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