TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you are given news articles and you need to generate a highlight, i.e., a short summary, with a maximum length of 10 lines.
PROBLEM: (CNN) -- When the average person contemplates the issues surrounding landfills, it's doubtful they give much consideration to the tons of food that fill them. Food biodegrades so where is the problem? The problem, environmentalists say, is just that. When food rots, it releases methane, a greenhouse gas which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says is 20 times more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide (CO2). Rotting food in a landfill in Canterbury, England. The developed world chucks out a lot of food. Such is the volume that according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), if just 5 percent of Americans' food scraps were recovered it would represent one day's worth of food for 4 million people. The U.N. World Food Programme offers another way of looking at it: It says the total surplus of the U.S. alone could satisfy "every empty stomach" in Africa (France's leftovers could feed the Democratic Republic of Congo; and Italy's could feed Ethiopia's undernourished). Proportionately, the UK and Japan have traditionally been among the worst offenders worldwide in recent years when it comes to food waste, discarding between 30 and 40 percent of their food produce annually. The figures for how much the U.S. throws out, however, vary considerably depending on whom you ask. According to the USDA, just over a quarter of the country's food -- about 25.9 million tons -- gets thrown in the garbage can every year. But according to a study conducted by the University of Arizona, that figure could be as high as 50 percent, as the University claims that the country's supermarkets, restaurants and convenience stores alone throw out 27 million tons between them every year (representing $30 billion of wasted food). Either way, it still costs the U.S. around $1 billion every year just to dispose of all its food waste, according to the EPA. But moral and economic issues aside, it is the environmental concerns around food waste that is driving the push for reform on how to treat the problem of leftovers. Methane, the gas food waste produces, traps 23 times as much heat in the atmosphere as the same amount of CO2, the EPA says. And landfills are the place you will find most of it -- they account for 34 percent of all methane emissions in the U.S. The University of Arizona believes that if Americans cut their food waste in half, it would reduce the country's environmental impact by 25 percent. The UK's Waste & Resources Action Program (WRAP) -- which says the entire food supply chain in the UK contributes 20 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions -- believes that if we stopped throwing out edible food, the impact it would have on CO2 emissions would be the equivalent of taking 1 in 5 cars off the road. But ironically, one of the solutions to dealing with food waste actually results in a product that could keep cars on the road: Biogas. Biogas is a by-product of a process called anaerobic digestion (AD). AD is a process where organic matter -- such as food waste -- breaks down in an environment with little or no oxygen, generating a natural gas made up of 60 percent methane and 40 percent CO2. It is the exact process, in fact, which goes on in landfills. But there is a difference. Whereas methane can be harmful to the environment in an open setting, such as a landfill, in controlled and closed settings such as a combined heat and power plant, it can be harnessed and converted into biogas, a renewable energy. And that energy can be used to provide heat, light and fuel. According to a study by the National Society for Clean Air, biogas-fueled cars can reduce CO2 emissions by anything from 75 percent to 200 percent compared to cars powered by fossil fuels. Most organic matter can be processed with AD. In the UK it is already being used to treat sewage, which Friends of the Earth (FOE) says, reduces CO2 emissions by 16 percent compared to traditional sewage treatments. According to the Chartered Institute for Environmental Health, gas from sewage waste and landfills is already being used to provide 650 MW of electricity to the UK's national grid, representing between 60 and 75 percent of the country's green energy (the UK is Europe's biggest producer of biogas). However, while the potential for food waste-as-energy seems big, the practical applications for it are currently very small (only 0.4 percent of the UK's food waste is processed by AD, for example), with critics of AD pointing out that the amount food waste can contribute to the energy supply are negligible to say the least. FOE itself admits that just 0.36 percent of the UK's electricity needs could be met by AD. And, if 5.5 million tons of food waste was treated by AD (the majority of the UK's annual 6.7 million tons of food waste) it could only generate enough electricity to power 164,000 houses. That being said, environmentalists will say, that's much better than getting that electricity from fossil fuels. And there has been a big push, in Europe in particular, to cut back on the amount of biodegradable waste that is being sent to landfills. According to the European Landfill Directive, the amount of biodegradable waste sent to landfills in member countries by 2020 must reach 35 percent of the levels reached in 1995. The country that is leading the way in putting its biodegradable waste mountains to good use -- particularly in the world of biogas-powered cars -- is Sweden. That country -- which plans to eliminate petrol and diesel vehicles from their streets by 2020 -- already has 7,000 biogas cars on the road. It also has 779 biogas buses and the world's first biogas train, which, according to The Ecologist, cost just 1 million euros ($1.4 million) to develop. E-mail to a friend . (Sources: Chartered Institute of Environmental Health; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Planet Ark; U.S. Department of Agriculture; University of Arizona; World Food Program; Waste & Resources Action Program (WRAP); Friends of the Earth (UK); National Society for Clean Air; The Ecologist; Just-food.com; Food Production Daily; Endhunger.org)

SOLUTION: 5 percent of American's leftovers could feed 4 million people for 1 day .
Disposing of food waste costs the U.S. $1 billion a year .
Rotting food releases methane, a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 .
Methane can be harnessed to create clean energy for heat, light and fuel .

PROBLEM: (CNN) -- Chester Nez, the former Marine and last of the original 29 Navajo code talkers, passed away June 4 at age 93. When an elder dies in Indian country -- especially someone as revered and decorated as Nez, the World War II veteran -- we, Native Americans, feel it, all of us, regardless of tribe or nation. We are also reminded that, not long ago, in the 19th and 20th centuries, Native American culture, including our languages, was considered a threat to U.S. national security. Then, the government worked in collusion with Christian institutions to stamp out Native American languages, including Navajo. "A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one," Capt. Richard Pratt famously read from a paper at an 1892 convention. "In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man." Pratt was the founder of the Indian boarding schools, institutions charged with turning the "red Indian" into the "noble savage." Native Americans: We're not your mascots . Chester Nez attended one of these schools as a child, and was punished when he spoke Navajo. One can't help but think that, had it not been for the resilience of the Navajo people and their resistance to these early oppressive American policies, it's quite possible that World War II could have ended differently. Without the use of the Navajo language that was once discouraged by American policy, the U.S. military could have lost a distinct advantage over its enemy. Nez's death is a reminder that America's strength lies in its diversity. Native Americans, who have not always been included in the American story, should be remembered and honored for their contributions. Before the arrival of the Europeans, there were between 300 and 500 unique languages spoken throughout what is now the United States and Canada. Today, there are fewer than 200, and that number will continue to decrease if North American indigenous language revitalization efforts aren't considered paramount to the continuity of Native American communities by the United States. Opinion: NFL may throw flag on N-word, but what about the 'R-word'? Recently, a neighbor and I were discussing Native American languages. He was curious why more Native American elders "don't just pass on the language to the next generation." I told him that many of said elders still suffer from the trauma they experienced in the Christian boarding school system, and remembered what Ruby Left Hand Bull told me recently. "They'd pierce your tongue if you spoke your language!" my elder recalled. "Or they'd make you stand in front of the classroom and they'd tell you to stick your tongue out and then they'd whip it with a wooden ruler, just for speaking our language." Ruby knew our Lakota language growing up, she said, and very well. But she has lost it, she said. She understands it, but it's all but left her, courtesy of the boarding schools. I told my neighbor, who said he was a third-generation Italian-American, that his people's language could die in New York, but there is no threat that it will become an extinct language any time soon. "There are more Italians speaking Italian every day right across the Atlantic," I said. "You could board a plane or hop a ship today and travel to your home country and hear your people's language reverberating off Italian walls. We, Native Americans, don't share in that luxury. This is it. This is our home country. Our languages are invariably on the brink of extinction, especially since we are 1% of the population. So when a Native American language dies, it's forever gone." Our elders tell us that when a language dies, so, too, does the culture. But all is not lost. There are various campaigns to revitalize Native American languages. The state of Colorado, for example, passed a law stating that Native Americans who speak their language can teach it to students for credit at secondary schools under the category "World Languages." Maybe one day all Native Americans will, again, be fluent speakers of their language -- just like Chester Nez, the warrior. Indeed, the world would be a richer place for it. My hope is that when President Barack Obama visits with our Native American leaders this month at Standing Rock, North Dakota, he will be reminded of the significant contributions of Native American peoples like Chester Nez. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Simon Moya-Smith.

SOLUTION: Simon Moya-Smith: The death of original code talker Chester Nez is a significant cultural loss .
Nez attended boarding schools that discouraged the use of his Navajo language .
Author: Native American elders say when a language dies, so does the culture .
Without the use of the Navajo language, the U.S. military could have lost a war, author says .

PROBLEM: Britain's Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, is going back to work, taking on a new role as an air ambulance pilot. The duke will start training in September, a year after leaving the Royal Air Force, where he flew search and rescue helicopters. He will have his first air ambulance shift in spring 2015. It's the first time a royal who's in direct line to the throne has taken a civilian job. The East Anglian Air Ambulance is operated by a private company, Bond Air Services, but the Duke will donate his salary to charity. He'll be based near his country home on the Queen's Sandringham Estate, which should allow him to remain a hands-on dad to his one-year-old heir Prince George. A palace spokesman said Prince William was "hugely excited and motivated" by his new job. "The Duke sees this as a true form of public service, helping people in their most difficult times," the spokesman said. "He regards his work with the RAF search and rescue force as having been an exceptional privilege and the Duke wanted to make his own contribution to the outstanding work of the air ambulance service." The high-profile royal would have had to weigh up the risks of taking on a civilian, as opposed to military, role. Public interest could  affect not only his work, but potentially also that of medics and patients on board his aircraft. There is the heightened possibility of phone footage emerging of his rescues which could compromise privacy and security. There's also the risk of additional hoax calls. These were not a major issues whilst Prince William was a military search and rescue pilot because he was working in a remote part of west Wales and over water. The two air ambulances in East Anglia are the most widely used in the UK and operate in a built-up area. Their usual landing spots include school playing fields; residential gardens; car parks; beaches and any open space deemed possible by the pilot. William is currently on what officials have described as a "transitional year," focusing on his royal duties and charitable work. He always planned to return to work and was keen that it would involve flying. Most air ambulance pilots have a military background like the Duke, who joined a squadron based at RAF Valley after qualifying as a search and rescue pilot in 2010. He undertook 156 search and rescue operations, resulting in 149 people being rescued. He is highly skilled. Andrew Egerton Smith, chairman of the East Anglian Air Ambulance said: "Having the Duke of Cambridge as one of our pilots is marvelous news as he brings much experience to the charity after his successful career as a search and rescue pilot.  We have an outstanding track record of attending people in their hour of need which is recognized and  generously supported by our local communities." William will spend the autumn and winter in training with the East Anglian Air Ambulance and, once qualified, will start co-piloting in the spring of next year. He will work from Cambridge and Norwich Airports doing both day and night shifts. The Duke is then expected to progress to the position of helicopter commander. The palace said the pilot role would be the Duke's "primary occupation." Its statement added: "But his roster will take into account the duties and responsibilities he will continue to undertake on behalf of The Queen, both in the United Kingdom and overseas. The Duke will also continue his work with his patronages and with the Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry." The Duke has always been keen on a role beyond his royal duties whilst he is still second in line to the throne. This job will allow him to balance both positions whilst having his young family close-by. The Cambridges' country house, Anmer Hall, is being renovated and is set in idyllic rural surroundings which affords the family more privacy than their official residence at Kensington Palace, London, which is constantly monitored by photographers.

SOLUTION:
Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, has taken on a new role as an air ambulance pilot .
The duke previously worked as as a search and rescue pilot for the Royal Air Force .
Prince William is the first royal in direct line to the British throne to have taken a civilian job .
He will be based near his country home on the Queen's Sandringham Estate .

