week 4 --TransAsia air crash

TransAsia airplane crashes in Taipei: 12 killed, 29 unaccounted for

CNA & AP

February 4, 2015, 1:08 pm TWN

A TransAsia commercial aircraft carrying 53 passengers and five crew members crashed into the Keelung River in northern Taipei 10 minutes after taking off from the downtown Songshan Airport at 10:52 a.m. en route to the Kinmen Islands.

Twenty-nine people have been rescued from the French-made twin-engine turboprop ATR 72, but 12 of them showed no signs of life when they arrived at the hospital or died as they were being treated.

The other passengers either remain trapped in the plane's fuselage half-submerged in the shallow water or may have floated away, according to cable TV news reports.

Among the passengers on board were two children and 31 Chinese tourists from Xiamen.

As the pilot appeared to try to control the plane as it was descending toward the ground, the aircraft's wings grazed the Huandong Blvd. overpass close to the Nangang Software Park, slicing off the front end of a taxi in its path.

The taxi driver and a female passenger were injured but were in stable condition after being rushed to the hospital.

The ill-fated plane was a newer version of the TransAsia Airways ATR-72 aircraft that crashed after an aborted landing in outlying Penghu County in July 2014, leaving 49 people dead. Stormy weather and low visibility were suspected as factors in that crash.

The CAA said the plane was less than a year old and completed its latest safety checks on Jan. 26. The agency did not offer any information on what may have caused the crash.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2015/02/04/428185/TransAsia-airplane.htm

Structure of the Lead :

Who -- A TransAsia commercial aircraft carrying 53 passengers and five crew members

What --crashed into the Keelung River in northern Taipei 

When --10 minutes after taking off from the downtown Songshan Airport at 10:52 a.m. 

Where --Keelung River

Why --not given

How --not given

Keywords :

1. turboprop 渦輪螺旋槳發動機 
2. fuselage 機身 
3. half-submerged 一半在水中的；淹沒的 
4. aborted 中途失敗的 
5. outlying 遠離中心的；邊遠的

Week 3 -- Taoyuan Fire

Fire in Taoyuan kills six firefighters

2015/01/20 09:19:22

(By Chiu Chun-chin, Tang Pei-chun and Jay Chen) Enditem/lyf

Taipei, Jan. 20 (CNA) Six firefighters perished early Tuesday when the structure of a burning bowling center in Taoyuan collapsed on them, Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) said.

The incident occurred when nearly 100 firefighters went to put out the fire in the coastal Xinwu District in the northern city, Cheng said in a Facebook post.

The six firefighters, all in their 20s, were found trapped on the second of the three-story building, officials said. Two people were rescued from the fire and sent to a hospital with injuries.

Cheng promised the best possible compensation for the bereaved families and an investigation into the cause of the fire and the question of whether the bowling center has any illegally built structure.

In Taipei, the Cabinet issued a statement expressing deep condolences over the death of the firefighters.

The Cabinet also said it will instruct the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Fire Agency, to review firefighting measures, including personal equipment and training to help prevent similar incidents.

http://focustaiwan.tw/news/asoc/201501200004.aspx

Structure of Lead :

WHO: six firefighters

WHEN: early Tuesday 

WHERE: in Taoyuan

WHAT: six firefighters perished

WHY: fire

HOW:when the structure of a burning bowling center in Taoyuan collapsed on them

Keywords:

1. perish (v) 死亡
2. compensation (n) 補償；賠償
3. bereaved (a) 喪失的；死了的
4. condolences (n) 弔唁；慰問

Week 2 -- Sydney Cafe Hostage

Hostage in Sydney cafe was killed by police bullets during raid: courts
BY JASON SILVERSTEIN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, January 28, 2015, 9:35 PM

When police stormed a Sydney cafe in December, killing a gunman to end a 16-hour hostage standoff, they also accidentally killed a hostage, an inquest revealed Wednesday.

Katrina Dawson, 34, one of the two hostages killed in the Lindt Chocolat Cafe, was struck by six fragments from one or more police bullets, one of which hit a major blood vessel.

That detail emerged in the first day of a coroner’s court inquest about what happened that day in December and what led up to it. Several surviving hostages will be called as witnesses, the BCC reports.

A former member of Australia’s counter-terrorism unit has suggested the police used the wrong rifles during the standoff, with bigger bullets that were more likely to ricochet, ABC reports.

The first inquest day also revealed that gunman Man Haron Monis forced Tori Johnson, the other hostage who was killed, to kneel down before being shot in the back of the head. The media previously reported Johnson, the cafe's manager, tried to knock the gun out of Monis’ hand before being shot.

Monis took 18 people hostage in the Lindt Chocolate Cafe on a Monday morning. He reportedly had a history of mental illness and supported radical Islamic extremism. During the standoff, he hung a black flag in the cafe that said in Arabic: “There is no God but Allah; Muhammed is the Messenger of Allah,” a phrase that also appears on the ISIS flag.

Police raided the cafe after several hostages ran out of it. Besides the three fatalities, four other hostages and a police officer were injured.

As the inquest continues, prosecutors plan to delve into Monis’ mental health history and determine how he got the guns used in the attack.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/sydney-cafe-hostage-killed-police-bullets-courts-article-1.2095666

Structure of the Lead :

Who : police

When : December

What : killing a gunman and a hostage

Why : to end a 16-hour hostage standoff

Where : a Sydney cafe

How : not mentioned

Keywords:

1. storm v. 猛攻
2. standoff n. 僵持
3. inquest n. 驗屍、審訊
4. fragment 碎片
5. counter-terrorism unit 反恐部隊
6. ricochet跳飛、跳彈
7. extremism極端主義
8.  prosecutor檢察官
9. delve into探究

week1-AirAsia 8501 Crash

More objects found in AirAsia wreck hunt, but no sign of black box

BY WILDA ASMARINI AND EVELINE DANUBRATA
JAKARTA, Indonesia Tue Jan 6, 2015 4:28pm EST

Search teams scouring the ocean for the wreckage of an AirAsia jet found two new metal objects on Tuesday, but nine days after the plane crashed officials say there is still no sign of the crucial black box flight recorders.

Bad weather continued to hamper the search, and while conditions eased slightly on Tuesday, high waves and strong currents prevented divers from going deep into the waters to look for the plane's wreckage on the bottom of the Java Sea.

Indonesian officials believe they may have located the tail and parts of the fuselage of the Airbus A320-200 30 meters below the surface, but have been unable to properly investigate the debris so far.

Flight QZ8501 plunged into the water off Borneo Island on Dec. 28, about 40 minutes into a two-hour flight from Indonesia's second-biggest city of Surabaya to Singapore. There were no survivors among the 162 people on board.

Jakarta has launched a crackdown on its fast-growing aviation sector since the crash, reassigning some officials and tightening rules on pre-flight procedures in a country with a patchy reputation for air safety.

"Divers were ready on the ship but the challenges were currents and waves," the head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency, Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo, told a news conference in Jakarta on Tuesday evening.

He said a U.S. navy ship located two more metal objects using sonar signals, though it is not known yet if they are part of the missing plane. Those would add to the five large objects, believed to have been part of the plane, detected so far.

Two more bodies were also recovered from the sea, bringing the total found so far to 39.

Search and rescue agency official Supriyadi, who is coordinating the operation from the southern Borneo town of Pangkalan Bun, said there had been no "pings" detected from the black box's emergency locator beacon, possibly because it was buried in the seabed or the muddy water was impeding its signal.

"They haven't found anything, maybe because the water is turbid and there is zero visibility," he said. "There's a possibility it is buried in mud."

The captain of an Indonesian navy patrol vessel said on Monday his ship had found what was believed to be the tail, a key find since that section of the aircraft houses the cockpit voice and flight data recorders. But Soelistyo said that could not yet be confirmed.

Less than a third of the bodies of the mostly Indonesian passengers and crew have been recovered so far. Many more could still be trapped in the fuselage of the aircraft.

AVIATION CRACKDOWN

The crash was the first fatal accident suffered by the AirAsia budget group, whose Indonesian affiliate has come under criticism from the authorities in Jakarta since the disaster.

The transport ministry has suspended Indonesia AirAsia's Surabaya-Singapore license, saying the carrier only had permission to fly the route on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Flight QZ8501 took off on a Sunday, though the ministry said this had no bearing on the accident.

"Flying without license was not the cause of the accident," transport minister Ignasius Jonan told reporters.

Indonesia AirAsia, 49 percent owned by Malaysia-based AirAsia, has made little comment, but said it would fully cooperate with investigations.

Indonesia's financial regulator said it did not believe the issue of whether the airline had the correct flight permits would affect insurers paying out on claims.

While the cause of the crash is not known, the national weather bureau has said the seasonal tropical storms common in the area were likely to be a factor. Last week, the authorities questioned whether the pilot had followed proper weather procedures.

On Monday, the transport ministry said officials at the airport operator in Surabaya and air traffic control agency who had allowed the flight to take off had been moved to other duties while the accident investigation is completed.

It also said it had issued a directive making it mandatory for pilots to be briefed face-to-face by an airline flight operations officer on weather conditions and other operational issues before every flight.

Indonesia is one of the world's fastest growing aviation markets and its carriers, such as Lion Air and Garuda Indonesia, are among the top customers for plane makers Airbus and Boeing.

But its safety record is chequered. The European Commission banned all Indonesia-based airlines from flying to the European Union in 2007 following a series of accidents. Exemptions to that ban have since been granted to some carriers, including Garuda and AirAsia.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/06/us-indonesia-airplane-idUSKBN0K900D20150106

Structure of the Lead：

WHO-search team 

WHEN-Tuesday 

WHAT-found two new metal objects and still no sign of the crucial black box flight recorders

WHY-air crash 

WHERE-the ocean 

HOW-scour the ocean

KEYWORD：

1. scour 擦淨；洗擦
2. hamper阻礙
3. fuselage機身
4. crackdown壓迫
5. aviation航空
6. reassign再分配
7. patchy縫補的；拼湊的
8. sonar聲納
9. beacon烽火
10. impede妨礙
11. turbid混濁的
12. cockpit駕駛員座艙
13. affiliate使緊密聯繫
14. ministry部
15. insurer保險公司
16. mandatory命令的
17. chequered 有方格的
18. Exemption免除

Week7-Chang Guann Gutter Oil

Taiwan’s ‘Gutter Oil’ Scandal
By THE EDITORIAL BOARDSEPT. 18, 2014

Since Sept. 4, the Taiwanese authorities have been struggling to control a food scare caused by 645 tons of adulterated cooking oil produced by the Chang Guann Company and distributed to more than 1,200 restaurants, schools and food processors. As of Monday, health authorities had identified a wide array of more than 1,300 food products tainted by the oil, including instant noodles, snacks, cakes, dumplings, bread, canned pork, meat paste and glutinous rice. Taiwan obviously needs a stronger food-safety policy with meaningful penalties.

Chang Guann has been buying what’s known as “gutter oil” — recycled oil from restaurant waste and animal byproducts — from an illegal factory and mixing it with lard to make its Chuan Tung cooking oil. Though the illegal factory had been in business for more than a decade, the authorities had failed to detect what it was up to. Chang Guann had also managed to delude inspectors. Recycled gutter oil can contain carcinogens. No case of illness has been reported so far. Chang Guann was fined a trifling $1.67 million for its illegal sales.

The investigation also revealed that Chang Guann had been importing lard from Hong Kong that was intended for industrial purposes but falsely listed by the Hong Kong company as fit for human consumption.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare is now working to set up a system to monitor about 100 oil manufacturers and 500 importers in Taiwan, requiring them to register information about their products. Submitting fraudulent information could lead to a maximum fine of $100,000 and suspension of business for one year.

The scare follows a series of other food scandals last year; in one case, a factory owner was sentenced to 16 years in prison for adding a banned coloring agent, copper chlorophyllin, to olive oil. The Taiwanese authorities need to be doing more than reacting to food-safety problems on an ad hoc basis to ensure that what people eat is safe.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/opinion/taiwans-gutter-oil-scandal.html?_r=0

Structure of the Lead：

WHO- the Taiwanese health authorities
WHEN-Monday
WHAT-identified a wide array of more than 1,300 food products tainted by the oil
WHY-the Taiwanese authorities have been struggling to control a food scare caused by 645 tons of adulterated cooking oil produced by the Chang Guann Company and distributed to more than 1,200 restaurants, schools and food processors.
WHERE-in Taiwan
HOW-not given

Keywords：

1. scare (n.)大恐慌[C] 
2. adulterate (v.) 攙雜，攙假 
3. taint (v.) 沾染；汙染 
4. lard (n.) 豬油[U] 
5. delude (v.) 欺騙；哄騙；迷惑[（+into）] 
6. carcinogen (n.)【醫】致癌物質 
7. trifling (adj.) 不重要的；微不足道的；無聊的 
8. fraudulent (adj.) 欺詐的，欺騙的 
9. copper chlorophyllin (n.) 銅葉綠素 
10. ad hoc (phr.)【拉】特別的（地）

week6--Iraq ISIS

Islamic State committing 'staggering' crimes in Iraq: U.N. report

BY STEPHANIE NEBEHAY
GENEVA Thu Oct 2, 2014 1:24pm EDT

 Islamic State insurgents in Iraq have carried out mass executions, abducted women and girls as sex slaves, and used child soldiers in what may amount to systematic war crimes that demand prosecution, the United Nations said on Thursday.

In a report based on 500 interviews with witnesses, also said Iraqi government air strikes on the Sunni Muslim militants had caused "significant civilian deaths" by hitting villages, a school and hospitals in violation of international law.

At least 9,347 civilians had been killed and 17,386 wounded so far this year through September, well over half of them since the Islamist insurgents also known as ISIL and ISIS began seizing large parts of northern Iraq in early June, the report said.

"The array of violations and abuses perpetrated by ISIL and associated armed groups is staggering, and many of their acts may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity," said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein.

In a statement, he called again for the Baghdad government to join the International Criminal Court, saying the Hague court was set up to prosecute such massive abuses and direct targeting of civilians on the basis of their religious or ethnic group.

Islamist forces have committed gross human rights violations and violence of an "increasing sectarian nature" against groups including Christians, Yazidis and Shi'ite Muslims in a widening conflict that has forced 1.8 million Iraqis to flee their homes, according to the 29-page report by the U.N. Human Rights Office and the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

"These include attacks directly targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, executions and other targeted killings of civilians, abductions, rape and other forms of sexual and physical violence perpetrated against women and children, forced recruitment of children, destruction or desecration of places of religious or cultural significance, wanton destruction and looting of property, and denial of fundamental freedoms."

FEMALE "SEX SLAVES"

In a single massacre on June 12, the report said, about 1,500 Iraqi soldiers and security officers from the former U.S. Camp Speicher military base in Salahuddin province were captured and killed by Islamic State fighters.

However, the bodies have not been exhumed and the precise toll is not known. No one disputes that Iraqi military recruits were led off the base near Tikrit unarmed and then machinegunned in their hundreds into mass graves by Islamic State, whose fighters boasted of the killings on the Internet.

Women have been treated particularly harshly, the report said: "ISIL (has) attacked and killed female doctors, lawyers, among other professionals."

In August, it said, ISIL took 450-500 women and girls to the Tal Afar citadel in Iraq's Nineveh region where "150 unmarried girls and women, predominantly from the Yazidi and Christian communities, were reportedly transported to Syria, either to be given to ISIL fighters as a reward or to be sold as sex slaves".

Islamic State pushed on with its assault on a Syrian border town on Thursday despite coalition air strikes meant to weaken them, sending thousands more Kurdish refugees into Turkey and dragging Ankara deeper into the conflict.

Islamic State and allied groups have attacked and destroyed places of religious and cultural significance in Iraq that do not conform to its "takfiri" doctrine, the U.N. report said, referring to the beliefs of Sunni militants who justify their violence by branding others as apostates.

But the report also voiced deep concern at violations committed by the Baghdad government and allied fighters, including air strikes and shelling that may not have distinguished between military targets and civilian areas.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/02/us-mideast-crisis-un-idUSKCN0HR0R120141002

 Structure of the Lead：

WHO- Islamic State insurgents

WHEN-on Thursday

WHAT-carried out mass executions, abducted women and girls as sex slaves, and used child soldiers in what may amount to systematic war crimes that demand prosecution 

WHY-not given

WHERE- in Iraq

HOW-not given

Keywords：

1. staggering (adj.)驚人的
2. insurgent (n.)叛亂者；暴動者
3. abduct (v.)綁架；劫持
4. prosecution (v.)起訴；告發
5. array (n.)（排列整齊的）一批；一系列；大量[S]
6. perpetrate(v.)做（壞事）；犯（罪）
7. commissioner (n.)（政府部門的）長，長官
8. prosecute(v.)起訴；告發
9. gross(adj.)惡劣的；下流的
10. sectarian (adj.)宗派的；派別的；偏執的
11. infrastructure (n.)公共建設
12. rape (n.)強姦
13. desecration (n.)褻瀆神聖；汙辱
14. wanton(adj.) 惡意的；肆無忌憚的
15. loot(v.)搶劫，洗劫；強奪
16. massacre (n.)大屠殺，殘殺
17. exhumed(v.)（從墳墓處）掘出（屍體）；發掘
18. predominantly(adv.)佔主導地位地；佔優勢地；顯著地
19. assault (n.)攻擊，襲擊
20. coalition (n.)結合，聯合
21. doctrine (n.)(宗教的）教義，教旨
22. apostate(n.)叛教者；脫黨者；反叛者
23. shelling(n.)砲擊

Week 5-Ebola

Ebola still spreading in western Sierra Leone, Guinea's forest: U.N
BY STEPHANIE NEBEHAY
GENEVA Tue Dec 9, 2014 4:01pm EST

More foreign health workers are needed to help tackle the Ebola epidemic, which is spreading quickly in western Sierra Leone and deep in the forested interior of Guinea, a senior U.N. official said on Tuesday.

The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has risen to 6,331 in the three worst hit countries, with Sierra Leone overtaking Liberia as the country with the highest number of cases, the World Health Organization says.

"We know the outbreak is still flaming strongly in western Sierra Leone and some parts of the interior of Guinea. We can't rest, we have to still push on," said David Nabarro, the U.N. Special Envoy on Ebola.

More treatment centers are opening in Sierra Leone but they need additional trained staff, he told a news briefing.

"We don't yet have the full number of functioning treatment centers and places where people who are ill can be kept away from others," he said.

"We are anticipating several hundred beds to come on stream in the next few weeks, and that will lead to the situation calming down."

The deadly virus is spreading especially in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown and Port Loko, where a more intense response is needed, said Nabarro, a veteran public health expert.

"Although I hate predictions, I am at least confident that unless something goes radically wrong we will see an improvement there (in Freetown). It's a bit like what Monrovia was like 4 to 6 weeks ago and I think that it will certainly calm down."

The rise in the spread of Ebola in western Sierra Leone reflects the fact that tribal-led communities have yet to fully accept the outbreak and take action to avoid infection, he said.

"There are reports coming through of places where people who are sick, staying at home and perhaps infecting their families."

The second "particularly troublesome" area is the northern part of Guinea's interior, a region known as Guinea Forestiere where the epidemic began nearly a year ago, Nabarro said.

"We have been working very closely with Mali to try to make sure if cases perchance cross the border that they can be dealt with very quickly."

Mali has reported eight Ebola cases, six fatal, to date.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/09/us-health-ebola-who-idUSKBN0JM24X20141209

Structure of the Lead：
WHO- a senior U.N. official
WHEN-on Tuesday
WHAT- he said that more foreign health workers are needed to help tackle the Ebola epidemic
WHY- Ebola epidemic is spreading quickly
WHERE- in western Sierra Leone and deep in the forested interior of Guinea
HOW-not given

Keywords：

1. tackle (v) 著手處理
2. forested (adj) 樹木叢生的
3. toll (n) 傷亡人數
4. outbreak (n) 爆發
5. overtake (v) 超過
6. flame (v) 燃燒
7. push on推動；繼續做某事
8. envoy (n) 使者；外交使節
9. veteran (adj) 經驗豐富的
10. radically (adv) 根本地；完全地
11. Freetown (n) 自由城（非洲塞拉利昂首都）
12. Monrovia (n) 蒙羅維亞（賴比瑞亞首都）
13. perchance (adv) 偶然地；意外地