagon, killing 184 people.
Earlier Friday, a large American flag was hung down the side of the Pentagon, where the passenger jet hit. There also was a moment of silence at 10:03 a.m. That was the time when
a fourth hijacked plane crashed in western Pennsylvania. All 44 people on the plane were
killed. Many Americans believe the hijackers had planned to attack a target in the nation’s
capital. The fourth plane came down in a field in the rural community of Shanksville. Today, a new visitors center there tells the story of the 9/11 attacks. The Flight 93 National Memorial was set up to recognize the passengers and crewmembers who attacked the hijackers.
Stephen Clark is with the U.S. National Park Service. It operates the visitors center and surrounding grounds.“It just amazes me that this aircraft was but 18 minutes away from hitting Washington, D.C.” The field was quiet on Friday, very different from the situation 14 years ago. Gordon Felt’s brother Edward was one of the passengers on United Airlines Flight
93 on September 11, 2001.“It is surreal at times. Early on, it became very evident to us very
quickly that our loved ones, the events surrounding their deaths, had historical significance to our country.” The last 35 minutes of Edward Felt’s life, and others on the plane, are explained at the new visitors center. Relatives hope visitors to the memorial will understand the full effect of the actions of their loved ones.“They’ll get a sense of who those 40 heroes were, as well as what their collective actions did to help save the Capitol building that morning.” I’m George Grow.
4．A suicide bomber in northwest Pakistan killed at least 26 people and left more than 40 wounded last week. The explosion occurred in the Pakistani city of Mardan. The blast took place outside the door of a government office. The office was the National Database and Registration Authority. That office was in charge of issuing national identity cards. The attacker arrived at the office’s gate on a motorbike. The cyclist was stopped by a security guard. He detonated an explosive vest, according to a witness. An investigation3 into the identity of the bomber is underway. A Pakistani official said if the bomber was not stopped at the gate, the death toll would have been higher. It is estimated that the rider was carrying up to 12 kilograms of explosives. A BBC report said about 50 people were wounded in the blast.
Some were injured critically. Most of those killed or injured were civilians. The attack is one of the deadliest in Pakistan since a December 2014 massacre left 150 students and teachers dead in Peshawar, the BBC reported.A faction of the Pakistani Taliban said it carried out the attack. In a statement sent to VOA, the group said it targeted the office because it is part of Pakistan’s anti-terrorism war. But a spokesman for the mainstream Taliban in Pakistan said the Taliban had nothing to do with the bombing in Mardan.
5．The government in China plans to end its one-child per family policy and instead let families have two children.The plan was announced Thursday after high-level political meetings in Beijing. The official Xinhua news agency says the country’s top legislature must approve the proposal before it becomes law. A Chinese Communist Party statement gave a number of reasons for the change in policy. The statement said the change is meant to balance populationdevelopment. It said the move also attempts to stop a declining birth rate and stren gthen the country’s work force. China, the world's most populous country, launched the one-child policy in 1980. But the government permitted only a small number of couples to have two children. For example, some rural families were given approval to have two children. A total of 19 rural provinces have a partial two-child policy. That policy states if the first-born is a girl, a second child is permitted. In 2013, the Chinese government gave other couples a chance to have two children. Families could have two if one parent was an only child. A teacher and population expert, Jiang Quanbao, explained how Chinese families will react to the policy. “Too many young people in the cities are probably no longer interested in having a second child,”he said. “People in rural farming villages may be more interested. But
again, some of them are already allowed to have two children.” At the end of 2014, China had a population of 1.37 billion people. The government in China plans to end its one-chiltotal of 800 million of them are employed. But that job market population is expected to drop by 2050. With the two-child policy, an increase in births will ease the labor shortage, starting in 20 years.
6．Luxury Skyscraper Burns in DubaiAuthorities say everyone has been evacuated from a luxury hotel in Dubai that was still burning early Friday. The city’s police chief says all residents were out of the 63-story hotel, known as "The Address." he hotel had been packed with people celebrating New Year’s Eve when fire broke out at a bout 9:30 p.m., (about 1730 UTC). At least 14 people were injured. The hotel stands across from the world's tallest skyscraper, the BurjKhalifa. The BurjKhalifa is more than 800 meters tall. It is the center of spectacular fireworks along the Dubai waterfront for New Year's. Fireworks went on as planned.Flames quickly moved through more than 20 stories of the hotel. It could be seen for kilometers in all directions.Within 30 minutes, flames raced to the top of the hotel tower, and the sky was full of thick black smoke. Burning pieces of the hotel fell to the ground from the tower.Witnesses said tens of thousands of people were crowded into the downtown area near the blazing hotel and the BurjKhalifa. Authorities in the United Arab Emirates said earlier Thursday that thousands of security personnel were on duty because of the New Year's events. I'm Kathleen Struck.。