Week 7 : gutter oil

Taiwanese ‘gutter oil’ scandal spreads to Hong Kong, Macau

Tue, Sep 09, 2014

Pineapple buns and dumplings have been pulled from the shelves in Hong Kong as authorities check whether they contain what media are referring to as “gutter oil” that has sparked a growing regional food safety scare, officials said yesterday.

An investigation was launched after oil from a Taiwanese company accused of using illegally recycled products — including fat collected from grease traps — was exported to the territory.

Taiwanese authorities say a factory in Greater Kaohsiung illegally used 243 tonnes of tainted products to mix with lard oil in a case that has reignited regional concerns about food safety.

The lard oil — a clear oil pressed from pig fat — was supplied to at least 900 restaurants and bakeries in Taiwan. The owner of the factory was arrested on Sunday.

The scare has now spread to Hong Kong, with local chains forced to pull products from their shelves and experts ramping up spot checks.

Philip Ho, an officer from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, told Radio Television HK yesterday that dozens of food samples had been taken, with results expected in the next few days.

The government’s Centre for Food Safety is also conducting tests on mooncakes from retailers across the territory. The pastries are consumed in vast numbers during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Popular bakery chain Maxim’s Cakes removed pineapple buns from its shelves over the weekend after confirming it had used oil from Chang Guann Co (強冠企業), the Taiwanese oil manufacturer at the heart of the scandal.

Macau’s Food Safety Centre said 21 bakeries and food manufacturers had bought oil from Chang Guann through a local importer.

Shoppers in Hong Kong said they were increasingly concerned about the safety of food, especially imported products.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2014/09/09/2003599324

Structure of the Lead:

WHO-officials

WHEN-yesterday

WHAT- Pineapple buns and dumplings have been pulled from the shelves

WHY- whether they contain what media are referring to as “gutter oil” that has sparked a growing regional food safety scare

WHERE- Hong Kong

HOW- authorities check

Keywords

1.tainted 受污染的

2.lard 豬油

3.reignite 再點燃

4.ramp 動怒

Week 6 : Mount Ontake eruption

Mount Ontake eruption difficult to predict: CWB

Tue, Sep 30, 2014

The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) yesterday said that a steam explosion caused the eruption on Japan’s Mount Ontake and that the eruption had been difficult to forecast due to a lack of signs, adding that a similar event hit the Datun Volcano Group (大屯火山群) 6,000 years ago.

As of press time, the eruption of Japan’s second-highest volcano on Saturday had killed 36 people and injured 63.

Though Ontake is one of 47 active volcanoes on the Japan Meteorological Agency’s watchlist, the agency did not issue a warning about a possible eruption.

Retired Tokyo University professor Shiego Aramaki, a highly regarded expert on volcanoes, said in an interview with the Nikkei Asian Review that the eruption might have been caused by steam, rather than by the explosive eruption of lava.

CWB Seismology Center Director Kuo Kai-wen (郭鎧紋) said that these are two different types of eruptions.

“Before an explosive eruption of lava occurs, there would be an increase in minor earthquakes. Because of the signs, seismologists in the Philippines were able to issue warnings 68 days before Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1992,” Kuo said.

Kuo said the signs for eruptions caused by steam explosions are less obvious, making them more difficult to forecast.

He said that the Japanese agency recorded 85 earthquakes in the vicinity of Mount Ontake on Sept. 11, but the activity then gradually declined from Sept. 12 onward. As such, the agency did not escalate its warnings, he said.

Steam explosions happen when groundwater is heated by surging lava and the steam’s pressure blows open the Earth’s crust, Kuo said.

A similar event happened in the Datun Volcanic Group 6,000 years ago, he added.

“Eruptions produce rocks like andesite. However, what geologists find on Datun is granite, which is produced through the cooling and solidification of lava below the Earth’s surface,” he said, adding that the discovery of granite rather than andesite is seen as evidence of steam explosions.

Lava explosions can cause much more damage than steam explosions. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD, for example, destroyed the city of Pompeii, Kuo said.

While Japan monitors 47 volcanoes closely, Kuo said Taiwan’s weather bureau mainly monitors the Datun Volcanic Group and volcanoes in the sea near Kueishan Island (龜山).

The bureau has been closely monitoring the nation’s active volcanoes and none of them shows any signs of erupting, Kuo said.

“Mud volcanoes” that emerge occasionally in southern Taiwan are not really volcanoes, he said, saying the phenomenon is simply muddy water gushing from under the ground.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2014/09/30/2003600934

Structure of the Lead:

WHO- The Central Weather Bureau (CWB)
WHEN-yesterday
WHAT- a steam explosion caused the eruption on Japan’s Mount Ontake and that the eruption had been difficult to forecast
WHY- a lack of signs
WHERE- Japan’s Mount Ontake
HOW-Not given

Keywords:
1.lava: 熔岩

2. seismologist : 地震學家

3. vicinity : 附近地區

4.crust : 外殼

5. andesite :安山石

6. granite : 花崗石

7. gush :湧出

Week 5 : Michael Brown

Police investigate Brown’s stepdad over comments

Thu, Dec 04, 2014

AP, ST LOUIS, Missouri

Police are investigating Michael Brown’s stepfather for angry comments on the streets of Ferguson after a grand jury decided not to indict the police officer who fatally shot his unarmed stepson, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

Officials are looking into Louis Head’s comments as part of a broader investigation into the arson, vandalism and looting that followed the grand jury announcement on Monday last week, St Louis County Police spokesman Brian Schellman said. Twelve commercial buildings were destroyed by fire.

Brown, 18, who was black and unarmed, was killed on Aug. 9 by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who is white. Wilson, who resigned from the Ferguson department over the weekend, had told the grand jury his life was being threatened, but some witnesses said Brown was trying to surrender.

Brown’s killing sparked weeks of unrest and reignited debate over race relations in the US.

Video widely circulated after last week’s grand jury announcement shows Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, on top of a car and breaking down as the decision blares over a stereo. Head, her husband, comforts her then yells angry comments, including “Burn this bitch down.”

Family attorney Benjamin Crump has called the reaction “raw emotion,” but “completely inappropriate.” He did not immediately return messages seeking comment on Tuesday.

Head has not yet been interviewed by police, and there is no timetable for when the investigation will be completed, Schellman said.

He declined to discuss what specific charges Head could face. A message left with a spokesman for St Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch was not immediately returned.

Ferguson police spokesman Jeff Small said the department is not conducting a separate investigation of Head.

Most of the violence occurred in the first two days after the announcement. Peaceful protests have continued, including one on Tuesday involving students who walked out of classes from three Ferguson-area high schools.

On Monday, similar walkouts were staged across the US.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2014/12/04/2003605977

Structure of the Lead:

WHO- Michael Brown’s stepfather
WHEN-Tuesday
WHAT-angry comments
WHY- a grand jury decided not to indict the police officer who fatally shot his unarmed stepson
WHERE- on the street of Ferguson

HOW-Police are investigating

Keywords:

1.indict : 起訴

2.arson : 縱火

3.vandalism : 破壞文物的行為

3.reignite : 再點燃

4.break down : 崩潰

5.attorney : 委託代理人

6.walkout : 罷工

7.stage : 上演

Week 4 : Malaysia airplane MH17

Netherlands mourns 154 citizens in plane crash

Sat, Jul 19, 2014 AFP, SCHIPHOL, Netherlands

Distraught and sobbing relatives poured into Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, as the nation reeled from the news that 154 of its citizens were aboard a Malaysian plane believed to have been shot down in Ukraine.

Bewildered family members of those traveling on the ill-fated jet were whisked away into a restaurant on the upper deck of the airport, shielded from massing journalists. They then boarded buses headed for an unknown destination.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur disappeared from radar screens before crashing, with 298 people on board in eastern Ukraine.

Pro-Russian separatists in the region and officials in Kiev blamed each other for the crash, after the plane was apparently hit by a surface-to-air missile.

Red, white and blue Dutch flags were lowered to half-mast inside the country and at embassies around the world.

“I am deeply saddened by this horrible news,” King Willem-Alexander said in a statement.

“Our thoughts go to the families, friends and colleagues of the victims, and to those who do not know yet if one of their loved ones was on board the plane,” he said.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he was “deeply shocked” by the catastrophe.

Malaysia Airlines vice president Huib Gorter told a press briefing at Schiphol that a plane would take victims’ relatives to Ukraine to visit the crash site if they wished to make the trip.

Many were stunned by the news their family and friends were on the Malaysian airliner which went down just four months after a flight from the same carrier disappeared over the Indian Ocean with 239 people on board.

“This can’t be true,” Alicia de Boer said in a Facebook comment as it emerged her friend, Cor Pan, a young Dutchman, had been on the flight.

In a chilling post just before he boarded the flight, Pan posted an image of the doomed flight with the comment: “If it should disappear, this is what it looks like.”

Cor Pan, who appeared to be going on a beach holiday to Malaysia, posted the photo as a joking reference to the missing Malaysia Airlines flight.

Comments by Pan’s friends on Facebook suggested that he was on the MH17. Late on Thursday his picture had been shared more than 10,000 times on the social media site.

The crash resulted in the second-biggest loss of Dutch lives in an airplane disaster, after a 1977 crash of two Boeing 747 jumbo jets on the Canary Island of Tenerife that killed 238 Dutch nationals.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2014/07/19/2003595479

Structure of the Lead:

WHO- 154 Dutch.
WHEN-Not given
WHAT- were dead
WHY-A Malaysian plane which they took on believed to have been shot down
WHERE- in Ukraine
HOW-Not given

Keywords:


1. distraught 心痛的
2.sob 哭泣
3.mourn 哀悼
4. embassy 大使館
5.chilling 令人恐懼的

Week 3 : Nuclear power plant referendum

FAPA urges referendum on nuclear power plant

Sun, Apr 27, 2014  By William Lowther

The Washington-based Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) is calling for an immediate moratorium on the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the association called on President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to hold a referendum “at the earliest possible time” on the future of the plant. It also asked that a clause in the Referendum Act (公民投票法) be dropped.

The statement expressed strong support for former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄), who is now on a hunger strike in protest over the plant’s continued construction.

“As concerned Taiwanese-Americans, we care deeply about Taiwan and its future as a free and democratic nation,” the statement said. “Lin has vowed to fast to the end if the government does not agree to halt construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.”

Under normal circumstances, a referendum stopping the plant would easily pass, it added.

However, Taiwan’s “archaic” referendum law — which requires 50 percent of eligible voters to participate for a referendum result to be valid — is unreasonably high and “impossible to reach,” it added.

“Not a single referendum in the US would pass if these rules were applied,” it added.

According to the Washington-based lobby group, which promotes Taiwanese interests to the US government, a “heated debate has been raging” for more than 20 years over the desirability of the plant located 42km from Taipei.

The association said bad management has led to major delays and construction cost overruns.

While the plant is now in its 15th year of construction, other countries have built similar plants in about four years, the association said.

It said that the plant is similar to the one damaged in the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster in Japan; located on a seismic fault and close to the sea where it could be struck by a tsunami.

“In the case of a disaster, a major metropolitan area of nearly 7 million people would have to be evacuated, an impossible task,” the association said.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2014/04/27/2003589007

 Structure of the Lead：

   WHO- The Washington-based Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA)

   WHEN-on Thursday

   WHAT- is calling for an immediate moratorium on the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City. 

 WHY- The plant is similar to the one damaged in the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster in Japan

   WHERE-not given

   HOW-not given

Keywords：

1.urge 督促

2.halt  停止

3.moratorium 暫停

4.valid 有效的

5.overrun 氾濫

6. seismic fault 地震斷層

7.evacuate 疏散

Week 2 : World Cup Germany 2014

World Cup: Germany welcomes conquering heroes home

15 July 2014 Last updated at 12:17

Tens of thousands of German football fans have given a heroes' welcome to the World Cup-winning team in Berlin.

The main celebrations were at the Brandenburg Gate, where players displayed the cup on a large stage while performing an impromptu dance.

Many had gathered since dawn to welcome the players, who touched down from Brazil on Tuesday morning. Huge crowds lined their bus route into the capital.

It was the fourth German cup win and the first since reunification in 1990.

Berlin transformed

The team's 1-0 victory over Argentina in Sunday's final sparked delirious scenes across Germany, culminating in Tuesday's celebrations in central Berlin.

The team arrived in an open-top bus emblazoned with the years they have won the competition - 1954, 1974, 1990 and 2014.

The BBC's Lucy Hockings in Berlin says there was a carnival atmosphere in the city, with thousands taking the day off to witness the spectacle even though Tuesday is not officially a holiday.

Speaking on the stage near the Brandenburg Gate, coach Joachim Loew paid tribute to his team and the German people for their part in its victory.

"For our sakes the fans suffered with us. They were nervous with us. In the end they cheered with us. Without you we would not be here," he said.

Mario Goetze, the man who scored the winning goal on Sunday, said the experience of winning the cup was "dreamlike".

Earlier fans gathered on a viewing stage at Tegel airport to witness the arrival of the plane, a Lufthansa jet rebranded "Fanhansa" for the team.

"This is a historic event," 34-year-old supporter Bernd Hesse told AFP news agency.

He said that fans of the team had waited 24 years for a German World Cup victory.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28306321

Structure of the Lead：

 WHO-Germany fans

   WHEN-2014.7.14

   WHAT-many people had gathered to welcome the players

   WHY-Germany won World Cup 2014

   WHERE-at the Brandenburg Gate

   HOW-not given

Keywords：

        1. impromptu :即興的

      2.      reunification : 重新統一

      3.      delirious :發狂的

      4.      emblazoned : 紋飾

      

Week 1:Ukraine crisis

Pro-Europe parties leading in Ukraine parliament election


Two pro-European parties in Ukraine that ran on a platform to enact tough reforms shared the lead after a parliamentary election, according to partial results released yesterday.

With more than half the votes counted, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s Popular Front was leading with 21.6 percent of the vote, while Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s party had captured 21.5 percent.

Poroshenko said after Sunday’s election that he wanted Western-oriented parties to quickly form a broad reformist coalition.

Interfax-Ukraine cited Yuriy Lutsenko, a leading figure in the Poroshenko bloc, as saying the draft coalition agreement would be published later yesterday.

A pro-European party based in western Ukraine called Samopomich was running third with about 11 percent of the vote.

Sunday’s vote overhauls a parliament once dominated by loyalists of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, who sparked months of protests that caused his ouster in February with a decision to deepen ties with Russia instead of the EU.


http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2014/10/28/2003603090



 Structure of the Lead：

   WHO-not given

   WHEN-yesterday

   WHAT-Two pro-European parties in Ukraine that ran on a platform to enact tough reforms shared the lead after a parliamentary election

   WHY-not given

   WHERE-not given

   HOW- according to partial results released

  Keywords ：
     1.coalition：聯盟
     2.overhaul：大修
     3.draft：醞釀中的
     4.capture：獲得
     5.cite：表彰
     6.ouster：放逐