Alan Turing film celebrates 'difference'

Alan Turing film celebrates 'difference'

The director of Alan Turing biopic The Imitation Game has described the film as "a tribute to being different".

Norwegian Morten Tyldum said he became obsessed with the British code breaker - a pioneer of modern computing - after reading the script.

“I was completely blown away. Why wasn’t he on the cover of every history book?” he said, at the Toronto Film Festival.

Turing - portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch - is credited with decoding the Enigma machine and decrypting German naval messages, in effect changing the course of World War Two.

But his later life was overshadowed following a conviction in 1952 for gross indecency, at a time when homosexuality was illegal in Britain.

He was chemically castrated and committed suicide in 1954.

Tyldum said the film had "many layers", insisting it was not just your average thriller: "It’s a human rights [movie], a gay rights movie," he said.

"It’s a blessing to find a project you feel you have to make or you’ll die," he told reporters at a press conference.

Cumberbatch added: “If we do anything right with this film, it is to bring Alan to a broader audience.

"There’s a lot of his story that comes as a real shock to people.

"There was something subtle, uncompromising and unusual [about him], but also very quiet and stoic," he explained.

"He didn’t knowingly martyr himself. He didn’t see himself as a victim or a hero, he just did his work and behaved true to his nature."

The Imitation Game was shown at the festival a couple of days after The Theory of Everything, a biopic about physicist Stephen Hawking, starring another Briton, Eddie Redmayne.

Both Cumberbatch and Redmayne have been praised for their respective performances, with the suggestion of probable Oscar nominations.

But the Sherlock star dismissed the notion that the two films are competitors.

"I don’t like thinking of films being in competition with each other," he said.

"It’s absurd. As long as they’re both able to find an audience, it’s not a problem."

The actor admitted he had not seen Redmayne’s film yet, but had high praise for the star.

“He’s a phenomenal actor – he’s been a friend, but also a talent I’ve admired for a long time.

“I’ve always thought he was brilliant and the rest of the world is catching up. I hear it’s just stunning, I can’t wait [to see it].”

The Imitation Game will open at the London Film Festival next month and will be released in UK cinemas on 14 November.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-29137930

Structure of the lead

How- he became obsessed with the British code breaker after reading the script

Who- Alan Turing

Key words

biopic 傳記片

obsessed 癡迷

decrypt解碼

overshadowed 黯然失色

castrated 閹割

subtle 微妙

stoic 堅忍

martyr 烈士

nomination 提名

Taoyuan blaze

6 firefighters perish in Taoyuan blaze

By Amy Chyan, The China Post January 21, 2015, 12:07 am TWN

Six young firefighters perished in the line of duty in the early hours of yesterday morning while trying to fight a blaze at a bowling alley located in Taoyuan's Xinwu District.

Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) held a meeting in response to the Xinwu fire, and said he estimated that each deceased fireman's family will be receiving a NT$19 million pension.

Responding to the bowling alley's architectural, operational and land use violations, Cheng said that a heavy punishment will be meted out. In addition, Cheng promised to tear down all of the city's illegal structures to avoid future public safety disasters.

The Taoyuan City Government has created an emergency group to help families with funeral plans.

Families of the deceased arrived on the scene with Buddhist priests to summon the souls of the firemen in a spiritual ceremony.

Second Floor Culprit

Built from metal sheets and wooden beams, the three-story bowling alley experienced a powerful explosion after the fire was subdued. The unexpected explosion trapped the firemen, which led to their deaths.

Initial investigations concluded that the fire started on the second floor, with the source of the blaze thought to be the transformer box.

Two brothers, surnamed Liu, who owned the business escaped the fire uninjured. The 52-year-old elder brother was a volunteer firefighter and helped combat the deadly blaze.

The Liu brothers were summoned by police for interrogation and have agreed to cooperate with the prosecutors' investigation.

Timeline of Fire

Citizens informed firefighters of the overwhelming blaze at the Xinwu bowling alley at 2:02 a.m. The Taoyuan Fire Department sent out 99 fire and police personnel to the scene.

The fire was under control by 2:29 a.m. though half an hour later, disaster struck as an explosion trapped members of the firefighting crew after the second floor once again burst into flames.

By 3:46 a.m., six firemen were confirmed to be missing.

The six firemen who died are 26-year-old Chen Feng-hsiang (陳鳳翔), 22-year-old Chen Yen-ming (陳彥茗), 21-year-old Tsai Chang-jung (蔡長融), 22-year-old Chang Kuei-chang (張桂彰), 27-year-old Tseng Chung-jen (曾重仁) and the eldest of the group Hsieh Chun-chieh (謝君杰) who was 29 years old.

After receiving news that their colleagues had died in the fire, remaining fire department personal on scene mourned by calling out “Mission's complete, time to go home,” as a gesture of respect.

DNA Testing To Confirm Identity

Family members of the late firemen arrived to the hospital heartbroken and inconsolable.

Taoyuan General Hospital Sinwu Branch's (桃園醫院新屋分院) Superintendent Chen Rui-chang (陳瑞昌) confirmed that the six men arrived at the hospital with no vital signs.

According to prosecutors, the bodies of the firemen are unrecognizable from the fire and their identities will have to be confirmed through DNA testing as well as the matching of uniforms and protective gear.

Source:http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/local/taoyuan/2015/01/21/427026/p1/6-firefighters.htm

Structure of the lead

What- blaze happened

When- 2015/01/20

Where- Taoyuan, Taiwan

How- operational and land use violations

Key words

perished 使死亡

deceased 死者

violations違規

tear down拆除

subdued制服

Taliban kill 132 at school in Pakistan

ATROCITY: The victims were mostly schoolchildren, in the deadliest terror attack in the country since at least 2007, in what Islamabad has called ‘a decisive moment’

Taliban militants killed dozens of children in an attack on an army-run school in Peshawar, Pakistan, that has left 132 people dead so far, the country’s deadliest terrorist attack since at least 2007.

Two attackers were holding 40 teachers and 20 students hostage, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province Minister of Information Mushtaq Ghani said by telephone before a military source announced that a nine-hour Pakistani Army operation to retake the school was complete

All nine attackers were reportedly killed, the source said.

Four attackers blew themselves up and another was shot dead by soldiers, he said.

The strike is the worst since the army began an offensive against Taliban insurgents near the Afghan border earlier this year.

The military is expected to want to hit back hard as the Taliban looks for more so-called “soft targets,” such as shopping centers and restaurants affiliated with the armed forces, according to Omar Hamid, head of Asia-Pacific country risk at IHS Inc.

“A lot of the kids that go to this school would have parents in the army who are taking part in the operation,” Hamid said by telephone from London. “It’s an attempt to bring the conflict into the homes of the military, especially in Peshawar.”

The dead included 123 male students, as well as nine staff members, including a female teacher, Peshawar government spokesman Feroze Shah said by telephone.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the Express Tribune, citing Taliban spokesman Mohammed Khorasani.

The attack was in retaliation for the military’s operation in North Waziristan and Khyber tribal agency, it said.

“This is a decisive moment in the fight against terrorism,” Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told reporters in televised remarks from Peshawar. “The people of Pakistan should unite in this fight. Our resolve will not be weakened by these attacks.”

Terrorism has killed more than 50,000 people in Pakistan since 2001 and complicated efforts to revive South Asia’s second-biggest economy.

Yesterday’s strike is the deadliest on a school since a 2004 assault by Islamic militants in Russia, according to Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore.

About 350 people died then in Beslan, North Ossetia, half of them children.

It also came a day after a self-proclaimed Islamic cleric from Iran held 17 hostages at a Sydney cafe for 16 hours. He died along with two hostages.

“Due to the momentum of events in Syria and Iraq, the number of groups in Pakistan have become more galvanized,” Gunaratna said. “You can see a trend toward hostage-taking and barricade-type situations. It’s a very serious situation.”

The prime minister and Pakistani Army Chief Raheel Sharif both flew to the site of the attack yesterday, according to news reports.

The US embassy condemned the attack.

Television images showed armored vehicles rolling into the area near the school building as soldiers leaped out of vans. Mothers were shown running toward the gate of the school and crying inside the hospital.

Pakistan’s benchmark KSE100 Index fell 2.6 percent, the most in four months. Oil and Gas Development Co., the nation’s biggest explorer, fell by the limit of 5 percent, the most in three years.

Pakistan’s military started a ground offensive in June to flush out militants from North Waziristan, a tribal region on the Afghan border the US has called the “epicenter” of terrorism.

That came after successive Taliban attacks on a Pakistan International Airlines Corp flight and Karachi’s international airport.

After the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001, North Waziristan became a safe haven for foreign militants like Uzbeks and Turks who fought alongside the fallen Taliban regime.

In 2007, militant groups in the area united to form the Tehrik-e- Taliban Pakistan, which went on an offensive toward Islamabad.

Additional reporting by Reuters

Source: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2014/12/17/2003606919/2

Structure of the lead

What- 132students were killed

Where- at school in Pakistan

Who- Taliban

When- 2014/12/16

Why- in retaliation for the military’s operation

Key words

retake 奪回

insurgents 叛亂份子

affiliated 附屬

decisive 果斷

Ting Hsin, cooking oil

Ting Hsin food firm boss charged over tainted cooking oil

The head of a lard supplier in Taiwan was formally charged yesterday with deliberately selling adulterated cooking oil.

The indictment of Wei Ying-chun, one of four brothers who run the Ting Hsin International Group, was delivered by the Taipei District Prosecutors Office. Charges include fraud and forgery.

Wei was already in custody in Chunghua county in the centre of the island on a charge linked to a cooking oil scandal implicating another subsidiary of the group.

It has been accused of using oil meant for animal feed in its products.

Another subsidiary of the firm, Wei Chuan Foods Corp, Taiwan's second-largest food manufacturer, was found to have sold food products made with gutter oil, a potentially harmful mixture of waste oil recycled from restaurant fryers and slaughterhouse byproducts.

Bowing to public pressure, Wei had resigned from his positions as chairman of three of the group's subsidiaries.

Ting Hsin has said it will shut down its oil manufacturing business in Taiwan.

It will also donate NT$3 billion (HK$765 million) to the government or government-designated foundations to help restore the reputation of Taiwan's food industry.

Critics described the move as a token gesture aimed at propping up its business across the strait.

Its oil manufacturing operations in Taiwan generated only US$65 million last year, about 0.08 per cent of the group's revenues. The firm's food business on the mainland generated US$10 billion.

President Ma Ying-jeou, who has declared the contaminated cooking oil scandal a national security issue, said the food industry might lose NT$16 billion following a series of food safety fiascos.

Lard supplier Chang Guann was fined NT$50 million last month for selling a product containing gutter oil as cooking oil. Several firms were also found last year to have illegally added colouring agents to cooking oil, or blended olive oil with cheaper products such as cottonseed oil and sold it as pure olive oil.

Source:http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1621238/billionaire-chief-lard-firm-charged-fraud-over-taiwan-tainted-oil-scandal

Structure of the Lead

Who- Wei Ying-chun, who run the Ting Hsin International Group

Why- selling adulterated cooking oil

How- resigned from his positions as chairman

Key Words

1. deliberately 故意

2. adulterate 摻雜

3. indictment 起訴書

4. fraud 詐欺

5. forgery 偽造罪

6. subsidiary 附加物

week7- Canada parliament shooting

Canada raises ‘terrorism’ alert after soldier’s death

CLEAR THREAT: The country’s public safety minister said the assailant struck two soldiers with his car in a deliberate attack ‘clearly linked to terrorist ideology’

AFP, OTTAWA

Canada raised its national “terrorism” alert on Tuesday, officials said, after a soldier run over by a suspected militant died in hospital.

The alert level was raised from low to medium after authorities said a man they believed to be “radicalized” struck two officers with his car on Monday, but authorities said the heightened alert was not “the result of a specific threat.”

“This level means that intelligence has indicated that an individual or group within Canada or abroad has the intent and capability to commit an act of terrorism,” Canadian Ministry of Public Safety spokesman Jean-Christophe de le Rue said.

The assailant in Monday’s attack was identified as 25-year-old Martin Couture-Rouleau, who was briefly detained at a Canadian airport in July last year when he sought to fly to Turkey, federal police said. Police did not have enough evidence to charge him with seeking to join a terrorist group abroad and released him.

Couture-Rouleau was fatally shot by police after he struck two soldiers with his car in a Quebec parking lot — a scenario which had been depicted only last month in Islamic State (IS) propaganda.

At a press conference, Canadian Minister of Public Safety Steven Blaney said the deliberate attack was “clearly linked to terrorist ideology.”

“I am horrified by what took place here,” he said. “This is a terrible act of violence against our country, against our military, against our values.”

The attack took place as Canadian warplanes headed to bomb Islamic State militants in Iraq.

Canadian Minister of Defense Rob Nicholson said the soldier’s death “in a senseless act such as this only strengthens our resolve” to take on militant groups such as IS.

Couture-Rouleau smashed his car into the two soldiers in a supermarket parking lot before fleeing with police in pursuit.

He called 911 to tell emergency workers about the attack as it was happening. Police said he then crashed his car into a roadside ditch and rolled it over. When he extricated himself from the wreckage brandishing a knife, officers shot him.

The slain soldier had been admitted in critical condition to a hospital in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, 40km southeast of Montreal. At 53 years old, he had served most of his adult life in the military.

Officials said the injuries to the other soldier were not life-threatening.

The motive behind the attack is still being investigated.

Quebec police said Couture-Rouleau may have stalked his victims, waiting for them in his car for more than two hours.

They said the “terrorist thesis [was] being considered by investigators.”

Source: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2014/10/23/2003602739

Structure of the lead

What- a man struck two officers

Where- in a Quebec parking lot

When- on October 22nd

Who- 25-year-old Martin Couture-Rouleau

How- with his car

Key words

assailant 攻擊者

deliberate 故意的

militant 激進

radicalized 激進

scenario 腳本

ditch 溝渠

extricated 擺脫

week6- actor, drug arrested

Jackie Chan's son Jaycee in drug arrest

The son of Hollywood actor Jackie Chan has been arrested on drug-related charges, Chinese state media say.

Actor Jaycee Chan, 31, and Taiwanese movie star Kai Ko, 23, were detained last Thursday, Beijing police said in a statement on their official microblog.

Police said both men tested positive for marijuana, with more than 100 grams of the drug found at Mr Chan's home.

Their arrest comes amid an ongoing crackdown on drugs which has already netted several celebrity figures.

Gao Hu, 40, who appeared in the 2011 Zhang Yimou film "The Flowers of War", was detained earlier this month for possession of marijuana and methamphetamines, state media said.

'Huge influence'

In June, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for "forceful measures" to tackle illegal drug use.

By arresting the son of one of the country's most famous actors, the Chinese authorities are sending a clear sign that drugs will not be tolerated, reports the BBC's Martin Patience in Beijing.

A government anti-drug advisor told the Associated Press news agency that Chinese celebrities were being targeted because of the "huge influence" their behaviour had on "their large numbers of fans".

Beijing Municipal Anti-Drug Office deputy director Jin Zhihai however, said that police were not specifically targeting celebrities.

"If there is an increased crackdown on drugs, the number of celebrity offenders will also rise," he told the Beijing Times on 14 August.

Last week, 42 artist management agencies in Beijing signed an agreement with police pledging not to recruit celebrities with reported drug use problems.

'Very big mistake'

Mr Chan, whose father Jackie was named an official "Narcotics Control Ambassador" by Chinese police in 2009, had been put under "criminal detention" for the suspected crime of "providing a shelter for others to abuse drugs", Beijing police said.

If convicted, he faces a maximum prison term of three years.

Mr Ko, a Taiwanese actor and singer, won the best new actor award in 2011 at the Golden Horse film awards - known as the Oscars of the Chinese-language film industry. He also won a Chinese Film Media award for his role in the movie "You Are the Apple of My Eye".

Accused of consuming drugs, Mr Ko had received a two-week detention term, his management firm Star Ritz Productions said.

"I feel very regretful, very sorry to all the people who support me. I've been a very bad example, I've made a very big mistake," he said in an interview broadcast on Chinese state television on Tuesday.

Beijing police also said two other people, a 36-year-old assistant and a 33-year-old suspected dealer, were detained in the incident.

Mr Chan's management firm M'Stones International apologised on his behalf for the "social impact" caused and said they would "supervise his rehabilitation and help him return to the right path".

His father Jackie has not yet commented on the incident but his publicist told the Associated Press news agency that Mr Chan had travelled to Beijing to deal with his son's arrest.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-28848199

Structure of the lead

What- Actor Jaycee Chan, 31, and Taiwanese movie star Kai Ko, 23, were detained.

When- 2014/08/14

Where- at Chen’s house

Key words

1.      marijuana 大麻

2.      ongoing 不斷的

3.      methamphetamines 甲基苯丙胺

4.      target 矛頭指向

5.      recruit 招收

Week-5 Kaohsiung gas explosions

Kaohsiung rocked by underground blasts

SEARCH AND RESCUE: As city officials and companies sought the cause of the series of explosions that claimed 26 lives, teams searched the rubble for survivors

By Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

A series of suspected gas explosions that shook Greater Kaohsiung from late Thursday night to early yesterday morning claimed at least 26 lives and injured 269 people.

The blasts tore through the city’s roads and dug a 100m trench up to 1.8m deep. At least 1.5km of roadways were damaged.

Cars and fire trucks were trapped and overturned in the rubble. Vehicles were hurled through the air, landing on the roofs of houses. Flames erupted from manholes after their covers were blasted off, with gouts of fire reaching 15 stories high.

According to the Greater Kaohsiung Government, at 8:46pm on Thursday it received reports of manholes spewing white smoke and the suspected smell of gas near Kaisyuan 3rd Road and Ersheng 1st Road in Cianjhen District (前鎮). A few hours after the first report, a series of explosions took place on Yisin Road, Ersheng Road, Sanduo Road and Guanghua Road in the same district, and in neighboring Lingya District (苓雅).

At press time, city government information showed that the incident had claimed 26 lives and injured 269. Among the 26 confirmed dead were three firefighters and one volunteer who rushed to the scene after residents smelled gas. Rescuers were also searching for two others who went missing.

At 8:30pm yesterday, two people were reportedly discovered alive under debris, and rescue workers were trying to free them using excavators, shovels and their bare hands. It has not been confirmed whether the two men are the two firefighters who were reported missing.

Some of the fatalities were homeowners checking out their properties after being informed about the first blasts.

Two injured people rescued from a fourth-floor balcony said that they had been propelled to the rooftop by the blasts.

The Chinese-language Apple Daily newspaper’s reporter Wei Bin (魏斌) was injured by the explosions, receiving second and third-degree burns over about 50 percent of his body, the paper reported.

Schools and work were called off in Cianjhen and Lingya districts yesterday.

Hundreds of troops and firefighters from neighboring Greater Tainan, Chiayi City, Taitung County and Pingtung County were deployed to support the rescue effort.

Yesterday morning, fires still burned on the streets, but the local government said that they were left burning to avoid further explosions, adding that the firefighting crew was on the scene to keep the fire from consuming nearby buildings.

The cause of the explosions had not been determined, with authorities now focusing on the volatile chemical propene — which is carried in pipelines that run alongside the city’s underground sewage system in the area — as the suspected cause.

Chemical companies such as CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油), China Petrochemical Development Corp (中石化), China General Terminal and Distribution Corp (CGTD, 華運), LCY Chemical Corp (李長榮化學) and Hsin Kao Gas Co Ltd (欣高), which have pipelines in the area, were called in by the city government’s emergency response center amid the inquiry into the cause of the fatal blasts.

Minister of Economic Affairs Chang Chia-juch (張家祝) said yesterday morning that natural gas has been excluded from the list of possible causes, adding that gas check valves in the area have been closed.

The Greater Kaohsiung Government said a 4-inch pipeline carrying propene was found to have encountered a pressure anomaly between 8:40pm and 9pm on Thursday night.

Greater Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Lee Yung-te (李永得) said CGTD Corp was attempting to transfer propene, a compressed fuel gas, from the seaport to LCY Chemical Corp, and the correspondence between the workers of the two companies showed that the effort failed. It was suspected that the gas had leaked during the transfer process, causing the explosions.

Greater Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), at a meeting with Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) at the city’s emergency response command center, said that Cianjhen District had seen another gas explosion that had caused serious damage in 1997 and called on the central government and the Industrial Development Bureau to examine and overhaul the city’s pipeline network.

Life detectors and rescue dogs have been employed in the rescue operation, as well as helicopters searching for signs of life within what is known as the “golden 72 hours,” during which most survivors are found.

Additional reporting by Huang Wen-huang and Wu Chun-feng

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2014/08/02/2003596471/2

Key Words

1. propene 丙烯

2. suspected 嫌疑

3. blast 爆破

4. trench 溝

5. spew 噴

6. excavator 挖掘機

7. exclude 排除

8. pipeline 管道

Structure of the lead

What- gas explosions

Where- Greater Kaohsiung, Taiwan

When- 2014/07/31-2014/08/01

Why- propene released