Connecticut, Sandy Hook, shooting

Connecticut school shooting: Children among 27 killed

A gunman has killed 20 children and six adults at a primary school in the US state of Connecticut, police say.

The gunman, who also died, has not been formally identified by police.

But officials told US media that the killer at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, was a 20-year-old son of a teacher. He is thought to have killed her before the attack.

It is one of the worst-ever US school shootings, with a toll close to the 32 who died at Virginia Tech in 2007.

Early reports named 24-year-old Ryan Lanza as the gunman, but anonymous officials later said his brother Adam, 20, was the suspect.

He is believed to have killed their mother, Nancy Lanza, at her home before heading to Sandy Hook school. Investigators say it is unclear whether she worked there.

Ryan Lanza of Hoboken, New Jersey, was being questioned by police, US media reported, but has not been named as a suspect.

'Safest place in America'

Police Lt Paul Vance said 18 children were pronounced dead at the school, and two died after being taken to hospital. Six adults were also killed, and the gunman died at the scene, apparently after shooting himself.

One person was also injured, and police were investigating a second crime scene in Newtown, where another victim was found dead - understood to be the gunman's mother.

Dressed in black and wearing a bullet-proof vest, the gunman is thought to have had several weapons.

These included two handguns - a Glock and a Sig Sauer - and a .223-calibre rifle, reports said.

The killings took place in two rooms within a single section of the school, police have said.

One parent, Stephen Delgiadice, whose eight-year-old daughter was at Sandy Hook School on Friday but was not harmed, said the shooting was traumatic for the small town.

"It's alarming, especially in Newtown, Connecticut, which we always thought was the safest place in America," Mr Delgiadice told AP.

At a memorial service in Newtown people crowded outside the doors of the church as Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy addressed those gathered.

He called the attack a "tragedy of unspeakable terms", saying "you can never be prepared" for an event like this.

In Washington, about 200 people held a candlelight vigil for the victims outside the White House, whilst others protested there to call for gun controls.

'Innocence torn away'

Friday's shooting is the third major gun attack in the US in 2012.

In July an attacker killed 12 people at a premiere of a Batman film in Aurora, Colorado. In August six people died at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.

Just this week two people died in a shooting at a shopping mall in the state of Oregon.

At the White House, an emotional President Barack Obama cited those incidents as he called for "meaningful action... regardless of politics".

"Our hearts are broken today, for the parents, grandparents, sisters and brothers of these children, and for the families of the adults who were lost."

Mr Obama offered condolences to the families of survivors too, saying "their children's innocence has been torn away from them too early, and there are no words that will ease their pain".

He wiped tears from his eyes as he spoke of the "overwhelming grief" at the loss of life.

The American flags on Capitol Hill were lowered to half-mast in the wake of the attack.

Schools locked down

Police arrived at the school soon after 09:40 local time (14:40 GMT) on Friday, answering reports that a gunman was in the school's main office and one person had "numerous gunshot wounds".

Witnesses reported hearing scores of shots fired, with one suggesting there "must have been 100 rounds" in an interview with CNN.

Parent Richard Wilford said his seven-year-old son Richie described a noise that "sounded like what he described as cans falling".

Mr Wilford said his son's teacher locked the classroom door and told the children to huddle in a corner until the police arrived.

From  BBC

1.traumatic 創傷的

2.unspeakable 無法形容的

3.vigil 守夜

4.premiere 首映

5.condolences 慰問

6.overwhelming 壓倒性的

7.half-mast  半旗

8.huddle 蜷縮

9.toll 費

10.numerous 許多的

India blackout, power failure

BBC reporters: India's power failure

BBC reporters around northern and eastern India describe conditions following a massive power failure.

Ramdutt Tripathi, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

There has been no power for hours and there is no sign that electricity will come back any time soon. Shops have stayed open for now but it looks as if they will close as soon as night falls if power is not restored before then. There is no running water, so we are dependent on water tanks.

The sun has been beating down and the heat and humidity are unbearable. Fans and air-conditioners have stopped working - only those with generators can run these.

No lifts are working so those living in apartment blocks face an arduous climb to the top.

My house is near a railway line - electric trains have stopped running but I hear other services may stop too as signals may not be working.

Even in the markets computer-based businesses dependent on credit and debit cards are facing big difficulties. It's a major inconvenience, which has paralysed working life for many here in Uttar Pradesh.

Pratiksha Ghildial, Delhi

There was a big crowd of stranded passengers - college students and professionals - outside Rajiv Chowk, the biggest interchange on Delhi's Metro network. The station was shut for a while after the power went off and reopened after electricity was restored some time later. Most of the network remains closed as power has not been fully restored.

Commuters streamed out of the station, and took buses and auto rickshaws instead to their destinations. Divya, a college student, says she and a friend were stuck inside a train between two stations for about 15 minutes. "The air conditioning stopped working, and the train was packed. People were sweating."

Later the doors opened, and passengers were able to get out of the station. Varun, an engineering student who was also on the train on his day off from college, said he was "sweaty and suffocated" after being stuck inside the train.

Narayan Bareth, Jodphur, Rajasthan

Here in the sweltering desert of Rajasthan, people have been waiting for rain. Electricity is particularly important in the month of July when students go to classes to prepare for exams and academic competitions. They need electricity at night to get their work done.

But this is also the season of no rain when humidity is high, the heat is sweltering and people get taken ill. Hospitals desperately need electricity and will be very worried about what the power cuts will mean.

In Jodhpur, shopkeepers are sitting idly outside their shops unable to handle . People are sheltering under the shade of trees to keep themselves cool and doors and windows have been opened as people try to cope with the intense heat.

Pilgrims who have been making journeys to holy sites on foot have also expressed fears that there may be no light as they sleep on the roadside when night falls. The light gives them a sense of security.

Rahul Tandon, Calcutta, West Bengal

Calcutta is not as badly affected as other areas because it has a private electricity board. But power across the rest of West Bengal state went at 1300 local time (0735 GMT).

The metro has been working but all suburban trains on the eastern railways have ground to a halt from Howrah and Seladah and it looks as if about 40 trains are stranded.

from BBC

1.arduous  艱鉅

2.interchange 交換

3.rickshaws 人力車

4.suffocate 窒息

5. sweltering 悶熱的

6.idly 懶惰地

7.transactions 交易

8.metro 地鐵

9.suburban 郊區的

10.stream out 流出來 

Hong Kong, 39 dead,Victoria Harbour

Hong Kong boat crash off Lamma Island kills 36

A collision between two passenger boats off Hong Kong has left at least 36 people dead, officials say.

One of the boats was carrying more than 120 people to a fireworks display when it half-sank following Monday night's collision near Lamma Island.

Twenty-eight people were pronounced dead at the scene. About 100 others have been taken to hospital, eight of whom were later said to have died.

A large-scale air and sea search for survivors is still continuing.

A Hong Kong government statement said: "Over 100 people were sent to five hospitals during the incident; nine of them have sustained serious injuries or are in critical condition."

Rescue work would continue, the statement added, because the fire department could not rule out that there were still people inside the vessel or missing.
The collision occurred during a busy period for passenger travel in Hong Kong, at the end of a long holiday weekend to mark the mid-autumn festival that this year coincides with China's National Day on 1 October.
Power company Hong Kong Electric has confirmed to the BBC that it owned the boat which sank. It was taking staff and family members to watch National Day fireworks in Victoria Harbour.
The vessel and another boat -  operated by Hong Kong and Kowloon Ferry - collided, causing the HK Electric vessel to list, a company official was d as saying.
The other boat reportedly had about 100 people on board.
It was slightly damaged in the crash but returned safely to port, according to Radio Television Hong Kong. A number of passengers on board were treated for minor injuries.

1.collision 碰撞

2.sustain 支持

3.vessel 容器

4.reportedly 據說

5.port 端口

6.boats off 船關閉

7.half-sank 半沉沒

8.critical 危急的

9.confirm 確認

10.quote 引用

from BBC 

Chris Stevens

Viewpoint: Libya deaths show US still faces threats

The attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, is a shock with a tragic and ironic twist, but not necessarily a surprise.

It is a grim reminder that the threat the United States and the West have been dealing with for more than a decade may be reduced, but is not gone.

There are many aspects of the attack that killed the US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, as well as three other American diplomats and security personnel that we do not yet know.

Was it a spontaneous protest turned violent in response to the emergence of an obscure video on YouTube criticising Islam and the Prophet Muhammad? Was it a pre-planned attack by Salafist militants sympathetic to al-Qaeda, deliberately timed to coincide with the 11th anniversary of 9/11?

Both theories are credible. But we are likely to discover many "known knowns" in the  of this tragedy.

US diplomatic posts have long been inviting targets both for protests and political violence.

The nearly simultaneous attacks on embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 marked the emergence of al-Qaeda as a new global terrorist threat.

The aftermath of the Arab Spring is posing new challenges to US foreign policy

Going back to the beginning of the rebellion in Libya in early 2011, the United States feared that al-Qaeda and its affiliates might try to take advantage of the Arab Spring to re-establish its relevance as various countries moved through difficult 

Ambassador Stevens was a liaison to the National Transitional Council, the umbrella organisation based in Benghazi that led the successful uprising to overthrow Gaddafi, and to the interim government that recently yielded power following successful elections.

Few Americans did more to support the emergence of a new Libya than Chris Stevens - only to become one its early and most visible victims.

Having gone through a civil war, Libya suffers from many of the typical challenges that emerge in post-conflict societies.

It is awash with weapons. Protesters who gained access to the US embassy in Cairo carried an Islamist flag. The gang which assaulted the consulate in Benghazi carried rocket-propelled grenades.

12 September 2012 

From BBC

1.consulate 領事館

2.ironic 具有諷刺意味

3.spontaneous 自發

4.obscure 模糊

5.aftermath 後果

6.transitions 轉換

7.interim 臨時

8.awash 氾濫

9.assault 攻擊

10.propelled grenades 榴彈

11.

The Dark Knight Rises

Aurora cinema massacre: James Holmes 'mentally ill'

The man accused of last month's Colorado cinema massacre is mentally ill, defence lawyers have said.

The statement came during a court hearing on a motion by US media to weaken a gag order on the case against James Holmes.

His lawyers argued that they need more time and information from prosecutors to fully assess Mr Holmes' condition.

The 24-year-old former PhD student was present at the hearing and looked dazed, as in previous appearances.

"We cannot begin to assess the nature and the depth of Mr Holmes' mental illness until we receive full disclosure," defence lawyer Daniel King said.

He added that the prosecution has police reports, but not any photographs, recordings or expert testimony.

Prosecutors argued that police were still interviewing witnesses and finishing their reports.

"There is a large queue of information to be typed up," prosecutor Rich Orman said.

Twelve people died and 58 were wounded in the 20 July attack at a midnight screening of the new Batman film near Denver.

'Watchdog role'

More than 20 news groups have asked Judge William Sylvester to unseal documents related to the case.

Both prosecutors and defence lawyers are resisting the release.

Under the gag order, the University of Colorado Denver, where the accused was in the process of dropping out of a neuroscience PhD at the time of the shooting, is not allowed to release information about him.

The case file itself is also sealed.

Prosecutors have said it could jeopardise their investigation if information is made public, while Mr Holmes' lawyers have said it could risk his right to a fair trial.

Officials in Aurora have cited the order as a reason for declining to speak about the city's response to the shootings.

But members of the media say that court documents, which include search warrants, lists of evidence and police interviews with witnesses, can be important sources of public information.

"It is performing our watchdog role to look at the process and try to assess for the public how the police have handled the case and assembled the evidence and assure for the and the public that things are being conducted open and fairly," Gregory Moore, editor of the Denver Post, told the Associated Press.

"It goes way beyond what's necessary to protect the defendant's right to a fair trial."

Judge Sylvester said during the hearing that he would consider the media request and issue a written ruling later, but gave no timeline for a decision.

Eviction

Few details are currently known about how the accused allegedly planned the shooting, or the explosives that, according to the authorities, he set to booby-trap his apartment.

On Thursday, Mr Holmes was formally evicted from his apartment, the Denver Post reported, as his landlord said that booby-trapping the apartment, as well as murder, violated his lease.

Despite the gag order, some details about the accused have emerged in the US media.

It was reported this week that the suspect's university psychiatrist, Dr Lynne Fenton, told campus police weeks before the attack that she was concerned about his behaviour.

It has also been reported that the accused posted a package to the psychiatrist, containing a notebook with descriptions of an attack. The parcel was found in the university's mail room three days after the massacre.

9 August 2012 Last updated at 23:38 GMT

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19197407

from BBC News

1.massacre 大屠殺
2.prosecutor 檢察官
3.disclosure 洩露
4.testimony 見證
5.queue 對列
6.unseal 啟封
7.neuroscience 神經科學
8. jeopardise 危害
9.cite 引用
10.warrant 保證
11.defendant 被告
12.eviction 趕出
13.allegedly 據稱

W1-Dokdo

Dokdo

DPP demand clarity on Diaoyutai talks

RESOLUTIONS NEEDED:The president said he would dispatch more patrols to the area and seek to prove Qing era claims over the disputed islands

By Chris Wang, Stacy Su and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter and Staff writers, with CNA

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) should clearly explain his view that Taiwan could negotiate with Japan on sovereignty of the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday following the release of Ma’s interview with state-run China News Agency (CNA).

“We are not sure what Ma meant in the interview about negotiations with Japan over the Diaoyutais’ sovereignty, as he had not done so in his first four-year term,” DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said.

Ma said in the interview that Taiwan would negotiate with Japan about the fishing rights of Taiwanese fishermen around the Diaoyutais as well as the sovereignty of the disputed islands.

Ma should also pay attention to a false perception he had created that Taiwan intended to collaborate with Beijing on the issue, Lin said.

The DPP would not comment on Ma’s rhetoric, which described the DPP’s efforts to increase its exchange with China as “timid,” Lin said.

The party also said it considered a much-publicized meeting between Ma and opposition leaders to be “secondary” because “the priority for Ma now [should be] ... to do everything he can to improve Taiwanese people’s well-being, not to meet with the opposition,” Lin said.

In his interview, Ma pledged to push ahead with the objectives set forth in the East China Sea Peace Initiative based on the core principle of “no division of territory, and common share of resources.”

The initiative was proposed by Ma on Aug. 5 amid growing tensions in the East China Sea.

Ma’s proposal was followed by more confrontation by concerned parties in the resource-rich area — which has been at the center of escalating disputes between Taiwan, Japan and China for years because of conflicting claims over the islands.

“The purpose of submitting the peace initiative is for all interested parties to solve the matter peacefully, as escalating tension in the region would inevitably lead to collision, or even armed conflict. That is something no neighboring countries would be pleased to see,” Ma said.

Defending the nation’s sovereignty claims over the islands, Ma said that geographically, the distance from the island group to Taiwan was the shortest and it had remained an inherent territory of the Republic of China.

Traditionally, the region has also been a fishing region for Taiwanese fishermen for more than a century, Ma said.

As part of the government’s effort to safeguard the country’s interests and fishing rights in the area, Ma said that the Coast Guard Administration had dispatched vessels to escort and secure Taiwanese fishing vessels on 10 occasions, including one occasion that involved a five-hour standoff with Japanese patrol guards.

“The fishing rights of Taiwanese fishermen will not be the only issue we plan to bring up with Japan, as the government will also put the matter of sovereignty on our negotiation table,” Ma said, adding that if Japan refused to recognize the existence of sovereignty disputes over the islands, these aforementioned matters could never be fully addressed.

Ma said that Japan had sought to settle bitter rows with Russia over the Kuril Islands, known as Southern Kurils in Russia and Northern Territories in Japan, and with South Korea over the Liancourt Rocks, which is called Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese, in the International Court of Justice.

Taipei Times

Tue,Aug 28,2012

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2012/08/28/2003541380

1.sovereignty 主權
2.negotiation 談判
3. perception 感覺
4.collaborate 合作
5.escalate 升級
6. collision 碰撞
7.aforementioned 前述的
8.safeguard 維護
9.initiative 主動
10. well-being  福利