Week4-American Sniper Chris Kyle

‘American Sniper’ killer given life

QUICK VERDICT:A Texas jury reached its unanimous decision in less than three hours. Eddie Ray Routh was sentenced to prison without possibility of parole

AFP, WASHINGTON

A former Marine on Tuesday was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted of murdering the US Navy SEAL whose story inspired the blockbuster movie American Sniper.

After deliberating less than three hours, jurors unanimously rejected claims from Eddie Ray Routh, 27, that he was not guilty by way of insanity when he killed famed sniper Chris Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield at a Texas shooting range in February 2013.

The two-week trial in Erath County, about 160km southwest of Dallas, attracted massive media attention across the US, coinciding with the release of Clint Eastwood’s movie based on Kyle’s experiences in Iraq.

The jury of two men and 10 women found Routh guilty with a unanimous vote.

Erath County District Court Judge Jason Cason sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. It was a capital case, but prosecutors took the death penalty off the table before the trial started, the Washington Post reported.

Kyle and Littlefield were killed after Routh’s mother asked the Navy SEAL veteran to help her son with post-traumatic stress disorder, the said.

They picked him up in Kyle’s pickup truck the day of the killings with plans to enjoy the shared hobby of shooting and offer some ways to help.

Kyle, a father of two, was shot six times with one of his own .45-caliber pistols, including a wound to the back that pierced his aorta and another to the jaw that caused a lethal spinal cord injury, the Post said.

Littlefield, a father of one, was hit seven times, including four that would have been instantly fatal, according to court testimony.

Judy Littlefield, Chad’s mother, made a brief statement after the verdict.

“We have waited two years for God to give us justice on behalf of our son, and God has proved to be faithful,” she said. “We are so thrilled that we have the verdict that we have.”

Kyle, officially credited with killing 160 people during four military tours, was lionized in the blockbuster film starring Bradley Cooper as the soldier.

Routh’s attorneys pleaded insanity and said their client was gripped by psychosis. Routh said he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

After the shootings on Feb. 2, 2013, Routh took Kyle’s truck and was later arrested at the home of his sister.

He allegedly confessed to the killings after complaining that “people were sucking his soul and that he could smell the pigs.”

During the trial, jurors heard how Kyle and Littlefield knew something was badly wrong minutes before Routh opened fire.

“This dude is straight up nuts,” Kyle wrote to Littlefield in an alarmed text message.

“He’s right behind me, watch my six,” replied his friend, using military jargon for “watch my back.”

It is not clear how much Kyle and Littlefield knew about Routh’s mental instability.

Routh, who had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress, had been released from psychiatric treatment about a week before meeting Kyle and Littlefield for the first and last time, the Post said.

Jurors also heard emotional testimony from Kyle’s widow, Taya, who sobbed as she recounted their life together.

Lawyers had questioned whether Routh could receive a fair trial in the small town, given the success of American Sniper and the widely held view of Kyle as a hero.

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http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2015/02/26/2003612302

Who:Chris Kyle
when: on Tuesday
why: was sentenced to life in prison without parole being convicted of murdering the US Navy SEAL whose story inspired the blockbuster movie American Sniper

key words
1. parole 言語
2. deliberating 審議
3. unanimously 一致
4. insanity 瘋狂
5. possibility 可能性
6. verdict 判決書
7. prosecutor 原告
8. post-traumatic 創傷後
9. attorney 律師
10.  jargon 行話
11. juror 陪審員
12.  psychiatric 精神病
13.  testimony 證詞
14. sob 哭泣

Week3-shanghai new year stampede

New Year's stampede in Shanghai: 36 dead, 43 injured

Michael Winter, USA TODAY9:19 a.m. EST January 1, 2015

New Year's revelers jammed along Shanghai's historic riverfront stampeded about a half hour before midnight Wednesday, killing at least 36 people and injuring 47 others, Chinese media reported.

City officials said they had not yet determined what triggered the stampede about 11:35 p.m. in Chen Yi Square on the Bund, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported early Thursday. Many of the dead and injured were students.

A brief report on Xinhua's English-language site said celebrations "went astray" and "a stampede resulted in casualties."

A witness said people had scrambled to grab coupons resembling U.S. dollar bills that were being thrown from a third-floor window near the Bund.

It is the worst disaster in Shanghai in recent years.

The English-language Shanghai Daily noted that the stampede occurred near where a New Year countdown show was being held in the Bund Origin, a relatively enclosed area. Last week, officials canceled the scheduled 3-D laser show in an open area of the Bund because of crowd concerns.

Nearly 300,000 turned out for last year's laser show. Authorities relocated the New Year celebration to the smaller area and limited attendance to 2,000 invitation-only guests. The local government had said the show was relocated "to improve traffic flow."

The Bund — meaning embankment — runs along the Huangpu River and features buildings from the city's pre-revolution heyday, when it was a financial center for Asia.

Video from CCTV America, the U.S. version of state broadcaster China Central Television, showed piles of shoes amid the debris. Photographs showed bodies lying on the streets and attempts to revive victims.

Reuters reported that by dawn, workers were cleaning trash around the Bund and that there "was little sign of the mayhem that had broken out just hours earlier."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/12/31/shanghai-stampede-china-new-years/21119715/

Where:ShanghaiWHEN:about a half hour before midnight Wednesday
What:stampeded,killing at least 36 people and injuring 47 others

KEY WORDS
1. revelers 狂歡
2. riverfront 河濱
3. triggered 引發
4. astray 走錯
5. embankment 堤
6. heyday 極盛

Week2 -taliban pakistan peshawar school kill

Taliban storm Pakistan school, kill 130

By Saad Khan ,AFP
December 17, 2014, 12:00 am TWN
PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Taliban insurgents killed at least 130 people, most of them children, after storming an army-run school on Tuesday in one of Pakistan's bloodiest ever attacks.

Witnesses described how a huge blast shook the Army Public School in the northwestern city of Peshawar and six gunmen in government paramilitary uniforms went from classroom to classroom shooting children, some as young as 12.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the second deadliest terror attack in the country's recent history, calling it revenge for a major military offensive in the region.

A teenage survivor described how he played dead to escape the militants as they rampaged through the school, hunting for people to kill.

Shahrukh Khan, 16, said he and his classmates ducked below their desks when four gunmen burst into their room.

“I saw a pair of big black boots coming towards me, this guy was probably hunting for students hiding beneath the benches,” Khan told AFP from the trauma ward of the city's Lady Reading Hospital

Khan decided to play dead after being shot in both legs, stuffing his tie into his mouth to stifle his screams.

“The man with big boots kept on looking for students and pumping bullets into their bodies. I lay as still as I could and closed my eyes, waiting to get shot again,” he said.

“My body was shivering. I saw death so close and I will never forget the black boots approaching me — I felt as though it was death that was approaching me.”

'What is their sin?'

The Lady Reading Hospital was thronged with distraught parents weeping uncontrollably as children's bodies arrived, their school uniforms drenched in blood.

Irshadah Bibi, 40, whose 12-year-old son was among the dead, beat her face in grief, throwing herself against an ambulance.

“O God, why did you snatch away my son? What is the sin of my child and all these children?” she wept.

Police officials said the attack ended around 6.30 p.m., some eight hours after it began, with all six militants dead.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/pakistan/2014/12/17/424261/Taliban-storm.htm


WHO: most of them children
where: PESHAWAR, Pakistan
WHY: Taliban insurgents killed at least 130 people
When:on Tuesday

KEY WORDS
1 insurgents 叛亂份子
2 paramilitary 準軍事
3 rampaged 橫衝直撞
4 ward 病房
5 stifle 窒息
6 distraught 發狂的
7 grief 哀思

Week1-ting hsin wei ying chung cooking tainted oil scandal

Cooking oil firm's boss appears in Taiwan court over food scandal

PUBLISHED : Friday, 17 October, 2014, 6:38pm

UPDATED : Saturday, 18 October, 2014, 12:24pm

A Taiwan court yesterday ordered the detention of the former head of Wei Chuan Food, a subsidiary of mainland-based Ting Hsin International Group, over his alleged role in a cooking oil scandal.

Wei Ying-chung, 57, one of four brothers of the Wei family that owns the group, was questioned by prosecutors on  Thursday for allegedly selling edible oil blended with products meant for animal feed.

He appeared in court yesterday for a hearing after prosecutors requested the court to place him in custody in preparation for an official indictment.

"We have decided to detain him for fear that he might collude with others to provide falsified accounts or flee abroad," a spokesman of the Changhua District Court in central Taiwan said.

The court also detained a manager of a factory owned by Ting Hsin Oil in Pingtung, southern Taiwan, for his alleged connection to the food scare.

Judicial officials said that during the hearing Wei denied all accusations, saying he had no idea why cooking oil supplied by Cheng I and Ting Hsin - two Taiwanese subsidiaries of Ting Hsin group - had been blended with substandard ingredients.

"But after we showed him some minutes of a meeting and papers signed by him, he was unable to explain why there were such records," one official said.

Both Cheng I and Ting Hsin were found to have bought substandard oil, including that meant for animal feed, in Taiwan, Vietnam and Hong Kong, and blended it with edible oil for resale in Taiwan and abroad, according to prosecutors and Food and Drug Administration.

Wei Chuan Food was also found to have used the tainted oil in various products, which, together with the tainted oil, were pulled from shelves by health authorities in the past week.

Wei was allegedly involved in another edible oil scandal in November that involved Wei Chuan Food buying low-priced cotton-seed oil containing copper chlorophyllin from a local oil supplier to sell as "pure" olive oil. That time Wei was questioned by prosecutors for suspected fraud, but was released on bail of NT$10 million (HK$2.6 million) with restrictions on leaving Taiwan.

Last week, Wei resigned as chairman of Wei Chuan as well as Cheng I and Ting Hsin.

Yesterday, Ting Hsin group announced its withdrawal from Taiwan's edible oil market.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1618539/wei-ying-chung-appears-court-cooking-oil-scandal

Where: Taiwan
Who:Ting Hsin
Why:A Taiwan court yesterday ordered the detention of the former head of Wei Chuan Food

Key Words
1.detention 拘留
2. ubsidiary 附屬請求
3. alleged 所謂的
4. prosecutors 檢察官
5. custody 保管
6. indictment 起訴書
7. collude 串通
8. accusations 指責
9. substandard 等外

Week 7 - Hong Kong occupy central

HK police to clear last Occupy Central site, bringing end to two-month protest
Mon, Dec 15, 2014 

Hong Kong police are scheduled to clear the last occupation site of the pro-democracy protests today, ending more than two months of road blockades in the territory that have disrupted traffic and sparked violent clashes between police and demonstrators.

Police plan to “exercise powers conferred by the law to remove the obstacles” in the popular shopping area of Causeway Bay, Police Chief Superintendent Steve Hui (許鎮德) said in a news conference yesterday. Police are scheduled to give a media briefing at about 9:30am today before proceeding, Hui said.

“I now urge the illegal road occupiers to remove the obstacles, take their personal belongings and leave the occupied area in a peaceful and orderly manner,” Hui said. “If the illegal road occupiers refuse to leave, police will take action to disperse them and may arrest those who attempt to obstruct officers in the execution of duty.”

The street protests began on Sept. 26 when student leaders stormed the premises of the government headquarters, and on Sept. 28 the protests involved as many as 100,000 people after police used tear gas in an attempt to disperse the demonstrators.

It became the biggest challenge to China’s rule over Hong Kong since it resumed sovereignty over the former British colony in 1997.

Demonstrators demanded that China reverse its decision to vet chief executive candidates in the 2017 elections through a nominating committee, a mechanism that the pro-democracy camps said would only select prospective leaders favored by Beijing.

The protest site in Causeway Bay has been the smallest since demonstrators started occupying key roads in the territory in late September.

Police removed the roadblocks in the main Admiralty district protest site near government offices with little interference on Thursday, after clearance of another site in Mong Kok resulted in some clashes in last month.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2014/12/15/2003606797

Where :Hong Kong
Why: ending more than two months of road blockades in the territory.How: disrupted traffic and sparked violent clashes between police and demonstrators.
Key words
1  pro-democracy 民運2  blockades 封鎖
3  conference 會議4  briefing 簡報5  proceeding 訴訟6  disperse 驅散7  execution 執行8  stormed 衝9  sovereignty 主權10 candidates 候選人

week 6 - ISIS-Iraq, IS(Islamic State)

Iraq crisis: what is the Islamic State?

Islamic State, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), has released a video in which it appears to execute kidnapped US journalist James Foley. The group has been making advances across Iraq and Syria since breaking away from al-Qaeda in 2013

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), also known as simply Islamic State, began life as an Iraqi franchise of al-Qaeda, a relatively minor force confined to fighting British and US troops in the areas around Baghdad.

The terrorist group, which released a video on Wednesday in which a British recruit appears to behead kidnapped US journalist James Foley, broke ties with al-Qaeda and rebranded as ISIS in April 2013.

ISIS then took advantage of the chaos caused by Syria's ongoing civil war to expand beyond Iraq's borders and recruit vast numbers of Syrian rebels.

IS, as it now calls itself, went on to a string of successful missions in March, wresting control of the Syrian city of Raqqa from Bashar al-Assad's army.

In January 2014 it took control of the Iraqi city of Fallujah, in the western province of Anbar, and made siginifcant gains in the provincial capital Ramadi. Then in June Baghdadi's fighters, by now swelled by thousands of new recruits, dealt a spectacular blow to Baghdad's Shiite-led government by taking control of Iraq's second city Mosul.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/10891387/Iraq-crisis-what-is-the-Islamic-State.html

What:has released a video in which it appears to execute kidnapped US journalist James Foley
When:in 2013Who:Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Where:Iraq

Key words:
1 execute 執行
2  franchise 專營權
3 recruit 招募
4 rebrand 更名
5 chaos 混亂
6 province 省
7 dealt 處理

Week 5 -Ebola West Africa

Ebola Death Toll Rises in West Africa

VOA News

April 23, 2014 10:52 AM

A medical relief worker at an Ebola treatment center in Guinea says new patients continue to be admitted on a daily basis.

Jonas Hagensen, of Doctors Without Borders, says many of the people receiving treatment at the center in Conakry know how they were exposed.

"A lot of the people who come into our centers, they actually know how they had been infected because they had been in close contact with a person that they know had had Ebola."

In a VOA interview, Hagensen said medical relief workers are concerned about people who may be showing symptoms of the deadly virus but are not receiving treatment.

"The concern is that the people who are sick, they actually get into the treatment center and that we make sure that we have all of their contacts. That is the difficult part, to get people who believe that they are sick and they know that they had contact with someone who had Ebola, that we can get the whole picture of all those people who had been in contact with that person. It is a huge, huge work and it is very, very demanding."

At least 142 deaths from Ebola have been reported in Guinea and Liberia since the outbreak erupted in the region in February. Health officials are also investigating confirmed or suspected cases in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The Ebola virus is spread by contact with bodily fluids. It causes symptoms that include vomiting, unstoppable bleeding and organ failure.

http://www.voanews.com/content/ebola-death-toll-rises-in-west-africa/1899430.html

Who:new patients 
Where:in West AfricaWhy:A medical relief worker at an Ebola treatment center in Guinea says new patients continue to be admitted

Key Words :
1. patient 病患
2. expose 暴露
3. symptom 症狀
4. bodily fluids 體液
5. confirmed 確認
6. vomiting 嘔吐
7. organ 器官
8.