Week4-German FM plays down intel claiming Ukraine militia downed MH17

German FM plays down intel claiming Ukraine militia downed MH17

The German Foreign Ministry maintains the media interpretation of an October statement by the president of national intelligence agency alleging self-defense militia downed MH17 flight in Ukraine was incomplete and taken out of context.

The Russian embassy in Berlin received an official response to note #3693 from October 27 regarding Germany’s Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND intelligence agency) President Gerhard Schindler’s allegations that local militia in eastern Ukraine shot down the Malaysia Airlines flight in July.

“The media interpretation of the report of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) president delivered to the Bundestag Committee overseeing intelligence activities on October 8 is incomplete and arbitrarily taken out of context,” the note says.

German diplomats insisted that the BND’s analysis and evaluation was based “on information obtained from intelligence and from open sources,” which included data from the interim report of the Dutch investigation commission conducting the inquiry.

The report delivered by Schindler “evaluated multiple valid scenarios with regard to their plausibility and probability,” the note said. The ministry stressed that according to the decision of the International Civil Aviation Association (ICAA), investigation of the MH17 flight crash was handed over to Dutch authorities, authorized to exclusively deliver all information on the issue.

According to information made public by Germany’s Der Spiegel daily on October 19, Schindler delivered a statement in Bundestag on October 8 in which he claimed the militia in Ukraine’s Donetsk Region fired a rocket from a BUK defense missile system which it had captured from a Ukrainian base. It shot down the Malaysian Boeing as it was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 passengers and crew aboard.

Putin accuses Ukrainian troops of shelling MH17 crash site

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who met on Monday with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on the sidelines of an APEC summit in China, has also spoken on the issue of flight MH17.

Having expressed condolences to the families of the perished passengers and Malaysian state, Vladimir Putin confirmed that Moscow insists on a complete and objective international investigation of the MH17 catastrophe in accordance with the corresponding UN resolution.

At the same time Putin disagreed with the Malaysian PM, who demanded greater access to the crash site” fully controlled by the local militia.” The reference that the crash site is fully controlled by so-called pro-Russian separatists is absolutely inconsistent, because it is not them, but the opposite side that is constantly shelling that territory,” Putin said. He noted that it is this shelling that prevents investigators from working properly at the crash site.

He welcomed the fact that Malaysian experts have finally got access to fully-fledged participation in the investigation.” I’m sure your experts will contribute the necessary to the adequate investigation of this tragedy,” Putin told Razak. An international team of investigators managed to recover more human remains from the MH17 crash site in eastern Ukraine, the Dutch prime minister announced in late October. Still, investigators are intending to continue with the search operation and hire local contractors to collect plane debris beyond their reach, Reuters reported last week.

http://rt.com/news/203995-germany-intelligence-report-mh17/

Structure of the Lead：
WHO- The German Foreign Ministry
WHEN- 10 Nov. 2014
WHAT- MH17 flight in Ukraine was incomplete and taken out of context.
WHY-Not given
WHERE-German
HOW-not given
Keywords：
1. interpretation：解釋
2. embassy：大使
3. allegations：主張
4. militia：國民軍
5. interim：過渡期間
6. condolences：弔唁
7 catastrophe：大災
8.  accordance：授予
9.  fully-fledged  ：鞏固的
10. contractors：立約人

week3-Vietnam anti-China protest: Factories burnt

Vietnam anti-China protest: Factories burnt

At least 15 foreign-owned factories have been set on fire amid anti-China protests at industrial parks in southern Vietnam. Hundreds more were attacked by some of the 20,000 workers who protesting in the streets of Binh Duong province. They are protesting after China moved a drilling rig into waters also claimed by Vietnam earlier this month.

No casualties have been reported but officials said at least 200 people had been arrested over the violence. In response to the protests, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said Vietnam was the "provocateur", and that Beijing had expressed concern to Hanoi. Meanwhile, Taiwan summoned the Vietnamese envoy to Taipei after reports that many Taiwanese firms were targeted having been mistaken by rioters for Chinese factories. Singaporean and Japanese plants were also targeted.

Foreign investment fears

The protesters began gathering in Thuan An town, in Binh Duong - Vietnam's industrial heartland - on Monday, officials said. They then moved on to two nearby industrial parks on Tuesday. Three factories were set on fire on Tuesday evening after workers had gone home, a spokesperson for the Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) told the BBC. An employee of a Singaporean company told the BBC they saw four burnt buildings on Wednesday morning, and another eight - including one belonging to a Taiwan-founded shoe firm - with shattered windows and smashed front gates.

"The protesters appeared to have targeted companies that had Chinese characters in their logos or signs," said the employee, who declined to be named. The protest has spooked some foreign companies. Reuters reports that Hong Kong-listed sports shoe maker Yue Yuen, which supplies footwear to Adidas, Nike and other international brands, had suspended production in Vietnam.

Territorial disputes

Earlier this month, China moved its Haiyang Shiyou 981 oil rig 120 nautical miles off the coast of Vietnam. The area is near the Paracel Islands, over which China and Vietnam have contesting claims. The move sparked a bitter protest from the Vietnamese government, which demanded an immediate pull-out, and clashes between ships from both countries around the rig.

Protests have been staged in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, while on Tuesday the US warned China that its actions were "provocative”. Beijing claims a U-shaped swathe of the South China Sea that covers areas other South East Asian nations say are their territory.The Philippines on Wednesday accused China of reclaiming land on a disputed South China Sea reef in order to build a new facility - possibly an airstrip or a military base. Manila lodged a protest last month after images taken from the air showed China had been moving materials into Johnson Reef in the Spratly Islands, officials said.

"We're not exactly sure what their intentions there are," Foreign Secretary Albert Del Rosario told AP news agency. Ties between Beijing and Manila have deteriorated severely in recent months because of the territorial row. Manila is taking Beijing to an international court over the issue. It also recently signed a security deal with the US allowing more troops onto its soil, in a move seen as reflecting the difficult ties with China.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27403851

Structure of the Lead：

WHO-Vietnam’s 15 foreign-owned factories employees

WHEN-14 May 2014

WHAT-Because they have been set on fire amid anti-China protests at industrial parks in southern Vietnam.

WHY-For her work in furthering education for children

WHERE-Taliban 

HOW-not given

Keywords：

1.province：地區

2.arrest：拘捕

3.summon：喚起

4.envoy：外交官

5.rioter：喧鬧者 

6.smash：擊潰

7.footwear：鞋類　

8.suspend：使終止

9.lodge：提出

10.dispute：爭論

Week2-South Korea ferry disaster

South Korea ferry disaster: students testify in captain's murder trial

Student survivors of South Korea's Sewol ferry disaster, testifying in the murder trial of the captain and crew, recalled being repeatedly told to stay put as the ship was sinking.” They kept saying the same thing over and over," one said, describing how she and classmates obeyed the order until the ferry had listed so far that the door to their cabin was above their heads. Another described watching a wave sweep her classmates back inside the sinking boat.

The trial is taking place in the southern city of Gwangju, but the judges and lawyers decamped to a court in Ansan city, south of Seoul, for a special two-day session with the 17 students who agreed to testify. Police cordons blocked public access to the district court as the students – all from Ansan's Dawon high school – arrived in a red minibus and were escorted into the building by a tight phalanx of police officers.

Although they were offered the option of testifying by video from a nearby room, five of the six female students involved in Monday's morning session chose to give their testimony in the courtroom. The student who took the video option described how passengers suddenly slid to one side as the ferry listed heavily.

"The internal tannoy announcement said we should put our life vest on and stay put," she was quoted as saying by a pool reporter in the court, adding that the message was given repeatedly. The 6,825-tonne Sewol passenger ferry capsized on 16 April off South Korea's southern coast. Of the 476 people on board, 325 were Dawon high school pupils on an organised outing. Only 75 students survived. The female student said they had obeyed the order not to move until water started coming through the window of their cabin which, by now, was under their feet.

"The door was above our heads. We had our lifejackets on and the president of our class suggested we wait until we could float upwards and then escape," she said. Eventually some classmates managed to clamber up fixed furniture. They pulled the others up and out as the waters inside rose. Another witness, who testified in the courtroom, said at no time was she or those who escaped with her helped by any crew. As the ferry keeled over to one side, she said a group of students managed to move along a now horizontal stairwell towards an escape hatch. At the moment she jumped out, a sea swell swept over their escape route.

"There were many classmates in the corridor and most of them were swept back into the ship," she recalled. The tragedy, and in particular the loss of so many young lives, rocked South Korea. In the days immediately after the disaster, TV stations broadcast wrenching mobile phone footage taken by one student victim of himself and his classmates laughing and joking about being in the Titanic movie as the ferry begins to list.As the situation worsens, the students begin to panic, even as the ship tannoy can be heard advising them to stay put.Sewol captain Lee Joon-Seok and three senior crew members are accused of "homicide through wilful negligence" – a charge that can carry the death penalty. Eleven other crew are being tried on lesser violations of maritime law.

The bulk of the charges against the crew arise from the fact that Lee and the others chose to abandon ship while hundreds of people were still trapped inside the heavily listing vessel before it capsized. The final death toll was just over 300.The crew were also condemned for ordering the passengers to remain where they were when the ship began listing. A handful of crew members who stayed and tried to guide passengers to safety were among those who died. Lee and his crew were publicly vilified in the wake of the tragedy, and there have concerns about the possibility of a fair trial with emotions still running high.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/28/south-korea-ferry-disaster-students-testify-captain-murder-trial

 Structure of the Lead：

WHO- Ansan's Dawon high school students

WHEN-not given

WHAT-South Korea's Sewol ferry disaster

WHY-Student survivors of South Korea's Sewol ferry disaster, testifying in the murder trial of the captain and crew

WHERE-Korea’s the southern city of Gwangju

HOW-not given

Keywords：

1. testify：證實

2. trial：審訊

3.decamp：逃走

4. escort：護送

5. testimony：證言

6. quote：引述

7. internal Tannoy：國內廣播系統

8. keeled over：倒塌

9. corridor：通道

10. wrenching：動盪不清的