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