NewsBites for Kidz July 13-19 2003

AHMEDABAD/VADODARA/SURAT, Gujarat, India, July 14: The mathematics teacher was trying to explain the difficult theorem when the 'Pink Panther' theme leapt from Abhijit's cell phone and prowled around the classroom, distracting the seventh-standard students...

As fast-dipping call rates and attractive schemes make cell phones accessible to virtually everyone, including schoolchildren, parents and principals across Gujarat are debating whether it is wise to ring in the new.

The little instrument is bringing about a big social change. "Earlier, my parents did not allow me to stay out till late in the evening. But my cell phone has changed all that. I can party late as long as I call them from time to time," says a class XII student of Ahmedabad, Poorvi Shah.

Sanghini Doshi, a class XI student of Umrigar High School near Parle Point in Surat, feels life without her cell phone would be difficult. "I can keep my family posted on my study schedule and changes in class timings. It's a necessity," she says.

HEADLINES

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_306783,00070003.htm

In India, Rajesh learns that it’s tough to play football

Ground reality: No place to play

Jaydeep Basu

New Delhi, India, July 13- Twelve-year-old Rajesh studies in the seventh standard in a Government school in East Delhi. Son of a small-time factory worker, Rajesh, unlike most of his friends, developed keen interest in football after watching the live coverage of English and Spanish league matches on television, and dreamt of becoming a footballer himself. By the time he turned 12, Rajesh realised it would be difficult to live his dream.

"I read about some local football clubs in newspapers and approached a few of them through friends," says Rajesh. "I was shocked to hear that none of these clubs can help me learn the game, as no club in the city has its own ground to play. The clubs said they would have enrolled me I had been already playing with some school or institutional team. They prefer to take only finished products."

Unperturbed, Rajesh decided to play the game with his friends in the locality. Sadly, he could not succeed there too, as he and his friends could hardly find an open piece of land to roll the ball. The latest is that Rajesh is now trying to persuade his father to admit him in a school that has a playing field of its own.

What happened with Rajesh is not a stray incident. There are hundreds of young boys and girls in the city who would like to play sport like hockey and football just for the love of it, but hardly find a place to pursue their passion. The city of Delhi has some of the best sporting infrastructure and sports complexes in the country but all of them are prohibitively expensive for the common man.

HEADLINES

http://www.islam-online.net/English/artculture/2003/07/article05.shtml

Kids make 1000 paintings against war in Iraq

Peace Colors and Tones: 1000 Paintings for Iraqi Children

July 15-“The war in Iraq triggered my mind to do something with immediate

effect…and I was surprised to find some of my young friends gather around me again. 16 year old Hoimoboti Choudhury took an active part. She gave her

School Final Examination in the month of March. She was the first one to paint something to make the soldiers aware of the absurdity of war, any war.

Other children followed. In the meantime, 13 year old Ritama Gupta had already submitted her poem to 'Poets against the War' along with another poem by 24 year old Ranjini Chatterjee, who had been under my training for sometime. Hoimoboti's elder sister Boul Choudhury (27), who is also under my training right now (she is an artist) took active part in co-ordinating different events. My student Debmalya Guha (27) and his friends participated too and helped us in scanning images and organising events……"

"We realized our limited capacity, had a feeling of helplessness. We thought of asking the children to paint anything that was nice and cheerful. The Iraqi children needed support of these children through their paintings.

These children needed to be made aware of what was happening. The children along with their adult companions started visiting schools, conducting workshops and collecting paintings. Some of the paintings have been sent.

Most of the remaining paintings are waiting to be dispatched....but the

situation in Iraq seems to worsen everyday. I have started feeling useless everyday. What can an individual, along with a group of young people do for a world gone mad?"

These quotes were selected from Indian Subrata Ghosh’s e-mail to Art & Entertainment Page. Subrata, a 46-year-old architect, is the trainer and coordinator of a group of Indian children who succeeded in holding many anti-war activities and gathering 1000 paintings for the Iraqi children.

HEADLINES

http://www.canada.com/vancouver/story.asp?id=B1A4C8C8-F6E1-41CC-8D4B-2B4A0A06297D

In Canada, 5 year-old Michael saves 21-month old Joey

Five-year-old saves nephew from pool

Steve Berry, The Province

Vancouver, Canada, July 15-Five-year-old Michael Levesque, left, saved 21-month-old Joey Levesque from drowning.

His attention was pulled away from the warring worlds of T-Rex and hide-and-seek on Saturday, when he spotted his 21-month-old nephew Joey Levesque floating in a backyard inflatable wading pool.

"I pulled him out," Michael said simply, befitting a hero of few words. "His lips were blue."

Monica Levesque, 15, Joey's aunt and Michael's sister, kept her head enough to telephone 911.

The tot was rushed to Surrey Memorial Hospital by ambulance and kept over night. Yesterday he was back to normal, running at top speed and playing with Michael.

The boys gave each other a big hug when Joey returned to their shared home.

"He's a neat baby," said Michael. "But he bites me all the time."

Michael's mother, Liz Levesque, said she is still shocked by the near tragedy.

"I knew my little man was pretty smart," she said. "Usually, five-year-olds will run and get help. He took it upon himself to pull Joey out of the water. It's incredible."

Michael took it all in stride as he listened to the adults heap praise on him.

"You're mommy's little hero, aren't you?" Michael's mom said, giving her smiling son a nudge.

"Yep," came the answer.

The B.C. Coroners Service warned last month of the dangers of backyard pools after three kids under three drowned in June. The Canadian Red Cross suggests using a self-latching, self-closing gate, poolside telephones and rescue aids, and fences and gates at least 1.2 metres high with latches on the inside.

HEADLINES

http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/annearundel/bal-ar.school13jul13,0,3014910.story?coll=bal-local-arundel

From U.S.A. kids send school supplies to Kenya

Pupils give so others will learn

Project: Crofton Woods Elementary is donating school supplies to Kenya, an effort that fosters multicultural education

By Christopher Jack Hill, Sun Staff

Baltimore, Md., U.S.A., July 13-When the moving truck showed up at Crofton Woods Elementary School on a recent weekday, students rushed toward it with boxes in hand.

"I feel like I made someone feel special," said Sarah Gentry, a pupil at the school who was one of many students, parents and administrators who helped assemble more than 100 boxes of books, papers, pens and other materials for pupils at a school in Kituiu, Kenya.

Pupils donated allowances and school supplies from home, and raised money through events such as a concert.

The project, called Kenya Connects, was nothing new for the Crofton Woods community, which has helped schools in various countries over the years.

HEADLINES

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/6293118.htm

Blasé puts on his “bug shorts” in South Carolina

Kids go bug-wild at Riverbanks

By LINDA H. LAMB, Staff Writer

Columbia, South Carolina, U.S.A., July 13-You don't have to spell "entomologist" to feel like one.

That's what more than 30 kids found out as they trekked through Riverbanks Botanical Garden Saturday, looking for bugs in all the right places.

Equipped with plastic containers and magnifying glasses -- and the occasional teddy bear or blankie -- children age 3 to 10 made a successful safari out of the first Riverbanks Bug Hunt.

Join Our Team

They learned a bit about insect pals and pests. Riverbanks horticulturist Amanda Segura passed around clear boxes containing insect exoskeletons, explaining the basics such as the fact that true insects have six legs.

"Has everyone seen the hissing cockroach?" Segura asked, as kids clamored for a look and some of their moms cringed.Then they were off, seeking insects and easily finding them.

"I found an ant!"

"I found a spider!"

"I found a rolypoly!"

The kids didn't have to know the scientific name for a rolypoly -- terrestrial isopod -- to be fascinated by the way it rolls up into a tiny ball for self-defense.

At a tree whose velvety leaves were mottled with holes and brown spots, Segura pointed out the culprit, a caterpillar known colloquially as the catawba worm.

"Supposedly, these are the best fishing worms in South Carolina," she said.

Stopping along the garden's neat brick paths, the bug hunters poked in dirt, turned over leaves and looked closely for critters camouflaged on plant stems and tree bark.

Some of the youngsters were quick to chirp out answers to Segura's questions about where bugs live and what they do. One young expert was 5-year-old Blase Rhine, who just had to wear his special "bug shorts" for the occasion.

"We do this all day long," said his grandmother, Bonnie Bouknight of Lexington. "He's a bug collector."

Blase loves to examine the bugs caught in his grandmother's swimming pool filter. If the two see a bug they're not familiar with, they look it up on the Internet.

West Columbia mom Linda Simmons said she was as interested in the bug hunt as her bespectacled 7-year-old, LeRoy Simmons IV.

"I learned something myself," she said, remarking on a discussion of insect-eating Venus' flytrap plants. "I didn't know they were native to South Carolina."

Shade grew scarce toward the end of the hunt, which started at 10 a.m. and ended about 11. Most of the pink-cheeked children, their hair damp at the backs of their necks, seemed ready for a snack and some air conditioning.

No doubt they can find interesting insects in their own back yards, Segura said. But the botanical garden is a good place to see a variety, she said, because its diverse plants attract a diverse array of insects.

For some parents and grandparents, the outing was a fun reminder of past family adventures.

Fay Williams of West Columbia, who was at the bug hunt with her daughter and two granddaughters, thought of the critters her three sons used to drag home.

"I'll never forget the time my oldest son killed a snake -- it was a rattlesnake -- brought it back to the yard, cooked it and ate it," she said.

"He said, 'Mom, it tastes just like chicken.'‘"

HEADLINES

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/ny-p2cover3372028jul16,0,2438658.story?coll=ny-entertainment-span-headline

Heather tolls the bell in New York

The Sweetest Sounds

By Katti Gray, STAFF WRITER

Long Island, N.Y., U.S.A., July 16-Her bottom lip curled up and inward, exaggerated in its effort. The tip of her tongue was stretched sharp, stiff with intention as it stuck a tad noticeably out of her mouth.

Heather Artinian, 10, was sounding out her lines, determined to speak on cue.

The words came haltingly, the pronunciation deliberate and imperfect. But Heather was clear. "I am ve-wy pwoud to toll th' bell for the ve-wy furst time," said the girl from Glen Cove, costumed as a senator from 1776 and standing stage left.

To the ears of the adults directing Heather, it was music. Doctors wedged a cochlear implant in the space between her skull and brain last October and only since then, as she's been able to hear her voice, has she been able to articulate any intelligible speech.

Being cast in "Believe It or Not," set for four performances at the Long Island Children's Museum this weekend, is pushing Heather and nine other deaf or hearing-impaired actors, ages 6 to 14, to test their skills before a live audience and, more to the point, draw out of them the heightened confidence that can come from being in the spotlight.

Throughout preparation for the production, the mantra is that mistakes happen and mistakes can be instructive.

The youngsters try hard, they said, not to fixate on being different. The reality of their impairment, they said, forces them to teach a few lessons.

Marissa Wachsstock

"Many people ask what this thing is," Alexandra said, pointing to the gadgets and wires meandering from her scalp to her left ear to the palm-sized box in a pouch resting at her waistline. "I have to keep repeating. I say, 'It's a processor.' People who can't see wear glasses. People who don't hear wear hearing implants."

HEADLINES

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/2334745/detail.html

The heroine for this week is: India, from Cleveland!

6-Year-Old Stays Calm, Saves Mother's Life

NewsNet 5

East Cleveland, U.S.A., July 15-A 6-year-old East Cleveland girl was ready when her mother had a medical emergency, NewsChannel5 reported.

India

When Shana Gamble collapsed into a seizure, her daughter, India (pictured, left), called 911 and had paramedics sent to the family's Euclid Avenue apartment. India stayed calm and poised as she handled the emergency situation.

"My mommy is having a seizure," she told the 911 dispatcher. "I'm 6; I'm her daughter."

East Cleveland paramedic Michael Hill, who responded to the call, said India did much more than just make the 911 call.

"The little girl was very professional; she knew her mother's medications," he said. "The mother was unresponsive."

Hill confirmed the 911 call saved Shana Gamble's life.

"Daddy, Daddy, Mommy is having a seizure; the ambulance is on the way," India told her father when he came home, while she was still on the line with 911.

India is likely to get an award for her life-saving effort, and she has some advice for other children.

"All kids, learn your address and phone number," she said.

Big credit goes to Keith Gamble, India's father, who took the time teach his daughter what do in an emergency situation.

HEADLINES

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/staffordshire/3067225.stm

In England, 11 year-olds clock speeding drivers

Children clock speeding drivers

BBC News

Codsall, Staffordshire County, England, July 15-Children armed with speed guns have been clocking motorists near a Staffordshire school.

A police officer using a speed gun

The 11-year-old pupils have already recorded dozens of speeding drivers in Codsall.

HEADLINES

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Articles.asp?Article=56438&Sn=BNEW

KidWatch: Mariah travels from Bahrain to find fame in the Philippines

July 16-Mariah 'basks in limelight'

A YOUNG Bahrain girl has begun a blossoming modelling career in the Philippines.

Sacred Heart School pupil Mariah Nicole Sibayan Cripps is the new face of Philippine AXA Life and Metro Bank ads in the Philippines.

AXA is one of the world's leading experts in financial protection and wealth management.

The British-Filipina has more projects in store in the future, possibly including television commercials.

Born in Bahrain eight years ago, Mariah is the only child of Briton Gerrad Lee Cripps and Filipina Merle Carmela Sibayan. Both parents have been residents of Bahrain for the last nine years.

Although little Mariah's dream is to one day be a model, actress, dancer, singer and painter (yes, all five!), her discovery as a young star happened by chance in a shopping mall in Manila.

Mrs Cripps said she and her husband were very proud of their daughter.

"She loves it," declared Mrs Cripps. "She loves the limelight."

Mariah almost won the Little Miss Philippines 2000 contest - organised by the Filipino Club. She emerged as the first runner up in the pageant, but also won the titles of Miss Talent, Best in Fancy Dress and Best in Gown.

HEADLINES

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Mandela/0,,2-7-1507_1389464,00.html

Children make Madiba's day

Johannesburg, South Africa, July 18 - Nelson Mandela's second official function on his 85th birthday was probably the one he will cherish most - being with children.

About 14 disabled youngsters from the Ikwezilokusa home in Vereeniging gathered in a marquee at Mandela's home in Houghton, Johannesburg, on Friday to meet their hero.

Nakita dos Reis, 11, from the East Rand, said it had always been her dream to meet Mandela.

"I always wanted to see him because he has helped so many people."

HEADLINES

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/15/national/main563367.shtml

BookForKidz: Guess what Cathy Travis translated for kids

A Constitution Just For Kids

CBS News

WASHINGTON, U.S.A., July 15-For students stumped by “ex post facto” and put off by “thereofs” and “hereins,” a congressional staffer has translated the Constitution into modern, plain language.

Cathy Travis, who has worked on Capitol Hill for two decades, took on the delicate task of rephrasing the hallowed document, whose meaning still is debated and reinterpreted by Congress and the courts.

Her 85-page “Constitution Translated for Kids” includes a glossary and some history and puts the translation and original side by side.

For example, the First Amendment says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Travis translates that as “Congress cannot make any law to create a government church, to keep people from practicing any religion they please (or not).”

Travis is preparing an edition of her translation for adults, who may be a bit puzzled, too.

HEADLINES

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1058050506254&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154

KidsShop: A favorite kitty turns 29

Reflections on Kitty, then and meow ...

At 29, Hello Kitty is retaining an audience of adult aficionados

Cat has become an unlikely symbol of empowerment

MARY NERSESSIAN, STAFF REPORTER, Toronto star

Hello Kitty is turning 29 this year, and so are a lot of her fans.

Sanrio Company Ltd., the Tokyo-based firm that produces Hello Kitty, has made sure that this cat has nine lives by appealing to fans who have grown up.

"As a 5-year-old, she takes the lunch case to school. As a 25-year-old, she takes the Hello Kitty cellphone case off to work," says Bill Hensley, marketing director at Sanrio's North American office in San Francisco.

"A Hello Kitty fan generally may be attracted first as a young girl in elementary school," he adds, "but she finds something for her lifestyle as she grows."

HEADLINES

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/2003-07-15-kid-picks_x.htm

'Toontown' lets children play together online

By Jinny Gudmundsen, Gannett News Service

What youngster wouldn't want to become a cartoon character and save the world? Kids can do just that with the new game, "Toontown Online."

Toontown Online (www.toontown.com) is the first ever massively multiplayer 3-D online game for kids, and it is making quite a splash. It's called "massively multiplayer" because this game is played online with thousands of other children.

Here's how it works. Toontown is under attack by an army of robots called Cogs. Kids become toons in Toontown and join forces in the fight against the evil Cogs.

Cogs can't take a joke, and thus toons can defeat them by using gags — squirt guns and pies-in-the-face are favorites. Toons go on a series of quests to earn new and more powerful gags to defeat Cogs.

Kid-testers of all ages consistently gave this game an enthusiastic "thumbs up." They loved that they can communicate with all other toons and that the game play encourages toons to become friends and work cooperatively.

Best for ages 7 and up.

HEADLINES

Archives of NewsBites for Kidz™

NewsBites for Kidz™ is published by the News for Kidz™ website. It is a free weekly e-newsletter, sent by subscription to kids all over the globe. It is a digest of condensed news stories published by international media, of the news in the life of kids.

Each news story is copyright of the original news source quoted with it.
To subscribe, please send email to subscribe@newsforkidz.com with "Subscribe" in the subject line.

NewsBites for KidzTM July 13-19 2003

NewsBites for Kidz^TMJuly 13-19 2003