Bangkok Bomb: 18 Dead As Blast Rocks Thailand

Lead:

When:Monday 17 August 2015
What:An explosion
Where:Bangkok
Who:Still unknown
Why:Still unknown
How:Not given

Content

At least 18 people have been killed after a bomb exploded in central Bangkok, emergency services have said.

Media in the Thai capital suggest the death toll could be as high as 27 and that four foreigners are among the dead.

The blast happened at 7pm (1pm UK time) near the Erawan Hindu shrine in the downtown Chidlom district - a shopping hub中心 popular among tourists.

At least 117 people have been wounded, some of whom have lost limbs枝幹.

CCTV footage showed a huge orange fireball as the bomb exploded and people fleeing down the street.

Witnesses described seeing bodies "shredded撕碎" in the street, while locals said the explosion sounded similar to a loud thunderclap雷聲.

Some reports suggest the bomb was inside the shrine, while others say it was on one of six motorcycles seen strewn散佈 across the street in the aftermath事件結束後的一段時間.

At least two Chinese and one Filipino are among the dead, local media have said.

There are no reports of British casualties傷亡人數.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: "We are in contact with local authorities following an explosion in Bangkok. At this time we have no reports of British nationals killed or injured but we are urgently seeking further information."

No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon said the bombers "targeted foreigners... to damage tourism and the economy".

"We will hunt them down," he added.

:: Analysis: Thai Bombs Try To 'Bend Country Out Of Shape'

Former Bangkok resident Lucinda-Jane Chastain, who was having cocktails in a hotel above the blast site, told Sky News: "The whole building shook. We all ran to the windows. It was quite hard to see what was happening but we could see debris殘骸 in the street.

"All we can see is a horrible mess on the road. This is at the very heart of Bangkok."

Details of the device are now starting to emerge.

Somyot Poompummuang, Thai national police chief, said: "The blast radius of the bomb is about 100 metres. The bomb experts say that the bomb weighed about 3kg."

Terrorism expert Joe Gyte told Sky News the bomb was "a TNT-based improvised explosive devise".

The US State Department said it was too soon to tell if the blast was a terrorist attack.

State spokesman John Kirby said authorities in Thailand were investigating and had not yet requested assistance from the US.

Deputy代理的 Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon told reporters: "We still don't know for sure who did this and why.

"We are not sure if it is politically motivated, but they aim to harm our economy and we will hunt them down."

The shrine sits at the Rajprasong intersection which has been the centre of many political demonstrations in recent years.

The army has ruled Thailand since May 2014, when it ousted逐出 an elected government after months of violent anti-government protests.

http://news.sky.com/story/1537096/bangkok-bomb-18-dead-as-blast-rocks-thailand

Pluto close-up: Spacecraft makes flyby of icy, mystery world

Lead:

What- Close to Planet Pluto

Where- NASA, Outer Space

When- July 14, 2015

Who- New Horizons spacecraft 

Why- Not given

How- Not given

Context:

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — We've made it to Pluto by NASA's calculations估計, the last stop on a planetary tour of the solar system a half-century in the making.

The moment of closest approach for the New Horizons spacecraft came at 7:49 a.m. EDT Tuesday, culminating達到最高點 a journey from planet Earth that spanned an incredible 3 billion miles and 9½bd} years.

Based on everything NASA knows, New Horizons was straight on course路線 for the historic encounter, sweeping within 7,800 miles of Pluto at 31,000 mph. But official confirmation確認 won't come until Tuesday night, 13 nerve-racking折磨 hours later. That's because NASA wants New Horizons taking pictures of Pluto, its jumbo特大的 moon Charon and its four little moons during this critical time, not gabbing空談 to Earth.

NASA marked the moment live on TV, broadcasting from flight operations in Maryland.

"This is truly a hallmark標誌 in human history," said John Grunsfeld, NASA's science mission chief.

"It's a moment of celebration," added principal scientist Alan Stern from Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, the spacecraft's developer and manager. "We've just done the anchor錨 leg, we have completed the initial reconnaissance偵查 of the solar system, an endeavor盡力 started under President Kennedy more than 50 years ago."

The United States is now the only nation to visit every single planet in the solar system. Pluto was No. 9 in the lineup when New Horizons departed啟程 Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Jan. 19, 2006, but was demoted降級 seven months later to dwarf矮小的 status. Scientists in charge of the $720 million mission, as well as NASA brass錢, hope the new observations will restore Pluto's honor.

"It's a huge morning, a huge day not just for NASA but for the United States," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said from NASA headquarters in Washington.

Inside "countdown central" at Johns Hopkins in Laurel, Maryland, hundreds jammed擠滿 together to share in the remaining final minutes, including the two children of the American astronomer天文學家 who discovered Pluto in 1930, Clyde Tombaugh. The actual flight control room was empty save for a worker sweeping up收拾乾淨; the spacecraft was preprogrammed預先設計程式 for the flyby飛越天體 and there was nothing anyone could do at this point but join in the celebration.

Stern led the festivity, joined on stage by his team and Tombaugh's two children.

The crowd waved U.S. flags and counted down from nine seconds, screaming, cheering and applauding. Chants of "USA!" broke out.

It takes 4½bd} hours for signals to travel one-way between New Horizons and flight controllers, the speed of light. The last time controllers heard from the spacecraft was Monday night, according to plan, and everything looked good.

New Horizons already has beamed發送 back the best-ever images of Pluto and big moon Charon. Pluto also has four little moons, all of which were expected to come under New Horizons' scrutiny觀察. The pictures are "mind-boggling驚奇 to put it mildly," Bolden said.

As Stern told reporters Monday, "The Pluto system is enchanting迷人的 in its strangeness, its alien beauty."

The newest pictures, from the actual flyby, won't be transmitted until well afterward so the seven science instruments can take full advantage of the encounter. In fact, it will take more than a year to get back all the data.

On the eve of the flyby, NASA announced that Pluto is actually bigger than anyone imagined, thanks to measurements made by the spacecraft, a baby grand piano-size affair. It's about 50 miles bigger than estimated, for a grand total of 1,473 miles in diameter.

Pluto is now confirmed to be the largest object in the so-called Kuiper Belt, considered the third zone of the solar system after the inner rocky planets and outer gaseous氣體的 ones. This unknown territory is a shooting gallery of comets and other small bodies.

If a mission extension is granted, New Horizons will seek out another Kuiper Belt object before heading out of the solar system — for good.

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150714/us-sci--pluto-1a20f848e7.html

Week 3 Same sex marriage, legal, the US

Poll: 60 percent of likely voters back gay marriage 

Lead: 
 What:  Same sex marriage
 Why:  The poll
 Where:  The USA
 When:  Jan. 25-31.2014
 Who:  American

 How:  Not given

Context:

With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to(做準備) rule this spring on whether same-sex couples nationwide should have the right to marry, a gay rights organization on Friday released a new survey showing support for gay marriage at 60 percent among likely voters in the 2016 election.

The Human Rights Campaign — a Washington, D.C.-based tax-exempt(免除) nonprofit that works to “achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual(兩性的) and transgender Americans” — says its survey shows conservatives(保守者) who claim the country will balk(阻遏) at court-imposed(利用) marriage rights are out of step with public opinion.

The poll(投票) was conducted late last month by the Democratic polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. According to the survey, 60 percent of likely voters say they favor “allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally,” while 37 percent oppose allowing gays to marry.

That’s only slightly(微小地) higher than nonpartisan(無黨派的人) public surveys, which show majorities backing same-sex marriage in recent years. In 2014, polls generally showed support for gay marriage in the mid-50s, and 56 percent of Americans in an ABC News/Washington Post poll in October 2014 support “the Supreme Court action … that allows gay marriages to go forward in several more states.”

While opponents are still more likely to feel strongly than supporters, the sheer(絕對的) number of those backing gay marriage overwhelms them. Three-fourths of opponents say they feel strongly, but they account for only 28 percent of all likely voters. Forty-three percent of likely voters say they are strong supporters of marriage rights.

Poll respondents were also asked to react to a quote from Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, who speculated(推斷) that a ruling from the high court permitting same-sex marriage across the country could be met with a “revolt(反感)” or “revolution.” According to a memorandum(章程) from pollsters(整理民意測驗結果的人) Anna Greenberg and David Walker, 70 percent of voters disagreed with that statement, including 57 percent of Republicans.

“In some of our previous reports to HRC, sometimes in the face of stubborn anti-marriage majority, we have noted the movement toward equality over time and said this question is not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when,’” Greenberg and Walker wrote in their memo. “For voters, ‘when’ is ‘now.’”

The poll was conducted Jan. 25-31, surveying 1,000 likely voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Earlier this week, Alabama became the 37th state to allow same-sex marriages after the Supreme Court declined to stop a court order that threw out the state’s laws prohibiting gay marriage. Justice Clarence Thomas — who has voted against same-sex marriage in prior cases — was one of only two justices to dissent(不同意) on that question, writing that allowing marriages to proceed there “may well be seen as a signal of the Court’s intended resolution” of the overall case.

Reference:  http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/gay-marriage-voters-poll-115171

Week2 Aung San Suu Kyi

A twist in Aung San Suu Kyi's fate

 

 Lead:

1.  What:not given
2.  When:May 31, 2010
3.  Why:free elections in Myanmar
4.  Where:Myanmar
5.  Who: Aung San Suu Kyi
6.  How:confined
   
   

 Context:

BANGKOK, Thailand — Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s pro-democracy faithful cringed[1] upon hearing their leader was dragged off[2] to the most notorious [3]prison in Myanmar last week. Many have suffered there themselves.

Within the country's suppressed[4] democracy movement, the words “Insein Prison” have a cruel ring. One of its former political prisoners, Moe Zaw Oo, described it as a brutal “factory of HIV/AIDS.”

Worse yet, they say, is the world’s lack of action. Many had hoped Suu Kyi’s ongoing[5] prison trial[6] — spurred by an American religious fanatic[7] swimming to her lakefront home — would draw a harder line from foreign powers, particularly the United Nations.

But again, the junta[8] that rules Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, appears unmoved by the world’s scorn[9].

“This is a nightmare,” said Nyo Ohn Myint of the National League of Democracy, devoted to reinstating  free elections in  Myanmar. “The U.N. Security Council could do a lot more than what they’re doing.”

Suu Kyi has mostly lived under house arrest since 1990, when the country's military junta refused her election to the prime minister’s seat. The Nobel Peace Laureate[10] remains backed by a pro-democracy movement-in-exile, many of them also voted into a  Myanmar parliament[11] that never was.

Then came John Yettaw, a 53-year-old Mormon from the Ozarks. Compelled[12], as many are, by Suu Kyi’s image of poise(自信) and resolve(決心), he entered Burma and swam to her heavily guarded lakeside home using homemade flippers. Accounts of his motive vary: his wife says he’s “eccentric(怪人)” and Suu Kyi’s lawyer calls him “nutty.(頭腦不正常的)”

The Missourian told Burmese authorities he came to pray with her, The Associated Press reported.

When Suu Kyi allowed him to stay several nights on the ground floor, the junta pounced(突然襲擊). Boarding a foreigner without permission is illegal under Myanmar law. Many assume that Suu Kyi’s imprisonment(監禁), which was within two weeks of expiring(滿期), will be extended once again.

This could silence her in advance of 2010 elections, which exiles(放逐) suspect are being manipulated(控制) to legitimize(使合法) the junta. More than 2,100 other political prisoners are also confined(幽禁) at Insein and other sites.

Suu Kyi’s trial has prompted(激起) much outcry(抗議). Many heads of state, including U.S. President Barack Obama, have issued strongly worded statements. So have celebrities such as Brad Pitt and Madonna. The United States, particularly prone to(傾於) condemning  Myanmar in recent years, has extended sanctions(制裁).

But the international community, said Thin Thin Aung of the Women’s League of Burma, has “not really started acting. They just keep saying, ‘We’re concerned.’ We’d like to see immediate action.”

The harshest condemnation has come from nations with thin ties to Myanmar, namely Western powers.

Exiled pro-democracy leaders are now focusing on swaying the trading partners that keep Burma afloat(漂流的), particularly the Association of Southeast Nations, or ASEAN, a 10-nation alliance(結盟) that includes  Myanmar.

ASEAN, in a statement, has politely asked the junta to release Suu Kyi. The alliance’s “principle of non-interference” among member nations doesn’t allow for much more.

Myanmar, which supplies natural gas and other resources to its neighbors, has repeatedly embarrassed ASEAN on the world stage. But its member nations tend to stop short of punishing their trading partner.

“ASEAN told the military its credibility is at stake(風險),” said Aung Zaw, an exiled magazine editor now based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. “What credibility are they talking about?”

Myanmar’s friendships with China and Russia have helped block action from the U.N. Security Council, which has also heard pleas(請求) from exiled Suu Kyi’s supporters. More than 20 fellow Nobel laureates have also pressured the U.N. to step in.

Suu Kyi, 63, is weak and sometimes needs intravenous(靜脈注射的) drips(注射器), say members of the National League of Democracy. They claim the dungeon(土牢)-like conditions — in which tuberculosis(肺結核) and AIDS spread freely — could even prove fatal.

On Wednesday, the junta showed a small gesture of appeasement: Suu Kyi’s trial was briefly opened to a handful of diplomats and journalists.

She thanked them for coming, according to Reuters, and said, “I hope to meet you in better days.”

From:

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/thailand/090520/aung-san-suu-kyi-imprisonment

---

[1] 畏縮

[2] 強行拉走

[3] 聲名狼藉的

[4] 發育不全的

[5] 不間斷的

[6] 審訊

[7] 狂熱的

[8] 軍政府

[9] 輕蔑

[10] 得獎人

[11] 議會

[12] 強迫

 

 

Week 1 地中海船難

Italy calls for help rescuing migrants as 40 more reportedly drown

       

Italy has called on the rest of Europe to share the burden of the growing migration crisis in the Mediterranean [1]as news of yet another tragedy emerged, with 41 migrants feared dead after their boat capsized[2] just off the Sicilian[3] coast. Four people survived the disaster, according to witnesses who interviewed them.

The demand for Europe-wide action comes just days after 400 people were killed after a boat capsized on its way from Libya, and as the Italian coastguard[4] brought two vessels with an estimated 1,100 rescued migrants on board to Sicily. 

Italian authorities arrested 15 people after they were accused of fellow migrants of killing 12 other migrants – all of whom were Christian – out of “religious hatred[5]”. The men who were arrested, including one minor[6], were all Muslim and the matter[7] is under investigation.

According to interviews with the four survivors of the most recently capsized boat conducted by the Organisation[8] for Migration (OIM), which follows the issue closely, the inflatable[9] boat left Libya on Sunday with 45 people on board and was at sea for four days when the boat capsized.

A spokesperson for OIM said it was likely that the vessel had trouble finding the correct route[10] to Italy, given how long they were at sea.

According to the men, who were picked up by the Italian navy vessel Foscari[11] after they were spotted[12] by an aircraft, the boat quickly began losing air forcing the migrants into the water.

Italy’s foreign minister[13], Paolo Gentiloni, appealed for help in coming to grips[14] with the humanitarian crisis, saying that 90% of the rescue effort in recent weeks had fallen on the Italian navy, which responds to calls for help from migrant boats in international waters close to Libya.

“The emergency is not just about Italy,” he said. “We have a duty to save lives and welcome people in a civilised[15] manner[16], but we also have a duty to seek international engagement.”

Another Italian ship, the Fiorillo, arrived in Sicily with about 301 people on board following the rescue of a vessel in distress[17], and the Dattilo had at least 592 following six separate rescue operations that took place over two days.

Survivors of the disaster earlier this week in which 400 people died said the vessel sank after passengers surged to one side to catch the attention of a passing commercial ship. About 8,500 migrants were rescued in the Mediterranean between Friday and Monday alone. The warm weather and good sea conditions have led to a sharp increase in attempted crossings.

According to some estimates, this year’s death toll[18] has already reached 909, compared with about 50 deaths in the same period in 2014, when Italy’s Mare Nostrum rescue mission was still in effect. That programme[19] has since been replaced by Europe’s Triton[20], a far less ambitious border patrol [21]that monitors[22] incoming vessels within 30 miles of the Italian coast.
Lead:
What:The migrants boat capsized
Where: Mediterranean Sea
Why:The warm weather and good sea conditions have led to a sharp increase in attempted crossings.
When: April 20/2015
Who: Italian and migrants
How:Italian navy rescued the migrants.
Reference:http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/16/italy-calls-eu-mediterranean-migration-crisis-rescue-migrants

---

[1] 地中海

[2] 傾覆

[3] 西西里島的

[4] 海岸巡邏隊

[5] 仇恨

[6] 未成年人

[7] 事情

[8] 組織

[9] 充氣的

[10] 途徑

[11]船名

[12] 安置

[13] 外交使節

[14] 控制

[15] 文明的

[16] 舉止

[17] 悲痛，悲傷

[18] 傷亡人數

[19] 計畫，規劃

[20] 海神崔坦

[21] 巡邏隊

[22] 監控