Week 7 -Chang Guann oil

Taiwan’s ‘Gutter Oil’ Scandal

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

SEPT. 18, 2014

Since Sept. 4, the Taiwanese authorities have been struggling to control a food scare caused by 645 tons of adulterated cooking oil produced by the Chang Guann Company and distributed to more than 1,200 restaurants, schools and food processors. As of Monday, health authorities had identified a wide array of more than 1,300 food products tainted by the oil, including instant noodles, snacks, cakes, dumplings, bread, canned pork, meat paste and glutinous rice. Taiwan obviously needs a stronger food-safety policy with meaningful penalties.

Chang Guann has been buying what’s known as “gutter oil” — recycled oil from restaurant waste and animal byproducts — from an illegal factory and mixing it with lard to make its Chuan Tung cooking oil. Though the illegal factory had been in business for more than a decade, the authorities had failed to detect what it was up to. Chang Guann had also managed to delude inspectors. Recycled gutter oil can contain carcinogens. No case of illness has been reported so far. Chang Guann was fined a trifling $1.67 million for its illegal sales.

The investigation also revealed that Chang Guann had been importing lard from Hong Kong that was intended for industrial purposes but falsely listed by the Hong Kong company as fit for human consumption.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare is now working to set up a system to monitor about 100 oil manufacturers and 500 importers in Taiwan, requiring them to register information about their products. Submitting fraudulent information could lead to a maximum fine of $100,000 and suspension of business for one year.

The scare follows a series of other food scandals last year; in one case, a factory owner was sentenced to 16 years in prison for adding a banned coloring agent, copper chlorophyllin, to olive oil. The Taiwanese authorities need to be doing more than reacting to food-safety problems on an ad hoc basis to ensure that what people eat is safe.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/opinion/taiwans-gutter-oil-scandal.html?_r=0

Structure of the Lead：

        WHO- the Taiwanese authorities

   WHEN- Sept. 4

 WHAT- have been struggling to control a food scare caused by 645 tons of adulterated cooking oil produced by the Chang Guann Company and distributed to more than 1,200 restaurants, schools and food processors. 

  WHY- As of Monday, health authorities had identified a wide array of more than 1,300 food products tainted by the oil, including instant noodles, snacks, cakes, dumplings, bread, canned pork, meat paste and glutinous rice.

  WHERE-not given

  HOW-not given

Keywords：

   1. Gutter oil：地溝油

   2. adulterated ：摻假

   3. food-safety ：食品安全

   4. waste：廢棄物

   5. lard：豬油

   6. delude ：騙

   7. carcinogens ：致癌物

   8. scare ：恐慌

       9. copper chlorophyllin：葉綠素銅

  10. olive oil ：橄欖油

Week 6 - Japan Mount Ontake Eruption

More than 30 believed dead in Japanese eruption

AP, TOKYO

Mon, Sep 29, 2014

Rescue workers have found 30 or more people unconscious and thought to be dead near the peak of an erupting volcano in central Japan, local government and police said yesterday.

Nagano Prefecture posted on its Web site that about 30 people had heart and lung failure, the customary way for Japanese authorities to describe a body until police physicians can examine it. At least four people were being brought down from 3,067m Mount Ontake yesterday afternoon, a day after it began erupting.

A Nagano police official numbered unconscious people at more than 30. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Mount Ontake, about 210km west of Tokyo, began erupting shortly before noon on Saturday, spewing large white plumes of gas and ash high into the sky and blanketing the surrounding area in ash. The mountain is a popular climbing destination and at least 250 people were initially trapped on the slopes, though most made their way down by Saturday night.

Before the unconscious victims were found, Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency said that 45 people had been reported missing. The exact location of the people and their identities were not immediately known.

Rescue workers were also trying to help injured people and others who had been stranded on the mountain overnight, many taking refuge in mountain lodges. Some were unable to descend on their own, or unwilling to take the risk.

Seven people were picked up in three helicopter trips, Japanese Ministry of Defense official Toshihiko Muraki said. All are conscious and can walk, though details of their conditions were unclear, he said.

Japanese television footage showed a soldier descending from a helicopter to an ash-covered slope, helping latch on a man and then the two of them being pulled up.

Japan’s Self-Defense Force has deployed seven helicopters and 250 troops. Police and fire departments are also taking part in the rescue effort.

Shinichi Shimohara, who works at a shrine at the foot of the mountain, said he was on his way up on Saturday morning when he heard a loud noise that sounded like strong winds followed by “thunder” as the volcano erupted.

“For a while, I heard thunder pounding a number of times,” he said. “Soon after, some climbers started descending. They were all covered with ash, completely white. I thought to myself, this must be really serious.”

The volcano’s most recent major eruption was in 1979.

 http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2014/09/29/2003600819

Structure of the Lead：

        WHO- local government and police

   WHEN- yesterday

   WHAT- Rescue workers have found 30 or more people unconscious and thought to be dead near the peak of an erupting volcano

   WHY- an erupting volcano

   WHERE- central Japan

   HOW-not given

Keywords：

   1. unconscious：昏迷

   2. eruption：爆發

   3. volcano：火山

   4. anonymity ：匿名

   5. spew：噴湧

   6. trapped：被困

   7. refuge ：避難所

   8. helicopter：直昇機

   9. thunder：雷聲

 10. descend：降

Week 5- Ebola

Elaborate Ebola claims all lies: CDC

Staff writer, with CAN

Sun, Dec 07, 2014

A suspected Ebola case reported to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) appears to be a hoax after a test on a young man hospitalized on Friday came back negative, a health official said yesterday.

The 19-year-old student now faces a fine of between NT$10,000 and NT$150,000 under the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法), which requires people to provide factual information about communicable diseases.

CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said that the test was negative after samples were rushed to a lab in Taipei early in the morning.

The young man’s story about traveling in Africa and eating bat meat are now believed to have been entirely made up.

Chuang said earlier that a search based on the personal information provided by the man yielded no record of him ever leaving Taiwan, despite claims that he had recently been to Nigeria. It turns out that he does not even have a passport, Chuang added.

The claim was also suspicious because Nigeria was declared Ebola-free in October, even as other west African nations continue to battle the spread of the virus.

It was not immediately clear why the young man had given false information to doctors at Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, where he was admitted late on Friday.

If the test results had come back positive, the man would have been the nation’s first Ebola case.

The student, who is said to have taken an extended leave from school, has shown no symptoms since being hospitalized and has given contradictory accounts of his condition and purported travels, Chuang said.

The man complained of a fever and other symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea, the hospital said.

Even though the man had not traveled to the three West African nations still listed as having ongoing Ebola outbreaks, the hospital reported the suspected case to the CDC at about midnight on Friday after careful evaluation, Kaohsiung Department of Health official Tsai Wu-hsiung (蔡武雄) said.

As a precaution, the patient had been placed in a negative pressure isolation ward, officials said.

 http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2014/12/07/2003606151

Structure of the Lead：

   WHO-a health official

   WHEN-yesterday

   WHAT-A suspected Ebola case reported to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) appears to be a hoax 

   WHY-after a test on a young man hospitalized on Friday came back negative

   WHERE-not given

   HOW-not given

Keywords：

   1. Ebola ：伊波拉

   2. hoax ：惡作劇

   3. fine ：罰款

   4. negative ：陰性

   5. bat ：蝙蝠

   6.suspicious ：可疑的

   7.symptoms ：症狀

   8.vomiting ：嘔吐

   9.diarrhea：腹瀉

   10.negative pressure isolation ward：負壓隔離病房

Week 4-Plane crash on Penghu kills dozens

Plane crash on Penghu kills dozens

By Shelley Shan and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter and staff writer, with CNA

Thu, Jul 24, 2014

A TransAsia Airways (復興航空) plane crashed on Penghu yesterday, killing at least 47 people, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said last night.

The flight from Greater Kaohsiung crashed near the Magong Airport’s runway with 54 passengers and four crew on board, the agency said.

Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) said that 47 people were confirmed dead and 11 injured.

TransAsia Flight GE222 had been scheduled to depart Greater Kaohsiung at 4pm yesterday. However, because of Typhoon Matmo it was delayed, not departing until 5:43pm.

CAA Director General Jean Shen (沈啟) said air traffic control personnel received the request from the flight for a go-around at the Magong Airport at 7:06pm, but they lost track of the flight afterward.

“It’s chaotic on the scene,” Reuters quoted Shen as saying.

The plane made a forced landing in Sisi Village (西溪), just outside the airport.

Several buildings on the ground were set on fire by the crash, but no one on the ground was injured, local officials said.

"A few empty apartment buildings adjacent to the runway caught fire, but no one was inside at the time and the fire was extinguished," said Hsi Wen-guang, a spokesman for the Penghu County Government Fire Bureau.

About 100 firefighters were sent to the scene, besides 152 military personnel and 255 police, he added.

Witnesses have said that there was heavy rain at the time. However, the CAA said that the visual range was 800 feet (243.8m), which was adequate for landing.

The agency said that it will dispatch officials to Penghu today to help with the investigation into the cause of the crash, but the investigation will be led by the Aviation Safety Council.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2014/07/24/2003595804

 Structure of the Lead：

   WHO-the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA)

   WHEN-yesterday

   WHAT- A TransAsia Airways (復興航空) plane crashed on Penghu yesterday, killing at least 47 people

   WHY-not given

   WHERE-Penghu

   HOW-not given

Keywords：

   1. crash：墜毀

   2. runway ：跑道

   3. depart ：離開

   4. chaotic ：亂

   5. dispatch ：派遣

Week 3-Vietnam anti-China riot

Taiwanese firms’ losses in Vietnam riots up to US$5b

By Shih Hsiu-chuan  /  Staff reporter

Wed, May 28, 2014

The losses sustained by hundreds of Taiwan-invested firms during recent anti-China protest in Vietnam is estimated at between US$1.5 billion and US$5 billion, the Executive Yuan was told yesterday.

Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) yesterday briefed a task force led by Vice Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) about a fact-finding trip he undertook to Vietnam last week.

The trip was to assess the damages caused to properties owned by Taiwanese investors when Vietnamese staged protests on May 13 and 14 against China because of its deployment of an oil rig near the disputed Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島) in the South China Sea.

The latest statistics provided by Shen was that 358 Taiwan-operated factories were attacked by Vietnamese during the protests and 21 firms were set on fire.

During their visit in Vietnam, Shen visited several Taiwanese chambers of commerce and sat down with Vietnamese officials to raise compensation issues, including with Vietnamese Planning and Investment Minister Bui Quang Vinh.

Meanwhile, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) reiterated the demands that Taiwan has made to Vietnam over the attack against Taiwanese facilities at a meeting with Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang on Monday, the ministry’s spokesperson, Anna Kao (高安), said yesterday.

Lin urged the Vietnamese government to come up with concrete measures to ensure the safety of Taiwanese businessmen and expatriates in the country, compensate Taiwanese businessmen for their losses and restore Taiwanese businessmen’s confidence in investing in Vietnam, Kao said.

Separately, the second delegation of psychologists and psychiatrists organized by the Ministry of Health and Welfare departed for Vietnam yesterday to provide counseling and psychotherapy to help Taiwanese businesspeople and expatriates recover from possible trauma, Executive Yuan spokesperson Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) said yesterday.

 http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2014/05/28/2003591423

 Structure of the Lead：

   WHO-the Executive Yuan

   WHEN-yesterday

   WHAT-The losses is estimated at between US$1.5 billion and US$5 billion

   WHY-hundreds of Taiwan-invested firms during recent anti-China protest in Vietnam

   WHERE-Vietnam 

   HOW-not given

Keywords：

   1. loss：損失

   2. protest ：異議

   3. estimate：估計

   4. assess ：對...進行估價

   5. investor：投資者

   6. oil rig：石油鑽塔

   7. firm：公司

   8. reiterate：重申

   9.restore：恢復

 10. counseling ：諮詢服務