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