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. 

Week 4 - Israel Gaza Conflic

Israel, Palestinians begin new talks to solve Gaza conflict

Reuters, GAZA and JERUSALEM

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators yesterday resumed indirect talks mediated by Egypt and aimed at ending a month-old Gaza war, Egyptian state news agency MENA said, after a new 72-hour truce between the warring sides appeared to be holding.

The Israeli military said one rocket was launched toward Tel Aviv before the ceasefire began at 9pm on Sunday and may have landed in the sea. Hamas said it fired the missile.

A senior Israeli official said on Sunday that Israeli negotiators, who left Cairo on Friday last week hours before a previous three-day ceasefire expired, would return to Egypt to resume the talks only if the new truce held.

Hamas is demanding an end to Israeli and Egyptian blockades of the Gaza Strip and the opening of a seaport in the enclave, a project Israel says should be dealt with only in any future talks on a permanent peace deal with the Palestinians.

A month of fighting between Hamas and Jerusalem has killed 1,938 Palestinians and 67 Israelis, while devastating wide tracts of the densely populated strip. Gaza hospital officials say the Palestinian death toll has been mainly civilian since the July 8 launch of Israel’s military campaign to quell Hamas’ rocket fire, with the heavy civilian losses and destruction of thousands of homes drawing international condemnation.

Israel has lost 64 soldiers and three civilians.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the new talks would be “the last chance” for a deal. Israeli representatives are not meeting face-to-face with the Palestinian delegation because it includes Hamas, which Jerusalem regards as a terrorist organization.

Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Yuval Steinitz said in a radio interview yesterday that disarming Gaza militants was crucial to sustain a long-term truce and he hoped this could be done by diplomacy rather than force.

“If there will not be a diplomatic solution, I am convinced that sooner or later we will have to opt for a military solution of taking temporary control of Gaza to demilitarize it again,” he told Israel Radio.

In Gaza, shops began to open and traffic was normal as some displaced families returned to the homes they fled during Israeli attacks, expressing hopes that this truce would last after a series of failed ceasefires.

“God knows if it is permanent,” Abu Salama, a resident of Gaza’s Shejaia District, said as he and his family headed home on a donkey cart. “A truce, no truce — it is becoming like Tom and Jerry. We want a solution.”

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2014/08/12/2003597220

Who:Israeli and Palestinian
When:yesterday
What::aimed at ending a month-old Gaza war.Why: Egyptian state news agency MENA said, after a new 72-hour truce between the warring sides appeared to be holding.

Key Words:
1. negotiator 談判
2. aim at 針對
3. truce 休戰
4. ceasefire 停火
5. blockades 封鎖
6. diplomatic 外交
7. demilitarize 非軍事化
8. campaign 運動

Week 3 - University of California Santa Barbara Elliot Rodger

Santa Barbara Rampage Killer Identified as the Son of Hunger Games' Assistant Director

BY MICHAEL FLEEMAN

 

UPDATED 05/24/2014 at 09:05 PM EDT 

•ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED05/24/2014 02:45PM

The man suspected of killing six people in a rampage near the University of California, Santa Barbara, before also dying of a gunshot wound was identified as Elliot Rodger, the son of an assistant director on The Hunger Games, according to a family attorney. 

"The Rodger family offers our deepest compassion and sympathies to the families involved in this terrible tragedy," the family said in a statement issued through their lawyer, Alan Shifman. "We are experiencing the most inconceivable pain and our hearts go out to everyone involved." 
According to Sheriff Bill Brown, Rodger stabbed three males in his apartment before taking to the streets in a BMW, fatally shooting two female university students in front of a sorority and a third male student inside a deli. Rodger also hit two bicyclists with his car and seriously injured others with gunfire before the BMW came to a crashing halt. 
After a shootout with deputies, the 22-year-old was found dead with a gunshot to the head, apparently self-inflicted. 
Parents Voiced Concern
"There was an incident probably a year and a half ago where he was – he fell from a balcony at a party or was thrown off of it," says Shifman. "I think he was probably a victim, from my understanding, of bullying throughout his life. ... I'm sure that had played a role in the terrible consequences from last night." 
His parents had become concerned about him in recent weeks and had reported Rodger's disturbing YouTube videos to police, says Shifman, who represents Rodger's father, Peter Rodger, a second unit director on the 2012 blockbuster. Peter Rodger also wrote and directed Oh My God, a 2009 documentary in which celebrities including Hugh Jackman and Seal ponder the question, "What is God?" 
Contacted by Police on April 30
The deputies found Rodger "shy" and "timid" as the man spoke of his personal problems, telling them he had difficulties with his social life and wasn't planning to return to school next year, says Brown. 
Rodger's final video was posted to YouTube hours before the rampage, promising "retribution" against women, whom he blamed for his "loneliness, rejection and unfulfilled desires." In the six-minute clip, he sits in his car and complains women had left him a frustrated 22-year-old virgin. 
"Girls gave their affection and sex and love to other men, but never to me," Rodger states. 
"It's an injustice ... I'm the perfect guy, and yet you throw yourselves at all these obnoxious men instead of me, the supreme gentleman." 

Rodger had struggled to make friends, the family's lawyer tells ABC. 
Elliot Rodger was a student at Santa Barbara City College, living in an apartment near the University of California campus. At the request of concerned relatives, deputies made a "welfare call" on him April 30 but "determined he did not meet the criteria for an involuntary mental health hold," Sheriff Brown told a news conference Saturday evening. 
http://www.people.com/article/elliott-rodger-santa-barbara-gunman-hunger-games-assistant-director-son

who:Elliot Rodger
when: not given
where:near the University of California, Santa Barbara
why:The man suspected of killing six people in a rampage
what:killing six people
how: not given

Key Words :
1. suspected 嫌疑2.  assistant director 副導演3. attorney 律師
4. statement 聲明
5. inconceivable 不可思議
6. deli 熟食店
7. rampage 亂鬧
8. virgin 處女
9. injustice 不公平

Week2 - World Cup, 2014. Brazil.German

Germany is World Cup champion 2014

Argentina defeated 1-0

Sunday, July 13, 2014 | 4:33 PM

KINGSTON, Jamaica —Germany claimed their fourth World Cup win defeating Argentina 1-0 in the 2014 final at the Maracana in Brazil on Sunday.

Argentina defied the Germans for 90 minutes regulation time and into the second half of extra time.

But with seven minutes left before penalty kicks Mario Goetze slipped behind the Argentina defence to smash into the far corner.

Centuries ago Spain and Portugal conquered South America leaving their language behind. Now it’s the turn of the Germans and they are leaving with the World Cup.

The Germans demolished the hosts Brazil 7-1 in the semi final before returning to take a hard fought final.

Germany enjoyed the majority of possession in the first half and came close to scoring in the dying moments but the score ended 0—0 as the teams battled for supremacy.

In an evenly contested affair both teams had their moments.

In the fourth minute Argentina’s Gonzalo Higuain sent a chance wide to the relief of the Germans.

The Argentines also hit the back of the net midway the half but the celebrations were cut short by the assistant referee’s offside flag.

The ding-dong battle continued in the second half with neither team able to take control of the game and break the stalemate.

In the opening minutes of extra time goalkeeper Sergio Romero saved Argentina, blocking a powerhouse from inside the area before the ball was scrambled to safety.

After Germany's goal Argentina threw everything into attack but it was not to be for Lionel Messi and his team.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Germany-are-World-Cup-champions-2014

Who : Germany

When : 2014 

What : Germany claimed their fourth World Cup win defeating Argentina 1-0.

Why :  not given

Where :  at the Maracana in Brazil

How : not given

Keywords :
1.  claim 聲稱
2. defy 無視
3. regulation 規定
4. smash into 分碎
5. demolished 拆除
6. supremacy 霸權
7. referee 裁判
8. stalemate 僵持

Week 1 - Malala

Malala Yousafzai

TFK 2013 Person of the Year Nominee

DECEMBER 05, 2013

By TFK Staff

PAUL ELLIS—AFP/GETTYIMAGES

Malala Yousafzai is only 16, but she has been fighting for girls’ education for years. When she was 11, she started blogging about the Taliban takeover of her hometown of Mingora, in northwestern Pakistan. Taliban members follow an extreme version of Islam. They believe girls should not go to school.

For several months, Malala’s school and hundreds of others in the district of Swat were closed. Malala spoke publicly about her desire to go to school. “All I want is an education,” she told one television broadcaster.

When the Pakistani government regained control, Malala was able to return to class. But she continued to speak out about girls’ right to education. On October 9, 2012, the Taliban tried to silence her. A gunman boarded her school bus and shot her on the left side of her forehead. But Malala survived, showing great courage and optimism during her long recovery. During this time, Malala became a symbol of the struggle for girls’ rights all over the world.

This year, Malala became the youngest person ever to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. She also released her memoir, I Am Malala, which tells the story of her life before and after the gunshot that nearly killed her. Her book inspired a course at George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. The curriculum focuses on political activism and the importance of education for girls. "It will encourage students to get engaged in the communities and to help the Malala Fund directly," said Mary Ellsberg, director of the university's Global Women's Institute.

Malala is now a student in Birmingham, England. She continues to give a voice to the millions of children around the world who do not have the opportunity to go to school.

For courageously standing up for girls’ right to education and giving a voice to the voiceless, Malala Yousafzai is a nominee for TFK’s 2013 Person of the Year.

http://www.timeforkids.com/news/malala-yousafzai/133566

Who : Malala Yousafzai

When : she was 11

What : Taliban members follow an extreme version of Islam. They believe girls should not go to school.

Why : Malala spoke publicly about her desire to go to school. 

Where : Mingora, in northwestern Pakistan

How : not given 

Keywords :

1.district : 地區
2.broadcaster :電視台3.silence ; 壓制4.optimism ; 樂觀5.struggle ; 爭取 6.nominate ; 提名7.curriculum ; 課程8.political ; 政治的9.Institute ; 協會10.nominee ; 被提名人