Week 7-Ottawa suspect made video: police

Ottawa suspect made video: police

Tue, Oct 28, 2014

Reuters, TORONTO

The man suspected of killing a Canadian soldier and attacking the country’s Parliament building last week made a video of himself beforehand, evidence he was driven by ideological and political motives, police said on Sunday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said in a statement that they were conducting a detailed analysis of the video reportedly made by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau and could not release it.

Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, allegedly stormed into the Parliament building with a rifle on Wednesday last week after shooting and killing Canadian Army Reserve Corporal Nathan Cirillo at a nearby monument to Canada’s war dead, police said. Zehaf-Bibeau was shot dead in the building.

The Canadian federal police force said on Sunday that it believed a knife carried by Zehaf-Bibeau was taken from his aunt’s property, but added it was still looking into the origin of the gun he used.

“It is an old and uncommon gun. We suspect that he could have similarly hidden the gun on the property, but our inquiries continue,” the statement said.

The RCMP also said the suspect had worked in Alberta’s oil fields and used the money he made to finance his activities in the days leading up to the attack. He had been living in an Ottawa homeless shelter just before the shooting.

The police were still investigating Zehaf-Bibeau’s interactions with numerous people in the days before the attack to find out whether these could have contributed to or facilitated his crime.

Security has been tighter since the shooting. Two days earlier, another man described by police as radicalized reportedly drove over two soldiers in Quebec with a car, killing one.

The suspected attacker, 25-year-old Martin Rouleau, was shot and killed by police.

The incidents, which police said were the work of Canadian citizens who were recent converts to Islam, came during the same week that Canada sent additional jet fighters to the Middle East to take part in airstrikes against Islamic State militants.

Canadian officials vowed to keep up their involvement in the military campaign against the group formerly known as the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant despite the incidents and planned to reopen the Parliament building to the public yesterday, though they said they would begin locking the doors overnight.

In a letter to Canadian news agency Postmedia, Zehaf-Bibeau’s mother denied an RCMP statement that she had told them her son had intended to travel to Syria.

Her son, who came to Ottawa from Vancouver seeking a passport, had wanted to travel to Saudi Arabia to study the Koran, Susan Bibeau said in the letter.

The nation also prepared for two funerals, with Cirillo to be laid to rest in his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, today. A funeral for 53-year-old Canadian Armed Forces Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent was set for Saturday in Quebec.

On Sunday, about 100 police, firefighters and other emergency workers held a disaster-response drill in downtown Toronto.

The drill had been long planned and was not a reaction to the twin attacks, though some acknowledged it took on a more urgent tone in the wake of the incidents.

“We had to be very specific with our strategic briefing after what happened in Ottawa,” Toronto Police Department Staff Sergeant Daniel Martin said.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2014/10/28/2003603133

Structure of the Lead：

   WHO-police 

   WHEN-Sunday

   WHAT-The man suspected of killing a Canadian soldier and attacking the country’s Parliament building last week made a video of himself beforehand, evidence he was driven by ideological and political motives.

   WHERE-Parliament building

  

Keywords：

   1.ideological 思想

   2. allegedly 據稱

   3. stormed 衝

   4.radicalize 激進

   5.airstrike 空襲

   6.reopen 重開

Week 6-Volcanic eruption strands 250 in Japan

Volcanic eruption strands 250 in Japan

Sun, Sep 28, 2014

Reuters, TOKYO

A Japanese volcano erupted yesterday, spewing ash and small rocks into the air and leaving seven people unconscious, eight seriously injured and more than 250 stranded on the mountain, officials and media said.

A thick, rolling, gray cloud of ash rose into the sky above Mount Ontake close to where TV footage showed hikers taking pictures. Trekkers and residents were warned of falling rock and ash within a 4km radius.

“It was like thunder,” a woman told broadcaster NHK of the first eruption at the volcano in seven years. “I heard ‘boom, boom,’ then everything went dark.”

Japan’s Meteorological Agency said the volcano, which straddles Nagano and Gifu prefectures 200km west of Tokyo, erupted just before midday and sent ash pouring down the mountain’s south slope for more than 3km.

There was no sign of lava from the TV footage.

The eruption forced aircraft to divert their routes, but officials at Tokyo’s Haneda airport and Japan Airlines said there were no disruptions to flights in and out of the capital.

NHK quoted a Nagano prefectural official as telling a government meeting that seven people were unconscious and eight others seriously wounded.

Police said that more than 250 hikers were stranded on the mountain, which is 3,067m high and last erupted in 2007.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who returned from the US yesterday, said he had issued instructions to mobilize the military to help in the rescue effort.

“Nearly 200 people are in the process of descending the mountain, but we are still trying to figure out details. I instructed to do all we can to rescue the people affected and secure the safety of the trekkers,” Abe told reporters.

Nagano police sent a team of 80 to the mountain to assist the climbers who were making their way down, while Kiso Prefectural Hospital, near the mountain, said it had dispatched a medical emergency team.

“We expect a lot of injured people so we are now getting ready for their arrival,” an official at the hospital said.

More than five hours after the initial eruption, the thick ash cloud showed no signs of abating, NHK TV showed.

“It’s all white outside, looks like it has snowed. There is very bad visibility and we can’t see the top of the mountain,” Mari Tezuka, who works at a mountain hut for trekkers, told reporters. “All we can do now is shut up the hut and then we are planning on coming down.”

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2014/09/28/2003600775

Structure of the Lead：

   WHO-officials and media,seven people unconscious, eight seriously injured and more than 250 stranded,A Japanese volcano

   WHEN-yesterday

   WHAT-A Japanese volcano erupted yesterday

  

Keywords：

   1.spew 噴出

   2. Trekker 跋涉者

   3. radius 半徑

   4.straddle橫跨 

   5.slope 傾斜

   6. prefectura 縣的  

 

Week 5-Ferguson shooter resigned without severance: mayor

Ferguson shooter resigned without severance: mayor

Tue, Dec 02, 2014

Reuters, FERGUSON, Missouri

The white police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, in August received no severance deal when he resigned from the force, the mayor of the St Louis suburb said on Sunday.

The officer, Darren Wilson, announced his resignation late on Saturday, saying he feared for his own safety and that of his fellow police officers after a grand jury decided not to indict him in the fatal Aug. 9 shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

“There will be no severance or extension of benefits for Darren Wilson following his resignation,” Ferguson Mayor James Knowles told a news conference.

Knowles also outlined new incentives to bring more African-Americans into the Ferguson police force.

Brown’s death galvanized critics of the way police and the criminal justice system treat African-Americans and other minority groups.

Protests in Ferguson have taken place for months and erupted into violence when the grand jury decided on Monday last week not to charge Wilson. The protests have spread around the country. Over the past week, there have been demonstrations in more than 100 cities, on public roadways, in shopping malls and government buildings.

On Sunday, demonstrators temporarily shut down part of the busy Interstate 395 highway that runs through Washington, police said. The protest lasted less than an hour while people formed a human chain to block traffic in both directions.

Anger spilled onto the playing field when the NFL’s St Louis Rams played Oakland at home on Sunday. Some of the Rams entered the stadium with their hands raised overhead in a show of solidarity with Brown, who some witnesses say had his hands in the air when Wilson fired the fatal shots.

The St Louis Police Officers Association said in a statement it was “profoundly disappointed” by the act.

“[They] chose to ignore the mountains of evidence released from the ... grand jury this week and engage in a display that police officers around the nation found tasteless, offensive and inflammatory,” the statement said of the Rams players.

About 40 or 50 protesters briefly blocked a street outside Edward Jones Dome in downtown St Louis after the game and later marched through the surrounding streets chanting: “Black lives matter.”

Many Rams fans, mostly white men, applauded riot police as they followed the demonstrators. A handful of demonstrators were seen being taken into custody.

Wilson, who said he was acting in self-defense and that his conscience is clear, had been on administrative leave and in seclusion since the incident.

Ferguson’s mayor said he had not asked for Wilson’s resignation, but Knowles wanted the city to turn a page, even though the officer had expressed an interest “in a future here.”

During the news conference on Sunday, Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson said he had no plans to resign.

The mayor said no changes in the department’s leadership were in the works.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2014/12/02/2003605818

Structure of the Lead：

   WHO-The white police office.an unarmed black teenager

   WHEN- in August

   WHAT-The white police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenagerhe resigned from the force

   WHY- shot and killed an unarmed black teenager

   WHERE- Ferguson, Missouri

Keywords：

   1. severance 離職金

   2. galvanized 鍍鋅的

   3. Interstate 洲際公路

   4. tasteless 粗俗的

   5. inflammatory 煽動性的

   6. custody 監禁

   7.seclusion  隱居

 

Week 4--Plane crash on Penghu kills dozens

Plane crash on Penghu kills dozens

Thu, Jul 24, 2014

By Shelley Shan and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter and staff writer, with CNA

A TransAsia Airways (復興航空) plane crashed on Penghu yesterday, killing at least 47 people, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said last night.

The flight from Greater Kaohsiung crashed near the Magong Airport’s runway with 54 passengers and four crew on board, the agency said.

Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) said that 47 people were confirmed dead and 11 injured.

According to the CAA, the 70-seat turboprop ATR72 model plane carried 54 passengers and four crew.

TransAsia Flight GE222 had been scheduled to depart Greater Kaohsiung at 4pm yesterday. However, because of Typhoon Matmo it was delayed, not departing until 5:43pm.

CAA Director General Jean Shen (沈啟) said air traffic control personnel received the request from the flight for a go-around at the Magong Airport at 7:06pm, but they lost track of the flight afterward.

“It’s chaotic on the scene,” Reuters quoted Shen as saying.

The plane made a forced landing in Sisi Village (西溪), just outside the airport.

Several buildings on the ground were set on fire by the crash, but no one on the ground was injured, local officials said.

"A few empty apartment buildings adjacent to the runway caught fire, but no one was inside at the time and the fire was extinguished," said Hsi Wen-guang, a spokesman for the Penghu County Government Fire Bureau.

About 100 firefighters were sent to the scene, besides 152 military personnel and 255 police, he added.

CAA information said the pilot, Lee Yi-liang (李義良), 60, has 15 years of experience in flying civilian aircraft.

The co-pilot was identified as 39-year-old Chiang Kuan-hsing (江冠興).

Witnesses have said that there was heavy rain at the time. However, the CAA said that the visual range was 800 feet (243.8m), which was adequate for landing.

The agency said that it will dispatch officials to Penghu today to help with the investigation into the cause of the crash, but the investigation will be led by the Aviation Safety Council.

Penghu County Fire Department Director-General Hong Yung-peng (洪永澎) said the airplane tried to land at the airport, but had pulled up to make another try because the heavy rain was hampering the pilot’s vision.

Executive Yuan spokesman Sun Lih-chuyn (孫立群) said Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) had ordered the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to report on the situation as soon as possible.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2014/07/24/2003595804

Structure of the Lead：

   WHO-A TransAsia Airways (復興航空) plane, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) 

   WHEN- last night 

   WHAT-killing at least 47 people

   HOW-crashed on Penghu

Keywords：

   1. turboprop 渦輪式推進的

   2. chaotic 混亂的

   3. quote 引證

   4. adjacent 鄰近的

   5.  adequate 適當的

   6.dispatch 快遞

   7. hamper 阻礙

Week 3--Vietnamese' anti-China protest

MOFA condemns protests against China in Vietnam

Thu, May 15, 2014

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

The government yesterday condemned the violent anti-China protests in Vietnam over Hanoi’s ongoing territorial dispute with Beijing, demanding that the Vietnamese government get the situation under control after the factories and offices of Taiwanese businesses in the country’s southeast were damaged during what it called “acts of rioting” by the protesters.

Speaking at a hastily convened press conference yesterday morning, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) was still trying to gather information on the factories damaged in the unrest in Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces that ensued after an anti-Chinese protest devolved into a violent attack against foreign businesses on Tuesday afternoon.

The mass demonstration was launched over the weekend to denounce Beijing’s installation of an oil rig close to the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島) in the South China Sea, which are claimed by Taiwan, China and Vietnam. The three also claim sovereignty over all or part of the sea, as do Brunei, the Philippines and Malaysia.

The protest intensified on Tuesday and participants started damaging any factory with Chinese-language signs, including those owned by Taiwanese companies.

“We condemn the violent acts, but we believe the situation is calming down since the Vietnamese government has deployed military and police forces to the area,” Lin said.

No deaths were reported, despite rumors said that two Chinese workers at a Taiwan-owned factory were killed, but a Taiwanese businessman was confirmed injured and received three stitches, while reports of another injury case have yet to be verified, according to Lin.

The minister said he has summoned Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei Director Bui Trong Van and demanded that Hanoi take every measure necessary to protect Taiwanese businesspeople and their families in Vietnam.

The ministry elevated the travel alert level for the two provinces where the violence occurred to “orange,” the second-highest threat level on the ministry’s four-color system, and revised the alert for Ho Chi Minh City upward to “yellow.”

Lin said the ministry has contacted China Airlines Ltd (中華航空) and EVA Airaways Corp (長榮航空) to arrange additional flights for Taiwanese who want to leave Vietnam, but that it did not think an evacuation was necessary.

Asked if the situation warranted a statement from the government reasserting Taiwan’s sovereignty and status as a country separate from China, the minister said people know that both sides “are governed separately” and that issuing such a statement would “require further study.”

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Vanessa Shih (史亞萍) said that the relationship between Taiwan and China was not relevant to the cause of the unrest, adding that the Vietnamese protesters “could not tell Taiwanese businesspeople from Chinese businesspeople.”

Meanwhile, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) issued a four-point statement urging the government to prepare evacuation plans for Taiwanese in Vietnam and demand that the Vietnamese government protect the property and safety of Taiwanese there.

DPP Policy Research Committee executive director Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) told a press conference that the political implications behind the protests deserve more attention, since President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has yet to comment on Beijing’s dispatch of the oil rig, despite the US having done so.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2014/05/15/2003590373

 Structure of the Lead：

   WHO-The government

   WHEN-yesterday 

   WHAT-condemned the violent anti-China protests in Vietnam over Hanoi’s ongoing territorial dispute with Beijing

   WHY-demanding that the Vietnamese government get the situation under control after the factories and offices of Taiwanese businesses in the country’s southeast were damaged during what it called “acts of rioting” by the protesters.

Keywords：

1.hastily 匆忙地

2.convene 召開 

3.ensue 接踵而來

4.rig 鑽探設備

5.sovereignty 主權

6.deploy 使展開

7.stitch 連結

8.warrant 授權

9.reassert 在宣稱

Week 2--South Korea ferry disaster

South Korea indicts captain, 14 crew over ferry disaster

Fri, May 16, 2014

AP, SEOUL

Prosecutors indicted the captain of sunken South Korean ferry the Sewol and three crew members on homicide charges yesterday, alleging that they failed to carry out their duties to protect passengers in need.

Less serious indictments were issued against the 11 other crew members responsible for navigating the vessel when it tipped over on April 16, leaving more than 300 people dead or missing.

Captain Lee Joon-seok and the other homicide defendants — a first mate, a second mate and the chief engineer — could face the death penalty if convicted, the South Korean Supreme Court said, although no one has been executed in the country since 1997.

The 11 other defendants were indicted for alleged negligence and abandoning passengers in need when the ship sank, prosecutors said.

The indictment was filed yesterday in Gwangju District Court and a trial date will be decided in a few days, according to a court official who requested anonymity due to department rules. The official said all 15 defendants are expected to be tried together.

The 15 indicted crew members were among the first group of people rescued when the Sewol began listing badly and all were arrested last month.

Lee initially told passengers to stay in their cabins and took about 30 minutes to issue an evacuation order, but it is not known if his message was ever conveyed. In a video taken by South Korean coast guard staff, he was seen escaping the ferry in his underwear to a rescue boat while many passengers were still onboard.

After his arrest last month, Lee said he withheld the evacuation order because rescuers had yet to arrive and he feared for the passengers’ safety in the cold water.

The head of the ferry’s owner, Chonghaejin Marine Co Ltd, and four other company employees have also been arrested. Authorities suspect improper stowage and overloading of cargo may have contributed to the disaster.

Rescuers have so far retrieve 284 bodies and 20 others are listed as missing. Only 172 people, including 22 of the ship’s 29 crew, survived. Most of the victims were students from a high school near Seoul. Family members of the missing are still camping out at a port waiting for news.

Underwater searches for the bodies have been hampered by strong currents and bad weather, with one civilian diver dying after falling unconscious in a search.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2014/05/16/2003590495

Structure of the Lead：

   WHO-Prosecutors.the captain of sunken South Korean ferry.three crew members

   WHEN-yesterday

   WHAT-Prosecutors indicted the captain of sunken South Korean ferry the Sewol and three crew members on homicide charges yesterday

   WHY- alleging that they failed to carry out their duties to protect passengers in need.

Keywords：

   1.Prosecutor檢方

   2.homicide殺人罪 

   3.allege宣稱 

   4.navigate駕駛

   5.vessel船 

   6.  execute將.....處死

7. negligence疏忽  

  8.file提起(訴訟等)

  9.anonymity匿名

10.evacuation疏散

11. withheld 扣留

12.stowage裝載

13.cargo貨物

14. retrieve收回

15.hamper阻礙

16.civilian 平民的

Week1-Sunflower movement

Sunflower leaders to form new activist organization

Mon, May 19, 2014
By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Sunflower movement leaders Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) and Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷) yesterday announced the establishment of a new social activist group, Taiwan March (島國前進), saying the group would focus on the “unfinished business” of the three-week-long movement’s goal of promoting “direct democracy.”

“It seemed to us that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] have not learned a thing [from the Sunflower movement] and they still refuse to listen to the public,” Chen told a press conference.

Having vowed to keep safeguarding Taiwan’s democracy after the Sunflower movement withdrew from the Legislative Yuan on April 10 — which they occupied to protest against what they described as the opaque negotiation of the cross-strait service trade agreement — Chen said the government has not changed.

“In the past month, the government has insisted on its own version of a statute to monitor cross-strait agreements, tried to push through the statute on the free economic pilot zones and launched a counter-offensive against the campaign to recall KMT lawmakers,” Chen said.

“What’s worse, the Ma administration began its judicial persecution against the protesters after they pulled out of the legislature,” added Chen, who is a student at National Tsing Hua University.

The group’s name, Taiwan March, indicates the group’s determination to keep marching forward and to highlight the month the Sunflower movement rose up.

The group’s founders include Academia Sinica associate research fellow Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) and Shih Hsin University assistant professor Frida Tsai (蔡培慧), as well as students and citizens.

The group’s goal is to “drive Taiwanese politics with social forces,” said Lin, a National Taiwan University graduate student.

However, he reiterated that the group would not establish a new political party, nor would it recommend candidates in future elections.

The group’s first task, Lin said, would be promoting the lowering of the threshold of the Referendum Act (公民投票法), known as a “bird cage” act, among a wide range of issues.

Taiwan March is soon to launch a petition drive across the nation to gather in six months the required number of signatures to pass the first stage, Lin said.

Next up is the free-trade issue, with a comprehensive discussion about how Taiwan should position itself in the free-trade system, which the group does not oppose, Lin said, to safeguard people’s wellbeing and the national interests at the same time.

On other issues, such as the cross-strait service trade pact and the statute governing the economic pilot zones, Lin said that the group would collaborate with other social groups, including Democracy Kuroshio (民主黑潮), Democracy Tautin (民主鬥陣), the Black Island Nation Youth Front (黑色島國青年聯盟) and the Appendectomy Project (割闌尾計畫).

The founding of Taiwan March and separate efforts by various groups should not be interpreted as “division of the core leadership of the Sunflower movement,” Lin said.

“It’s just that each group shared the same goal, but decided to tackle different issues with various approaches,” he said.

Lin also denied that the group had any connection with the Taiwan Citizen Union (公民組合), a political group initiated by former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄).

 

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2014/05/19/2003590698

Structure of the Lead：

 WHO- Sunflower movement leaders Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) and Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷)

 WHEN-yesterday

WHAT- announced the establishment of a new social activist group, Taiwan March (島國前進)

 WHY- goal of promoting “direct democracy.”

Keywords：

1.Chinese Nationalist Party 國民黨

2. press conference記者會

3.opaque不透明的    

4. judicial 司法的

5. persecution 迫害

6.reiterate重申  

7.threshold門檻

 8.  petition 請求  

9. tackle解決