2015年3月11日 星期三

week-3 Shanghai, new year, stampede

China confirms identities of 36 stampede deaths

Mon, Jan 05, 2015
by Bloomberg

Chinese authorities confirmed the identities of the 36 people who died in a stampede on New Year’s Eve in Shanghai as the metropolis of 23 million engaged in citywide safety checks.
More than two-thirds of the fatalities were female, according to a statement on the city government’s official microblog.
The youngest was a 12-year-old boy.
Victims included students of Fudan University, East China Normal University and East China University of Political Science, Xinhua news agency reported, citing unidentified people.
The incident has dealt “a heavy blow” to Shanghai’s image, state media Chinanews.com said in a commentary on New Year’s Day.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) ordered an investigation and told local governments to prioritize safety as the nation prepares for mass celebrations for the Lunar New Year next month.
Local authorities started emergency safety inspections across Shanghai on New Year’s Day, according to a statement on the city government’s Web site on Saturday.
The metropolis canceled several New Year’s events including a light show and concert as it deployed resources to public areas where crowds are expected, it said.
The disaster was Shanghai’s deadliest since a highrise apartment building fire in 2010 that left 58 people dead.
Inadequate surveillance and shoddy construction standards were the cause of that inferno, according to then-mayor Han Zheng (韓正), who has since been promoted to the city’s highest-ranking Communist Party official.
In Hong Kong, on New Year’s Eve, 1993, 20 people, mostly teenagers, died and 71 were injured in a stampede in the Lan Kwai Fong entertainment district, the South China Morning.

Structure of the Lead：
   WHO-Chinese authorities 
   WHEN-not given 
   WHAT-confirmed the identities of the 36 people who died in a stampede on New Year’s Eve
   WHY-not given
   WHERE-not given
   HOW-stampede

Keywords：
   1. metropoli:都市報
   2. engage in ：參與
   3. microblog ：微博
   4. fatality：死亡人數
   5.  prioritize：優先考慮
   6. inspection：檢查
   7. stampede：踩踏
  8. highrise：高層

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2015年3月9日 星期一

week2 - Sydney hostage

Sydney hostage drama grips Australia

Tue, Dec 16, 2014 

in SYDNEY 

A lone gunman kept terrified staff and customers captive into the night yesterday in a downtown Sydney cafe, brandishing an Islamic flag, as five of his hostages managed to flee for their lives.
The pre-Christmas siege of the Lindt Chocolat Cafe triggered a security lockdown in an area of Australia’s biggest city that houses several government and corporate headquarters, as hundreds of armed police surrounded the site.
The government said there was no clear motivation, but the flag appeared to be one commonly used by jihadist groups bearing the Shahada, or profession of faith in Islam.
More than 40 Australian Muslim groups jointly condemned the siege and the use of the flag, which they said had been hijacked by “misguided individuals that represent no-one but themselves.”
“We reject any attempt to take the innocent life of any human being or to instill fear and terror into their hearts,” they said in a statement.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott convened a national security meeting to deal with the “disturbing” development.
About six hours into the siege, three men emerged from the popular cafe and ran from the building, two from the front door and one from an emergency exit.
About an hour later two distraught women also fled. It was not clear if they escaped or were released.


Structure of the Lead：
   WHO-A lone gunman
   WHEN-yesterday night 
   WHAT-A lone gunman kept terrified staff and customers captive 
   WHY-not given
   WHERE-in a downtown Sydney cafe
   HOW-not given

Keywords：
   1. captive:俘虜
   2. hijack：劫持
   3. distraught ：悲痛欲絕
   4. headquarter：總部
   5.  instill ：灌輸
   6. misguide：誤導
   7. flee：逃離
   8. condemn：譴責

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2015年3月1日 星期日

week-1 Mexico, missing students, dead

Mexico ‘certain’ missing students dead: minister

Thu, Jan 29, 2015
By AFP, MEXICO CITY

    Authorities in Mexico can now say with “legal certainty” that 43 students who went missing in September last year were murdered by hitmen working for a drug gang, Mexican Minister of Justice Jesus Murillo Karam said on Tuesday.

However, parents of the students in a case that convulsed the nation and countries abroad insisted the case not be closed.
The disappearance of the men — all aspiring teachers attending classes at a training college in Guerrero State — sparked nationwide protests and a crisis for the government of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Officials said the students vanished after gang-linked police attacked their buses in the city of Iguala, allegedly under orders from the mayor and his wife in a night of terror that left six other people dead.

The police then delivered the young men to members of the Guerreros Unidos drug gang, who told investigators they took them in two trucks to a landfill, killed them, burned their bodies and dumped them in a river.

The investigation “gives us the legal certainty that the student teachers were killed in the circumstances that have been described,” Murillo Karam said at a press conference.

Witness and expert testimony “have allowed us to ... come to the conclusion beyond a doubt that the students were abducted and killed, before being incinerated and thrown into the San Juan River, in that order,” he said.

“It is the historic truth,” he said.

He played a video with testimony from detainees and footage from the investigation.

Until now, authorities had still officially considered the students to be missing.

Relatives of the victims, who marched on Monday with several thousand people in Mexico City to mark the four-month mark since their disappearance, have refused to accept the official explanation of events.


 
 
 
Structure of the Lead：
   WHO-Authorities in Mexico
   WHEN-Tuesday
   WHAT-43 students who went missing in September last year were murdered
   WHY-not given
   WHERE-not given
   HOW-not given

Keywords：
   1.  convulsed:使震撼
   2. nationwide：全國性的
   3. relative：親人ˋ親戚
   4. aspiring：有抱負的
   5.  dump ：傾倒
   6. authority：當局
   7. conference：發表會
   8. circumstance：情況
   


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