Current Events

German economy now in recession

Recession basically means when a country's economy declines significantly and thus, the trade and industrial activity are reduced. A country is classified in recession when the the GDP of the country falls in 2 successive quarters.

Another country has gone into recession after the country's economy fell by 0.5% in their third quarter. The fall of GDP in Germany was much bigger than analysts had expected and they have also predicted a fall in Europe by 0.5% in the next year.
A couple other of European countries are also in recession.
France, Ireland, Denmark, Singapore and New Zealand are some countries that are in recession.

November 13, 2008 BBC.com

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Kids' dancing causes Haiti school collapse, Red Cross says



Who would have thought that a musical could bring down a school -- literally. In Haiti, the dancing and jumping in a musical caused the Grace Diving Primary and Secondary School to collapse. Luckily, though there were no deaths, nine children were injured.
The school, which consisted of a few small buildings built on top of each other, was built on the side of a hill. Of course, the jumping and dancing could not possibly bring our school down, because this school was not constructed properly.
When the school collapsed, the ground shook and another school about a mile away felt it. The children in that school had thought that they're school was collapsing and they panicked, which caused two students to be injured.
This is the second school collapse in this month. The previous happened last week, but of course, that incident was much more fatal. That school has three levels and when it collapsed, it killed more than 90 people, most of them children. No survivors have been found since Saturday in the rubble of the school. The owner of the school, Fortin Augustin was questions by the police and turned himself in for the collapse. No charges have been pressed against him. I would consider him loyal to the school because he turned himself in when so much has happened and blamed himself.
There is no need to worry for this year's musical at our school. I highly doubt our dancing can bring down the school -- we're not that good. Also, some of the schools in Haiti are not well-built and are easy to fall whilst ours is....well I'm not so sure...;)

November 12, 2008
CNN.com

Image Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/11/12/haiti.school/index.html?iref=mpstoryview