Week Five: The Revenant, Leonardo Dicaprio, Oscar (best actor)

After four previous acting nominations, the star of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s survival drama has finally won his first Academy award.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s portrayal of a betrayed 19th-century frontiersman seeking revenge in The Revenant has won him his first Academy Award, having missed out on four previous occasions.

The 41-year-old actor was the favourite to win after picking up both a Golden Globe and a Bafta for his performance. The film, which has won a number of awards at this year’s ceremony, tells the true story of Hugh Glass, who battled his way through the wilderness after being left for dead.

DiCaprio beat out competition from last year’s winner Eddie Redmayne and Michael Fassbender. He had previously been nominated for his work in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?, The Aviator, Blood Diamond and The Wolf of Wall Street.

He used his speech to warn about the effects of global warming. “Climate change is real and it’s happening right now,” he said. “It’s the most urgent threat affecting our species.” He added: “Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take this night for granted.”

The actor’s commitment to the role had received a lot of attention. DiCaprio was said to have eaten raw bison liver and slept in animal carcasses. The film also picked up Oscars for best cinematography and best director for Alejandro González Iñárritu.

He has a number of projects in the offing but is yet to confirm what next role will be. He is loosely attached to work again with Martin Scorsese on the true story of serial killer HH Holmes, and is also set to produce a film about the Volkswagen emissions scandal.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/feb/29/leonardo-dicaprio-wins-best-actor-oscar-for-the-revenant

Stucture of the Lead:

Who: Leonardo Dicaprio

When: Oscar 2016

What: Leonardo Dicaprio beat out competition from last year’s winner Eddie Redmayne

Why: he is a environmentalist and keen to the global warming

Where: Oscar ceremony 

How: The Revenant is about the global warming and won the award

Keyword:

 frontiersman(拓荒者)

carcasses(屍體)

cinematography(攝影)

 emissions (排放)

Week Four: Tainan, earthquake, building, dead

A rescue operation taking place after the Taiwan earthquake has been concluded as the remains of the last unaccounted for person was pulled from the wreckage of the Weiguan Jinlong apartment complex. In total 116 people have been confirmed dead after the powerful 6.4-magnitude earthquake, with all but two of the victims living at the 17-storey Weiguan Jinlong (Golden Dragon) building.

The earthquake struck the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan on 7 February leaving the city strewn with twisted metal, fallen bricks and concrete debris. The city had a population of 1.9 million people and on Friday 12 February, the president and president-elect attended a memorial service for the dead and missing.

Tainan City mayor William Lai announced an end to the operation on Saturday (13 February) as the remains of Hsieh Chen-yu were discovered at 3.57pm local time. In total 289 people were pulled out of the collapsed building with 173 still alive and 96 remain in hospital.

Although residents lived in the upper regions of the complex, its lower stores were filled with arcades of shops which initially gave way under the strain of the quake before the whole of the U-shaped construction was destroyed. The last survivor was dragged out of the wreckage on Monday evening (8 February).

The Taiwanese government immediately launched an investigation into the construction of the building complex after blue cans were pictured – reportedly used as construction fillers in the beams. Reports from the city suggest that the residents living in the building, constructed in 1989, had often complained of problems like tiles falling from walls, malfunction of lifts and the building having too few reinforcing bars.

Lin Ming-hui, former chairman of the now disbanded Weiguan company, and two other former executives Chang Kui-an and Cheng Chin-kui now face charges of professional negligence resulting in death after appearing in court on Wednesday 10 February.

Hsieh, a member of the blocks management committee "might have wanted to wait until everyone else had left", Lai said, according to the Central News Agency. He added that the: "The search and rescue has come to an end".

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/taiwan-earthquake-116-confirmed-dead-tainan-search-survivors-concluded-1543768

Stucture of the Lead:

Who: People living in Tainan

When: February sixth, 2016

What: A serious earthquake hit in Tainan and a building collapsed

Why: There are some problems in the buildings

Where: Tainan, Taiwan

How: It cause a lot of casualties and people began to concern about the problem of buildings.

Keyword:

concluded (總結)

strewn (撒滿)

debris (廢墟)

arcades (商場)

disbanded (解散)

negligence (疏忽)

Week Three: North Korea, hydrogen bomb test

(CNN)The U.S. now believes North Korea might have attempted to test components of a hydrogen bomb on January 6, after further review and analysis of the latest intelligence information.

A U.S. official directly familiar with the latest U.S. assessment said there may have been a partial, failed test of some type of components associated with a hydrogen bomb.

The assessment comes after careful examination of the latest intelligence analysis of the test data. But the official emphasized there is no final conclusion.

Immediately following the test earlier this month, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the initial analysis that have been conducted was "not consistent" with a successful hydrogen bomb test.

The U.S. still does not accept North Korea's claim that it tested a hydrogen bomb, but air sampling conducted after the test has proved inconclusive, the official said. That prompted another look at the seismic data.

That analysis shows the test was conducted more than two times deeper underground than originally assessed -- at a depth consistent with what might be needed for a hydrogen bomb.

However, the size of the seismic event and other intelligence indicates it was not likely a fully functioning device. The official said it's possible the North Koreans believe they conducted a full hydrogen bomb test, but the U.S. believes it was likely only some components, perhaps a detonator, that exploded.

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/28/politics/north-korea-hydrogen-bomb-test/

Stucture of the Lead:

Who: North Korea government

When: January sixth, 2016

What: North Korea government tested a hydrogen bomb

Why: the government want to test the bomb

Where: Noth Korea

How: It is sucessful but the U.S said it was likely only some components

Keyword:

assessment(評定)

partial(局部)

conducted(進行)

inconclusive(尚無定論)

prompted(提示)

seismic(地震)

detonator(雷管)

Week Two: Myanmar, jade mine,landslide, Hpakant,2015

Soldiers, police and volunteers pulled body after body from the rubble on Monday, as the death toll from a landslide near several jade mines in northern Myanmar reached 113, a local official said. More than 100 others were missing.

The collapse early on Saturday in Kachin state’s mining community of Hpakant was the worst such disaster in recent memory.

The corpses were taken to a morgue, where friends and relatives broke down as they identified the victims. Some were buried at a cemetery and others were cremated, but there were stacks of unidentified bodies wrapped in blue plastic tarpaulin.

Kachin is home to some of the world’s highest-quality jade, and the industry generated an estimated $31bn (£20.4bn) last year, with most of the wealth going to individuals and companies tied to Myanmar’s former military rulers, according to Global Witness, a group that investigates misuse of resource revenues.

Hpakant, 600 miles (950km) north-east of Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon, is the industry’s heartland. But it remains desperately poor, with bumpy dirt roads, constant electricity blackouts and sky-high heroin addiction rates.

Map - Hpakant

The accident occurred at a 60-metre-high mountain of earth and waste discarded by several mines.

Earlier, officials said the dead were mostly men who were picking through the waste and tailings in search of pieces of jade to sell. But officials said on Monday the accident occurred at about 3am, burying more than 70 makeshift huts where the miners slept.

Nilar Myint, a township administrator, confirmed on Monday the death toll had reached 113, with more than 100 people missing. Bodies were still being pulled from the debris.

“It’s not ending. It’s still ongoing. Local people in town are getting angry because there are just too many bodies,” she said.

After Myanmar’s former military rulers handed over power to a nominally civilian government five years ago, resulting in the lifting of many western-imposed sanctions, the already rapid pace of mining turned frenetic. No scrap of ground, no part of daily life in Hpakant has been left untouched by the fleets of giant yellow trucks and backhoes that have sliced apart mountains and denuded once-plush landscape.

In the last year, dozens of small-scale miners have been maimed or killed picking through waste dumps.

“Large companies, many of them owned by families of former generals, army companies, cronies and drug lords, are making tens or hundreds of millions of dollars a year through their plunder of Hpakant,” said Mike Davis of Global Witness.

“Their legacy to local people is a dystopian wasteland in which scores of people at a time are buried alive in landslides.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/23/113-dead-100-missing-in-myanmar-jade-mine-landslide

Stucture of the Lead:

Who: Miners in the Kachin

When: November.2015

What: The collapse early on Saturday in Kachin

Why: it is a natural roll

Where: Hpakant, 600 miles (950km) north-east of Myanmar

How: These people have no choice but to tail in search of pieces of jade to sell 

Keyword:

morgue(太平間)

tarpaulin(篷布)

bumpy(顛簸)

nominally (名義上)

sanctions(制裁)

backhoes(怪手)

Week one: California, San Bernardino, shoot/kill

What Investigators Know About

the San Bernardino Shooting

A married couple on Wednesday shot and killed 14 people at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, Calif., the police said. Hours later, the suspects, Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 29, were killed in a shootout about 3.5 miles away. UPDATED Dec. 10 RELATED ARTICLE

Couple Became Radicalized

Well Before Shooting

The F.B.I. director said Wednesday that Mr. Farook and Ms. Malik had been talking of an attack as far back as two years ago. Federal investigators uncovered evidence that the couple were radicalized(激進) long before they got married in 2014. They have video evidence that the couple participated in target practice at ranges in the Los Angeles area and had even gone to a shooting range just days before the attack.

A Potential Link to Islamic Extremism

Officials have discovered a potential link to Islamic extremism(極端主義), saying they believe Ms. Malik posted a pledge(保證) of allegiance(忠誠) to the Islamic State on Facebook. They said there was no evidence the group had directed the couple to stage the attack, but the F.B.I. on Friday announced that there was enough evidence of “extensive planning,” and the case was being investigated as an act of terrorism.

If investigators confirm the link, attacks by self-proclaimed Islamic jihadists(聖戰者) will have killed 45 people in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001. Attacks by antigovernment, racist and other nonjihadist extremists(極端分子) have killed 48.

Recent Middle East Travels

Investigators are scrutinizing(審議) Mr. Farook and Ms. Malik’s travels for more clues into the motives behind the attack.

Mr. Farook, who was born in Illinois to Pakistani immigrant parents, traveled to Pakistan last year. Ms. Malik, who was born in Pakistan, had been living with her family in Saudi Arabia.

October 2013 Authorities believe that Mr. Farook went to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, for the annual pilgrimage(朝聖) known as the hajj, a congressional official said.

July 2014 Mr. Farook traveled to Saudi Arabia and returned to the United States with Ms. Malik. She entered on a Pakistani passport and a K-1 visa, a special visa for fiancés.

Sept. 30, 2014 Mr. Farook applied for a green card for Ms. Malik, a federal official said.

May 21, 2015 The couple’s daughter, Maryam Bint Rizwan, is born in Riverside, Calif.

July 2015 Ms. Malik was granted a conditional green card after passing criminal(刑事) and national security background checks.

The Attack

Early Wednesday morning, the San Bernardino health department employees had gathered for an event in a conference room at the center, which provides services to disabled people. A police official said that Mr. Farook, a county health inspector, was at the event and left early.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/12/02/us/california-mass-shooting-san-bernardino.html?_r=0

Stucture of the Lead:

Who: Syed Rizwan Farook, and Tashfeen Malik

When: December.2015

What: A married couple on Wednesday shot and killed 14 people

Why: because his colleague have conflicts with Farook

Where: the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, Calif

How: they pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State  and cause many people's panic

Keyword:

radicalized(激進)

extremism(極端主義)

pledge(保證)

allegiance(忠誠)

jihadists(聖戰者)

extremists(極端分子)

scrutinizing(審議)

pilgrimage(朝聖)

criminal(刑事)

Week Six: Aylan Kurdi’s story: How a small Syrian child came to be washed up on a beach in Turkey

Surviving family members of Aylan Kurdi have revealed how the Syrian three-year-old came to be washed up dead on a beach in Turkey on Wednesday morning.

Aylan's distraught father, Abdullah Kurdi, tried and failed to hold on to his wife and two sons after their boat to the Greek island of Kos capsized. He has reportedly now said his only wish is to return their bodies to their home town of Kobani and then “be buried alongside them”.

The family had been making the treacherous journey across Turkey to Europe in the hope of joining Abdullah’s sister, Teema Kurdi, a hairdresser who has lived in Vancouver, Canada for more than 20 years.

Speaking to the National Post’s Terry Glavin, Ms Kurdi said she had learned of Aylan’s death, as well as that of his brother Galip and mother Rihan, at 5am on Wednesday morning. The images of Aylan emerged in Turkish media at around midday, and have since sparked international outrage over the refugee crisis.

Glavin told BBC Radio 5 live on Thursday that Ms Kurdi had heard from family members about Abdullah’s desperate battle to save his family in the sea.

“There's a terrible story he told about swimming from one to the other, finding one [son] who seemed to be alright and then going to another, finding him drowned... and then going back to the first boy and finding him drowned,” he said.

“He made it, but his wife didn’t.”

Jenan Moussa, a journalist with Dubai’s Al Aan TV, said she had confirmed with sources in Kobani that the Kurdish family hailed from the recently-embattled Syrian city.

She said Abdullah was a barber originally from Damascus, who fled from Kobani to Turkey but “dreamed of a future in Canada” for his family.

“Abdullah paid €4000 (£2900) for his family to get on a 5m-long dinghy from Bodrum to Greece. He borrowed money. This was not their first attempt to get to Greece.

“When in the dinghy, the sea got rough. Turkish smuggler abandoned boat, left passengers struggling. Boat capsized after one hour.

“After it capsized, the family clung to the boat. Mr Abdullah tried to hold his two children and wife with his arm, but one by one they were washed away by waves.”

According to Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency, police have detained four suspected human traffickers one day after the three members of the Kurdi family and nine other refugees died in the short Aegean straight between Turkey and Kos.

Officers said the men were detained on a beach on Turkey’s Bodrum peninsula and, according to Anadolu, they were suspected of acting as intermediaries for illegal crossings.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/aylan-kurdi-s-story-how-a-small-syrian-child-came-to-be-washed-up-on-a-beach-in-turkey-10484588.html

Stucture of the Lead:

Who: Aylan Kurdi

When: September 2015

What: A Syrian boy dead on the beach

Why: their boat to the Greek island of Kos capsized

Where: on the sea

How: return their bodies to their home town and bury alongside them

Keyword:

distraught (發狂的)

desperate (危急)

dinghy (小艇)

detained (拘留)

Week Five: Tianjin explosion

Chinese authorities ended the search for the remaining eight missing in a massive chemical warehouse explosion last month, setting the final death toll at 173 in China’s worst industrial disaster in years.
The announcement by the Tianjin city government said there was no hope of finding the eight people and the court would start issuing death certificates.

“After thorough investigations by all parties it is certain that there is no possibility of survivors,” said a statement on Friday night.

The eight include five firefighters, underscoring the explosion’s status as the worst disaster for Chinese first responders, more than 100 of whom were killed, including police officers. Among firefighters a total of 104 were killed.

Investigations into the 12 August blasts at the Ruihai International Logistics warehouses showed they were located closer to homes than permitted, and stored much more hazardous material than authorised, including 700 tonnes of highly toxic sodium cyanide.

A series of massive explosions late at night shattered windows and tore facades off buildings for miles around, while launching debris including heavy steel storage canisters into nearby communities with the force of an artillery shell. Homeowners have held protests demanding the government buy back their apartments, saying they are unliveable.

The disaster has raised questions about corruption and government efficiency, potentially tarnishing the government led by Xi Jinping, who has made those two issues a hallmark of his administration.

Authorities are investigating malfeasance in the issuing of permits and regulation of the company, and have detained 12 of its employees and executives. They include the primary owner, who was on the board of a state-owned company and kept his ownership of Ruihai hidden as a silent partner.

Also detained as part of the investigation are 11 government officials, while the head of the government body in charge of industrial safety, Yang Dongliang, has been placed under investigation for corruption.

Yang had previously worked for 18 years in Tianjin in state industry and local government, rising to executive vice mayor.

Authorities say they have sealed all waterways leading out of the blast zone to curb cyanide contamination as teams in hazmat suits clean up hazardous debris.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/12/tianjin-explosion-china-sets-final-death-toll-at-173-ending-search-for-survivors

Stucture of the Lead:

Who: people who live in Tianjin

When: August in 2015

What: A serious explosion happened in Tianjin

Why: people stored much more hazardous material

Where: Tianjin

How: it cause a serious disaster in Tianjin  

Keyword:

blasts (爆炸)

tore facades(摧毀外牆)

tarnishing(汙衊)

malfeasance(壞事)

detained(被拘留)

sealed (封口)

 curb (抑制)

 hazmat(危險品)