Awarded special prizes:

Teen artists excel in Japan

Six Sri Lankan students won special prizes in the year 10-12 category at an International child art competition and Exhibition held in Japan organised by the Hydrangea Award (Gold) International Exchange Exhibition Naritasan Shinghoji Temple in Narita, Japan.

They are Rajani Anjali Muthuwella of Gampaha Rathnavali Balika Vidyalaya, Malinthi Amabidu Rathnasingha of Colombo Visakha Vidyalaya, Dilum Madusanka Perera of Colombo Ananda Vidyalaya, Osadi Vidurangi Karunatilaka of Gampaha Rathnavali Balika Vidyalaya, Thilini Wasana Fernando of Marapola Maha Vidyalaya, Minuwangoda, Osan Neranjan Wickramarathna of Royal College, Colombo.

All these students were trained by the Gampaha J.E.S. International art school which had produced several winners at past International Exhibitions. Their art Instructress Jayami Senarathna has also been awarded.

Lankan student wins Cicero's challenge debating competition in New Delhi

Sri Lankan student Sachintha Dias of St Joseph's College Colombo, was adjudged the winner of the Cicero's Challenge International Debating Competition conducted by the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) at its International Campus in New Delhi recently.

Five countries, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the UAE participated in this competition.

Sachintha Dias' speech was on the topic "From Calcutta to Karachi with a hobbled judiciary, democracy is dead in the sub-continent."

The panel of judges which comprised of eminent Indian Professors commended the debating skills of the winner especially making reference to his confident and passionate style of delivery.

OSC Secondary Musical:

The Vamp Draculina: A melodrama (with bite)

A tongue-in-cheek adaptation of the musical 'Dracula Spectacula' based on injustice, and a fishy tale of mistaken identity, premiered on World Theatre day.

Student ownership of learning was dramatically highlighted in the Overseas School of Colombo's most recent production, is The Vamp Draculina an original black comedy rooted in melodrama.

Senior IB Theatre Arts students devised the plot, designed lighting, sound, special effects, costumes and choreography.

The students created an unforgettable experience, with large ensemble cast of 200 students performed to appreciative audiences.

The journey begins in a not-so-abandoned London underground station, Aldwych. Draculina. A night club singer down on her luck, moves into squat after her dysfunctional mother has squandered the family fortune on research into garbology. They are joined by a love struck minion, Genghis. Fate ensnares a gullible Governess and her precocious charge within this underground world as their educational trip to the Tower of London is unexpectedly interrupted.

Hungry and cold they are rescued by a Coast Guard who guides them to sanctuary in a nearby cabaret bar, owned by an irrepressibly happy Hansel and Gretel, both seeking sparkles of a very different kind.

An Omniscient Chronicler, and his companion Mary, foretell the future and liberally grant wishes to these colliding characters as they strive to escape their own personal labyrinths.

The music and lyrics were written by the IB Theatre Arts teacher, Bryan Lee. All music was performed live in the school's fantastic experimental theatre by the students of OSC.

Snorkeling teen finds shark tooth

David Wentz was snorkeling off Marysville Beach in the St. Clair River last August when what he thought was an odd-looking rock caught his eye. "I didn't know what to think," the 16-year-old Port Huron resident said.

His father, Craig, said he knew right away what it was due to hours of watching the Discovery Channel.

"It's a shark tooth," Craig Wentz said. "It's petrified. It's rock." Michigan State University paleontologist Michael Gottfried told the Times Herald of Port Huron that the 3-inch long tooth comes from an extinct species called Carcharodon megalodon, or the "megatooth" shark.

The megalodon, which went extinct 2 million years ago, was larger than any building in Port Huron, reaching lengths of more than 60 feet. By comparison, Great White sharks generally are about 20 feet long.

The megatooth shark ate about 1,500 pounds of food a day, mostly feeding on whales and other large marine creatures. Gottfried doesn't think the tooth is from a shark that may have been in the Great Lakes region during two different prehistoric eras, dating back from a half-million years to 300 to 400 million years ago, when it was a "shallow marine environment" filled with sharks, whales and other aquatic life.

"I suspect that it was probably carried and dropped by a human inhabitant of the region, either in recent historical times, or perhaps by earlier native people in this area," he said.

"I can't say just how it came to be in the St. Clair River, but I can assure you that there aren't any sharks with 3-inch teeth living there now." AP