104-01-Week Six

This Is Life Under a Terror Lockdown in Brussels

The headlines portray Brussels as a ghost town, with the streets in the historic center of this European capital eerily quiet, while the sight of soldiers and tanks instills fear in those who do venture outside. And maybe that’s true, but it’s difficult for me, a resident of Brussels for nearly three years, to even tell — I can’t even get to the center of town.

As for most the city’s 1.2 million inhabitants, it’s not the army in the street or the threat of gunfire and explosions that’s really overshadowing my life — it’s the complete shutdown of public services, which is making normal life impossible.

Though the alert level was raised on Saturday — 21 people have so been arrested in Brussels in connection to the investigations of the Paris attacks — it was the start of the working week on Monday when the reality of life under lockdown hit home. A text message from my 7-month-old son’s nursery informed us that the government ordered them to close. Schools and universities also shut their doors, so even parents who could get to work without taking the Metro — which has been closed since Saturday — had to find someone to look after their children.

Luckily my son’s babysitter is a university student, so she was free to come and look after him while I worked from home. But by Monday morning, it wasn’t only the Metro that was paralyzed. Some trams and 15 bus lines were also suspended. Those buses that were running had a reduced service. It wasn’t clear why, but one driver told my son’s babysitter that some staff had refused to come in because they were worried for their safety. So it took her over an hour to complete a journey that usually takes half that time.

When my partner tried to get to work, he waited an hour for a bus that never came. As he sat trying to keep warm at the bus stop, police came and shut down the roundabout in front of him for a few minutes, then opened it again. This is in a suburb far away from Molenbeek — the neighborhood where some of the Paris attackers were based — the institutions of the E.U., and the main bar-and-restaurant district.

It seems surreal and chaotic — like an alternative reality in my adopted city. I can sense it even though I have not left the house since Saturday morning. It’s not fear keeping me inside, at least, but the idea of navigating the late-running buses with a baby. All across the city people are experiencing the same frustrations — trying to work from home with impatient children who don’t understand why they are not in school or why they can’t do something fun like go to the park.

And there are costs to living under lockdown — my partner’s taxi to work, the babysitter, now a taxi home for the babysitter. Because of the problems with public transport, I have not been able to go to the shops, so maybe I may have to pay for a takeout for dinner as well.

More than 10 days after Paris, it’s still hard to believe that a terrorist threat has managed to cause such chaos in a European capital. Yet it has. So I sit in my home, following the more dramatic events on Twitter, ears attuned to the distant sounds of police sirens, which mingle with the tune of the ice cream truck. At least the truck is still making its rounds, a small slice of normality in an otherwise bizarre week.

http://time.com/4124427/brussels-terrorism-lockdown-paris-attacks/

K

104-01-Week Five

Bangkok bomb: Has the case been solved?

Twenty people died and more than 120 were injured in the horrific bombing on 17 August in central Bangkok at the Erawan shrine. But the investigation into who perpetrated the attack has seen conflicting statements and perplexing developments. Here are the twist and turns that took police from knowing very little after the deadly blast, to claiming to have identified their main suspect six weeks later.

The immediate aftermath: conflicting statements

On 18 August, a day after the bomb, another explosion in a canal sent a huge column of water over passers-by, but caused no injuries. Later police identified it as caused by a bomb similar to the one at the shrine.

On 19 August police showed CCTV video, taken from the shrine and surrounding area. In it a man in a yellow shirt, with long hair and thick-framed spectacles, leaves a black backpack beside a bench at the shrine, and walks out just before the bomb explodes.

The police can ascertain nothing about his identity from the grainy images, and have no information after he was dropped off by a motorbike taxi about a kilometre from the shrine.

On 22 August new CCTV video shows another man kicking a bag into the canal where the 18 August explosion occurred. This took place just 30 minutes after the first bomb.

The police now know they are dealing with a network. But their often conflicting statements undermine public confidence in their competence.

On 24 August the investigation stalls. Police complain that inconsistent witness testimony and broken CCTV cameras are hampering their work.

"We have to use our imagination," admits police chief Somyot Poompunmuang. He says they do not know whether the perpetrators are still in Thailand or not.

Arrests are made: 'But main suspect not caught'

On 29 August there is a breakthrough - police and military officers detain their first suspect, a foreign man carrying a fake Turkish passport, found surrounded by potential bomb-making materials in an apartment north of Bangkok.

The following day they find more materials in another apartment. A Thai Muslim woman and her Turkish husband are also named as suspects. Both are believed to be in Turkey.

On 31 August Chief Somyot brings out a stack of cash - 3m Thai baht ($82,000; £54,000) offered as a reward for information leading to arrests - and gives it to his own officers.

On 1 September the second suspect is detained, after being handed back across the border by the Cambodian authorities.

He is carrying a Chinese passport that identifies him as Yusufu Mierali, a Muslim from Xinjiang where the Uighur minority lives. Police believe he may have assembled the bomb. They think the yellow-shirt bomber is still at large.

By 5 September a total of 10 arrest warrants have been issued.

Perpetrators are foreign: 'People smugglers are to blame'

On 9 September police identify a man named "Izan" they believe organised the bombing, who left Thailand for Bangladesh the night before the attack. With the help of Bangladesh they trace his movements via Delhi and Abu Dhabi to Istanbul.

His passport shows his real name as Abudusataer Abudureheman, a Muslim Chinese citizen from Xinjiang. There is still confusion over whether Thailand has requested any help from Turkey. The Thai police have insisted all along that foreign assistance is not needed.

By now it is clear most of the plotters are foreigners. Both suspects in Thai custody are Muslim Uighurs from China's Xinjiang province, as is "Izan", the man the Thais believe was the ringleader.

Sources who have met the suspects say they speak of repression in Xinjiang and appear to have been radicalised. But the police continue to maintain the bombing was not an act of politically-motivated terrorism, but the work of people smugglers annoyed by Thai anti-trafficking operations.

This despite the growing conviction among terrorism experts that it was most likely retribution for the Thai decision to forcibly repatriate 109 Uighur asylum-seekers to China in July.

Yellow-shirt bomber: 'We had him all along'

Police on 25 September say they now believe that the first suspect they detained, Bilal Mohammed, is the yellow-shirt bomber. They say he confessed to being the bomber on 23 September and that this is supported by new CCTV video and photographs from Yusufu Mierali's camera.

Bilal had until then insisted he was just being smuggled to Malaysia using a false Turkish passport. His unexpected confession was made in military custody, without his lawyer. A source who has seen him tells the BBC he believes Bilal was coerced into confessing.

A total of 17 arrest warrants have been issued for suspects carrying Chinese, Turkish, Thai and Pakistani passports. Fifteen are still at large, probably outside Thailand. It is not clear what the Thai authorities are doing to track these suspects down.

Outgoing police chief Somyot announces on 28 September that the case is solved, they have the main perpetrators in custody. He displays the 3m baht reward again.

He also suggests for the first time that there are links with a "political group", and names a man loosely affiliated with the red-shirt movement loyal to ousted Prime Ministers Yingluck and Thaksin Shinawatra, who is wanted in connection with two smaller explosions in 2010 and 2014.

It turns out this man has been living outside Thailand for more than a year, and Gen Somyot backtracks. But other senior officials say they are still looking for him.

On 30 September chief Somyot retires after a year in the job. He still insists the motive for the Bangkok bombing is anger among people-smugglers, not retaliation by militants for deporting Uighurs.

Outside the police very few people are persuaded by Gen Somyot's theory. The two suspects in custody have yet to be charged. When they are, they face trial in a military court, which human rights groups have warned would not be equipped to judge a complex case like this.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34409348

Structure of the Lead：

who-a man in a yellow shirt

when-17 August

what-a bomb similar to the one at the shrine.

why-not given

where-in central Bangkok at the Erawan shrine

how-a man in a yellow shirt, with long hair and thick-framed spectacles, leaves a black backpack beside a bench at the shrine, and walks out just before the bomb explodes.

Keywords:
1. perpetrate:犯
2. undermine:破壞
3. ascertain:查明
4. inconsistent:不符的
5. testimony:見證
6. smugglers:走私者
7. affiliated:附屬
8. militants:武裝分子
9. custody:保管

104-01-Week Three

WHO calls MERS outbreak a 'wakeup call'

South Korean officials announced one more death in the country's MERS outbreak Friday, raising the total death toll to 24.

One new case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) was also announced, bringing the total number to 166, according to South Korea's Ministry of Health.

The number of people under quarantine in South Korea, both in their own homes or in quarantine facilities, declined from 6,729 to 5,930

The World Health Organization described the MERS outbreak as a "wakeup call," showing that outbreaks can happen anywhere.

The WHO has said that the number of new cases "appears to be declining" -- indicating that the outbreak could be slowing down. But it also warned that "all outbreaks are unpredictable" -- especially for new diseases that are not well understood.

This week, there had been a sign of a possible return to normalcy, as thousands of schools across South Korea re-opened after closures due to the deadly outbreak. But it came with heightened awareness; children's temperatures were monitored in classrooms and teachers warned students to practice personal hygiene and frequently wash their hands.

The WHO had recommended re-opening institutions last week because transmission of the virus had not been linked to schools. The MERS outbreak remains largely confined to health care settings.

Efforts on MERS antibody

Researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and China's Fudan University have been working on an antibody treatment that could fight MERS. An antibody is a protein that combats pathogens like viruses and bacteria.

The antibody treatment has only been through lab and animal tests so far and requires trials on humans before it could be available to MERS patients.

While the antibody, named m336, has been effective in animals, it has yet to be tested on MERS patients, said Professor Jiang Shibo from Fudan University. All U.S. drugs are required to have human trials, as there are treatments that work in animals but turn out to be ineffective in people.

The human trial process could take three to four years, but experimental treatments can be used if patients and the local government consent.

So far, m336 has been considered the most potent of several antibodies that could be used to fight MERS, according to a scientific summary published in the Journals Center for Cancer Research.

Saudi Arabia connection

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has recorded five cases of MERS in the past week, the official state-run Saudi press agency said Sunday, citing a weekly Ministry of Health statement. It included one death of a 73-year-old man who died in the city of Turaba and had a pre-existing condition.

The strain of coronavirus that causes MERS was first identified in 2012 in Saudi Arabia, according to the WHO.

The man believed to be "patient zero" in the current outbreak in South Korea visited Saudi Arabia in May, along with three other Middle Eastern countries. That 68-year-old patient went from facility-to-facility near or around Seoul before getting properly diagnosed. It triggered the hospital-based transmission of MERS in South Korea.

The South Korean outbreak is the largest outside of Saudi Arabia -- nearly 6,000 people remain in quarantine.

Gangnam hospital focal point in MERS outbreak

In Seoul, Samsung Medical Center -- one of the city's hospitals that has counted many of the nation's MERS cases among its patients and visitors -- announced Sunday that it will suspend all surgical procedures except for emergency surgery "to fully focus on responding to MERS."

More than 50 confirmed MERS cases have been traced back to the medical center, according to the center's website.

The medical center, located in Seoul's glitzy Gangnam district and considered one of the most prominent hospitals in the capital, issued an apology for its handling of MERS.

"We sincerely apologize with our heads bent to the people for causing great concern as Samsung Medical Center became the center (of) the spread of MERS," hospital President Song Jae-hoon said.

Structure of the Lead：

who-South Korean

when-not given

what-MERS outbreak

why-not given

where-South Korea

how-not given

Keywords:

1. outbreak:爆發

2. quarantine:檢疫

3. unpredictable:不可預知的

4. monitor:監控 

5. state-run:國營

6. facility:設施

7. pathogen:病原

8. suspend:暫停

9. prominent:傑出的

104-01-Week Two

  Central Nepal Earthquake - April 25th, 2015

A large earthquake of magnitude Mw7.8 occurred in central Nepal on April 25th, 2015. This earthquake is responsible for more than 5000 deaths and massive destructions in the city of Kathmandu and the surrounding areas.

       The April 25 earthquake has been followed by many aftershocks, as for example a Mw6.7 event on the day that followed the main shock. Most of the aftershocks are close to edges of the ruptured zone as it may be approximately delineated from seismological and geodetic observations. They are more particularly concentrated near its eastern edge. On May 12, a new earthquake of magnitude Mw7.3 occurred in this eastern zone with the same mechanism as the main shock (shallow dipping thrust). For its characteristics and location, that earthquake appears to belong to the same sequence than the main shock and should be considered as strong aftershock.

Based on geological cross-sections, crustal structure model, and the preliminary seismological data available few days after the main shock, it appears that the earthquake has ruptured a piece of the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT). The rupture started at the epicenter, about 80km to the northwest of Kathmandu and propagated eastward for about 130 km, rupturing the area directly located under the capital city of Nepal. Preliminary models of co-seismic slip actually suggest that the largest amount of slip (2 m to 5 m) on the fault would be located just below the city. The focal mechanism derived from the analyses of seismological data shows a fault plane striking N143°E, with a very shallow dip of 7° towards the North.

Numerous aftershocks continue to happen since the occurrence of the main shock. Some of these aftershocks have a magnitude way above 6 with two events with magnitude respectively of 6.6 and 6.7. The first one was located in the epicentral area and the later one occurred to the North East of Kathmandu. Many more aftershocks with smaller magnitude continue to occur every day. The aftershocks are distributed in an area roughly 150 km long and 50 km wide, with the majority of the aftershocks located in the eastern part of the ruptured area. At first order, the area defined by the bulk of aftershocks corresponds to the ruptured area on the fault plane. The location of the ruptured area, together with the shallow dip of the focal mechanism, suggest that it is most probably the sub-horizontal part of the MHT that has ruptured, mostly the deeper part of it. The possible spatial extent of the ruptured area is shown in red on the cross-section of the Himalaya front at the crustal scale. The quasi absence of aftershocks to the south of the valley of Kathmandu suggests that the rupture has not propagated southward to reach the surface along the Main Frontal Thrust. This, however, will have to be further assessed in the weeks to come.

The Himalayan front has been the location of many large earthquakes in the past. Although they are not all well documented, recent paleoseismological investigations provided a better idea of the past seismicity of the area, and more precisely of the lateral extent of the Mw8.2 event that devastated Kathmandu in 1934. In the same study, the penultimate event has also been identified, in 1255AD, and the series of previous events, yielding a return time close to 700 – 800 yrs (Sapkota et al., 2013, Bollinger et al., 2014). The most recent work by the international team formed of French researchers (L. Bollinger and Y. Klinger for CEA and IPGP respectively), Singaporian researchers (P. Tapponnier and his team, EOS) and Nepalese researchers (S. Sapkota and his team, DMG) has shown, based on the balance between the energy dissipated by past earthquakes and the long term tectonic loading, that the area located between the earthquake of 1934, to the east, and the event of 1505, to the west, that did rupture last in 1344AD, was very close to rupture, as proved by the event of April 25th, 2015.

Structure of the Lead:

Who-not given

Where- Nepal

When- April 25th, 2015

What- A large earthquake of magnitude Mw7.8

Why-not given

How-not given

Keywords:

1.magnitude:大小

2.ruptured:破裂
3.seismological:地震學上的
4.preliminary:初步
5.epicenter:震中
6.propagate:傳播
7.seismicity:地震
8.penultimate:倒數第二
9.tectonic:構造

104-01-Week One

Migrant boat re-enters Malaysian waters after refusing offer to land: Thai officials

The Royal Thai Navy airdropped food and water to hundreds of desperate Rohingya(羅興亞人) migrants stranded on a stricken boat off southern Thailand -- then fixed the vessel's engine so it could continue on to Malaysian waters.

In the latest developments in the crisis engulfing Southeast Asia, hungry migrants were filmed jumping from the boat into the water early Friday to recover the provisions dropped from a Thai military helicopter.

Meanwhile, the International Organization for Migration (IOM)(國際移民組織) said it had dispatched medical teams in response to a request from the Indonesian government after two more vessels containing hundreds of Rohingya migrants made landfall in Aceh.

The larger vessel had about 700 people aboard, including many women and children, and the smaller one about 50, according to Jeff Labovitz, Bangkok-based spokesman for the IOM. Ten people on board the larger vessel were in critical condition with severe malnutrition and dehydration, but were expected to survive, he said.

The boat in Thai waters, carrying about 300 Rohingya men, women and children, was found floating with a broken engine near the southern Thai island of Lipe, having been abandoned by its captain but with two crew onboard, said the governor of Thailand's Satun Province, Dejrat Simsiri.

The boat then set out on a southwest course and re-entered Malaysian waters, after rejecting an offer from Thai authorities to allow the passengers to come ashore in Thailand, according to Thai government spokesman Colonel Weerachon Sukhontapitak and an international body.

Thailand's deputy government spokesman Major General Sansern Kaewkumnerd said Thai naval officers who inspected the vessels were told the boat intended to continue to a "third country."

"The Thais agreed to allow them to disembark, they said no," said Jeff Labovitz, Bangkok-based spokesman for the International Organization Migration (IOM), which is monitoring the unfolding crisis on Southeast Asian waters.

"That's really important -- the Thais did the right thing here."

Asked why those on board would have turned down the offer to leave the vessel, he said: "I have to assume they don't really understand what's going on."

Malaysia was the migrants' desired destination, he said, and it was also possible that trafficking brokers on board, concerned about avoiding Thai authorities, were calling the shots.

"Thailand is cracking down -- if you're a broker you're going to be interviewed and detained," he said.

Crisis spreads

As a consequence, he said, the "game of ping pong" involving the vessel and other migrant boats was set to continue. Earlier in the week, he said, Malaysian authorities had given the same boat food and water, before turning it around.

Thousands of migrants -- mostly members of Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya minority, and also economic migrants from Bangladesh -- are believed to be stranded aboard rickety traffickers' ships in the busy waters of the Malacca Strait and the Andaman Sea, looking for a safe harbor to take them in.

Rights groups have called on regional governments to mount urgent search and rescue missions to save the imperiled migrants aboard the boats, many of which they say have been abandoned by their captains.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/15/asia/thailand-malaysia-rohingya-refugees/

Structure of the Lead：

who-Rohingya migrants

when-not given

what-The Royal Thai Navy airdropped food and water to hundreds of desperate Rohingya migrants stranded on a stricken boat off southern Thailand.

why-not given

where-Southeast Asia,Malaysian

how-not given

Keywords:

1. desperate: 危及

2. engulf: 吞沒

3. provision: 規定

4. dispatch: 出動；調度

5. malnutrition: 營養不良

6. dehydration: 脫水

7. authorities: 當局

8. ashore: 岸上

9. disembark: 登陸

10. persecute: 迫害