Week 3: Uber

Uber driver allegedly rapes Indian woman

NEW DELHI--An Uber taxi driver allegedly raped a 25-year-old passenger in the Indian capital before threatening to kill her, police said Sunday, in a blow to the company's safety-conscious image.

New Delhi special commissioner Deepak Mishra said police were hunting the driver who abandoned the taxi and fled after attacking the woman on Friday night in a secluded part of the city.

“We have registered a case of rape and have already recovered the abandoned car,” Mishra told AFP.

“The driver, who has been identified, is being traced by the police teams on the ground and we are optimistic that he will be arrested soon.”

Mishra also criticized Uber over the attack, saying early investigations showed GPS had not been installed in the taxi and mandatory police background checks were not conducted on the driver.

“Our initial investigations have revealed the shortcomings of the private cab company which didn't have GPS installed in its cabs and the staff wasn't verified,” he said.

U.S.-based Uber, which emphasizes safety and high-end technology, is making inroads in the Indian market including by appealing to young urban professionals.

Women in India, and Delhi in particular, are extremely safety-conscious after dark following a string of gang rapes that sparked global shock and anger.

The incident comes just days before the second anniversary of the fatal gang rape of a student in Delhi that unleashed outrage about attacks on women in India and inadequate efforts to keep them safe.

The Dec. 16 attack on the 23-year-old on a moving bus sparked street protests and led to tougher laws against rapists and other sexual offenders.

In the latest incident, the female executive for a finance company dozed off in the taxi as she was returning home from dinner with friends, local media reported.

The woman has told police she woke to find the taxi parked in a secluded place where the driver assaulted and raped her, before dumping her near her home in north Delhi.

Although the driver threatened to kill her if she reported the crime to police, the woman clicked a photo of the car's number plate before alerting authorities, an officer told the Press Trust of India news agency.

The company said it was working with police to solve the “terrible crime,” while stressing safety was “Uber's highest priority.”

“Our thoughts are with the victim of this terrible crime and we are working with the police as they investigate,” Uber spokeswoman Evelyn Tay said in a statement.

“We work with licensed driver-partners to provide a safe transportation option, with layers of safeguards such as driver and vehicle information, and ETA-sharing to ensure there is accountability and traceability of all trips that occur on the Uber platform.”

Uber lets customers order and pay for taxis or private vehicles using a smartphone app.

The firm, founded in 2009 and now present in more than 200 cities and in 45 countries, has faced privacy concerns.

Uber was caught in a storm in the U.S. last month over allegations riders were being spied on using an internal “God view” tool.

(Source:http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/india/2014/12/08/423538/Uber-driver.htm)

Structure:

When: Friday

What: An Uber driver threatened a woman to kill her and raped her.

Where: Delhi

Why: not given

How: not given

Key words:

1.          secluded:隱避的

2.          mandatory:命令的，託管的

3.          shortcoming:缺點

4.          verify:證實

5.          inroad:侵略，襲擊

6.          unleash:解放，釋放

7.          inadequate:不足的

8.          doze off:打瞌睡

9.          accountability:有責任，有義務

10.      allegation:指控

Week 2: Sydney

With two hostages and gunman dead, grim investigation starts in Sydney

By Michael Pearson, Jethro Mullen and Anna Coren, CNN

The deadly siege of a central Sydney cafe has ended but the investigation is just beginning.

Australian authorities stormed the cafe where a self-styled Muslim cleric had been holding hostages early Tuesday, killing the gunman. They moved in some 16 hours after the siege began, after hearing gunfire inside the Lindt Chocolate Cafe, New South Wales police Commissioner Andrew P. Scipione told reporters.

Two of the 17 hostages initially held by the gunman died, according to Scipione. They were later identified as Katrina Dawson, 38, and Tori Johnson, 34. Other people were injured, including a police officer who suffered a wound to the face from gunshot pellets. All were described by police to be in stable condition.

"Understandably, there is a lot of speculation, but it will take time to clarify exactly what happened ... and why," Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters Tuesday.

What did the gunman want? Why did he choose the cafe as his target?

"There is nothing more Australian than dropping in at the local cafe for a morning coffee, and it's tragic beyond words that people going about their everyday business should have been caught up in such a horrific incident," Abbott said.

He offered his condolences to people caught in the attack and to their loved ones.

"These events do demonstrate that even a country as free as open as generous and as safe as ours is vulnerable to acts of politically motivated violence," the Prime Minister said. "But they also remind us that Australia, and Australians are resilient and we are ready to respond."

Gunman had violent history

The gunman was identified as Man Haron Monis by an official with direct knowledge of the situation. According to his social media posts, the hostage-taker appears to have embraced a radical Sunni theology.

Abbott told reporters that the gunman was already well-known to authorities, and that he had a "long history of violent crime, infatuation with extremism and mental instability."

Before the raid, Monis had demanded a flag and phone call with Abbott, CNN affiliate Sky News Australia reported. He made the demands through hostages who contacted media organizations, Sky News reported.

Some hostages had also reportedly posted messages to social networking sites and the YouTube online video service. Police urged media early Tuesday not to show the videos.

Monis, also known as Sheikh Haron, pleaded guilty in 2013 to writing letters to relatives of Australian service members saying they were "Hitler's soldiers," according to Australian media reports.

He was believed to be acting alone, and he didn't appear to be part of a broader plot, additional U.S. law enforcement and intelligence sources said.

How the siege unfolded

Hundreds of police officers, including snipers, surrounded the cafe in Sydney's central business district shortly after the gunman took over the building at 10 a.m. Monday (6 p.m. ET Sunday).

Chilling images from Australian media showed people, believed to be hostages, with their hands pressed against the cafe's windows. They were holding up a black flag with Arabic writing on it reading, "There is no God but God and Mohammed is the prophet of God."

Five hostages sprinted out of the cafe toward heavily armed police officers several hours into the standoff, sending the gunman into a tirade, according to an Australian reporter.

Chris Reason, a correspondent for CNN affiliate Seven Network, said the gunman became "extremely agitated" when he realized what had happened and "started screaming orders" at the remaining hostages.

Reason said he could see the gunman pacing past the cafe's windows from his vantage point at the network's nearby offices. He described the man as unshaven, wearing a white shirt and black cap and carrying a shotgun.

As night fell, lights went out in the cafe, Reason reported.

After a tense night, police could be seen early Tuesday throwing flash-bang grenades into the cafe in video aired by Seven Network. Gunfire erupted amid the chaos.

A national security source in the United States said that a team of Australian special forces troops and police had entered the Lindt Chocolate Cafe from two directions and killed the gunman.

Video captured medics working on some people and others being carried away on stretchers.

On Tuesday, the hostages who died were identified as Dawson and Johnson.

"Katrina was one of our best and brightest barristers who will be greatly missed by her colleagues and friends at the NSW Bar," the New South Wales Bar Association said in a statement. "She was a devoted mother of three children and a valued member of her floor and of our bar community. Our thoughts are with her family at this time."

Johnson's family also released a statement. It read, in part: "We are so proud of our beautiful boy Tori, gone from this Earth but forever in our memories as the most amazing life partner, son and brother we could ever wish for."

(Source:http://edition.cnn.com/2014/12/15/world/asia/australia-sydney-hostage-situation/)

Structure:

When: in the morning, Tuesday

What: a Muslim held hostages, two of whom were died

Where: in a café in Sydney

How: held hostages and shot them

Why: not given

Key Words:

1. storm: 猛攻
2. cleric:傳教士
3. pellet:小子彈
4. speculation:推測
5. condolence:哀悼
6. resilient:恢復快的
7. infatuation:迷戀,迷惑
8. raid:突擊
9. plead:承認
10. sniper:狙擊手
11. prophe:先知
12. sprint:衝刺
13. standoff:僵局
14. tirade:長篇大論,激烈的演說
15. agitated:激動的
16. vantage point:有利位置
17. barrister:律師