NewsTracker Answers for week of Feb. 27, 2012

Q: The coach of Ghana's national soccer team said last week that some players used witchcraft against their own teammates and the internal strife lead to the squad's defeat in the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. Where is Ghana on this map?

Circle the area on this map

Q: Belief in witchcraft is widespread in Africa. Tanzanians rioted last week over the killings of six women allegedly for body parts to be used in witchcraft. Tanzania is in East Africa on the coast of the . . .

A. Atlantic Ocean

B. Pacific Ocean

C. Indian Ocean

D. Southern Ocean

C. The name Tanzania derives from the names of the coastal state of Tanganyika and nearby Indian Ocean islands of Zanzibar. The two areas united to form Tanzania in 1964.

Q: Fear of witches extends beyond Africa. Saudi Arabia beheaded a woman in December for practicing witchcraft and sorcery. What body of water separates Saudi Arabia from Africa?

A. Red Sea

B. Persian Gulf

C. Mediterranean Sea

D. Strait of Hormuz

A. Saudi Arabia is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula. The peninsula is bordered by the Red Sea on the southwest and west, Persian Gulf on the northeast, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman on the east, the Arabian Sea on the southeast and south and the Gulf of Aden on the south.

Q: Elsewhere in Asia, a woman accused of witchcraft was burned alive in February by her own family members and others in the mountain nation of Nepal. Nepal is in which mountain range?

A. Andes

B. Himalayas

C. Rockies

D. Urals

B. The Himalaya Range is the world's highest with the world's highest mountain, Mt. Everest, on Nepal's border with China.

Q: A Houston church is hosting a March visit by a Christian fundamentalist from Nigeria who is known for trying to exorcise demons from children she believes are witches. Where were America's most notorious witch trials held?

A. Texas

B. New York

C. South Carolina

D. Massachusetts

D. The mass hysteria of the Salem witch trials led to the execution of 24 people in colonial Massachusetts during 1692 and 1693. At the time, it was widely believed that Satan was present on earth and recruiting witches. This concept emerged in Europe around the fifteenth century and spread to Colonial America.