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Here is this week’s Extemp Central news quiz. Good luck!
To access a list of all our old quizzes, click here.
1. South African President Jacob Zuma has outlined a plan that would prohibit foreign ownership of this commodity.
[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Land. Zuma’s proposal calls for a prohibition on foreign land ownership. Foreigners would only be able to lease land in the future, but local farmers would be restricted to 12,000 hectaares of land as well. Land reform is a sensitive issue in South Africa, as the country’s white minority owns most of the country’s land. Zuma argues that his plan is a moderate proposal, as more radical left-wing South Africans want white land to be confiscated, which is what Zimbabwe did a decade ago.[/toggle]
2. This Supreme Court justice had to admit last week that alcohol was to blame for their sleepiness during the State of Union.
[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ginsburg, who was the second woman in history to be appointed to the Supreme Court, admitted that drinking wine caused her to fall asleep during President Obama’s recent State of the Union. She also admitted that it was not the first time she had dozed off during a State of the Union address. At eighty-one years of age, Ginsburg is the oldest Supreme Court justice, but she refused calls to step down so that President Obama can appoint a younger justice.[/toggle]
3. Why did Egypt recently launch airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Libya?
[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Egypt launched the strikes after the Islamic State released a video showing the beheading of twenty-one Egyptian Christians. The beheadings were done by militants in Libya that are loyal to the Islamic State. Libya’s government is calling for the United States and the rest of the international community to pay attention to militant activity within its borders.[/toggle]
4. How many countries are on the UN Human Rights Council?
[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]47. The UN Human Rights Council is tasked with promoting and protecting human rights, but it has been criticized in the past for having members such as Pakistan that have been accused of human rights violations. The UN Human Right Council is currently investigating human rights abuses that occurred during Sri Lanka’s civil war.[/toggle]
5. Hezbollah recently announced that its fighters are also conducting operations in this country, in addition to Syria.
[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Iraq. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah announced that the militant groups fighters are operating there due to its volatile political atmosphere. It is assumed that Hezbollah fighters might be strengthening Shi’ite militia units that are fighting the Islamic State.[/toggle]
6. Why is Australia threatening to withdraw a multimillion-dollar aid package to Indonesia?
[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Indonesia is moving ahead with the execution of two Australian nationals that were convicted of heroin smuggling nine years ago.[/toggle]
7. This European country witnessed an attack on a free-speech seminar and a synagogue last week.
[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Denmark. Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, who had been released from prison two weeks before the attacks, reportedly became radicalized and launched the attacks in Copenhagen. He was eventually killed by Danish police.[/toggle]
8. What was the name of the winter storm that brought snow and ice storms to the South this week?
[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Octavia. The storm brought more than a foot of snow to some parts of the south, as well as sleet and ice to states such as Alabama and Arkansas. Many Southern states were forced to declare state of emergencies to deal with the storm.[/toggle]
9. What punishment did NBC give to Brian Williams?
[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]NBC suspended Williams, the anchor of the NBC Nightly News, for six months without pay after it became known that he made exaggerated statements about reporting. Williams stories about experiences in Iraq and during Hurricane Katrina, among others, had been challenged in recent weeks.[/toggle]
10. Which four Middle Eastern countries do not have an active U.S. embassy?
[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Yemen, Libya, Syria, and Iran. The United States has not had normalized diplomatic relations with Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but the other three countries have not had an ambassador in recent years due to civil unrest. The U.S. evacuated its embassy personnel from Yemen last week.[/toggle]