Institution Department Class Lecturer Student name Student number Assignment Due date

: Chu Hai College of Higher Education : English : Media English : Ms Orr : Francis Chu Chi Fung : 201212234H : Summary of news on Nov 24 : Nov 28, 2013

News 1

Obama: Iran nuclear deal limits ability to create nuclear weapons (CNN)
A historic deal was struck early Sunday between Iran and six world powers over Tehran's nuclear program that freezes the country's nuclear development program in exchange for lifting some sanction while a more formal agreement is worked out. The agreement -- described as an "initial, six-month" deal -- includes "substantial limitations that will help prevent Iran from creating a nuclear weapon," U.S. President Barack Obama said in a nationally televised address. For years, Iran and Western powers have left negotiating tables in disagreement, frustration and at times open animosity. But the diplomatic tone changed with the transfer of power after Iran's election this year, which saw President Hassan Rouhani replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Whereas former President Ahmadinejad lambasted the West over the economic sanctions crippling Irans economy, President Rouhani has struck up a more conciliatory tone and made the lifting sanctions against his country a priority. Most world powers believe that Iran could not realistically build a usable bomb in less than a year

News 2

Baltimore jail officers accused of taking bribes, bringing drugs to gang members (CNN)
A large group of Baltimore corrections officers and members of a notorious prison gang have been working together to peddle drugs, phones and sex inside the city's jail, prosecutors say. However, an indictment released this week is another shot, prosecutors say, in putting an end to it. "Correctional officers were in bed with BGF inmates," said U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein seemed to mean that literally and figuratively, court documents show. According to one indictment, alleged gang member Tavon White had a sexual relationship with four jail guards while he was incarcerated. He impregnated all four of them and they all helped him smuggle items in prison, according to the indictment. Some inmates who weren't part of the gang had to pay protection money -- or more accurately, their relatives on the outside did -authorities claim. The investigation first came to light in April with the announcement of the first round of arrests. In all, 44 people have been indicted on federal charges. Twenty seven of them are Baltimore correctional officers.

News 3

Syria conflict: Children 'targeted by snipers' (BBC)

More than 11,000 children have died in Syria's civil war in nearly three years, including hundreds targeted by snipers, a new report says.

Summary executions and torture have also been used against children as young as one, the London-based Oxford Research Group think tank says. Of the 11,420 victims aged 17 and under, 389 were killed by sniper fire. Some 764 were summarily executed, and more than 100 - including infants - were tortured, the report says. Boys outnumbered girls among the dead by around two to one. Boys aged 13 to 17 were most likely to be victims of targeted killings, the report says. The highest number of child deaths occurred in the governorate of Aleppo, where 2,223 were reported killed.

News 4

China establishes 'air-defence zone' over East Chin Sea (BBC)

China has demarcated an "air-defence identification zone" over an area of the East China Sea, covering islands that are also claimed by Japan.

China's defence ministry said aircraft entering the zone must obey its rules or face "emergency defensive measures". The islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, are a source of rising tension between the countries. Japan lodged a strong protest over what it said was an "escalation". "Setting up such airspace unilaterally escalates the situations surrounding Senkaku islands and has danger of leading to an unexpected situation," Japan's foreign ministry said in a statement. Taiwan, which also claims the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands, expressed regret at the move and promised that the military would take measure to protect national security.

News 5

Coalition minister wants to give land to young to build own homes (The Guardian)
Young people who cannot afford to buy somewhere to live should be handed plots of state-owned land so they can build homes of their own, the planning minister, Nick Boles, has suggested. The idea is in the development stage of coalition policy and Boles is giving it extra impetus, declaring that young Britons want "the opportunity to get on and help themselves". Housebuilding remains at very low levels even though there has been an upturn in the past three months. The coalition is acutely aware that it needs to find a way to assure the so-called Generation Rent that, if they want, they will be able to purchase or custom-build a home of their own. The government has so far set aside 12 plots for self-build on public land, Official statistics this week showed housing starts over the past 12 months increased by 16% on the year before, rising from 101,280 to 117,110. The 32,230 homes on which construction started between July and September this year represent the fastest rate of house-building since 2008.

News 6

California split as professor in murder trial of her alleged rapist is jailed (The Guardian)
A psychology professor has been locked up on suspicion of facilitating the gruesome murder 18 years ago of a man who allegedly raped her as

a student prompting campaigners across Europe and the US to rally to her defence. She strongly denies the charges. Norma Patricia Esparza, 39, was taken into custody in Orange County,California, last week and charged with a count of special circumstances murder. Prosecutors say Esparza, who is an assistant professor of psychology and counselling at Webster University in Geneva, set in motion the kidnapping, beating and killing of Gonzalo Ramirez, who was murdered with a meat cleaver in 1995. Police arrested her at Boston airport last year when she returned to the US for an academic conference, apparently unaware that detectives had revived the investigation into a cold case. One weekend in March 1995, Esparza, then 20 and in her second year at college, allegedly met Ramirez, 24, at the El Cortez nightclub in Santa Ana. The next day, over breakfast, he offered to drive her and a friend back to Pomona. Once they got to her college dorm room, Esparza later said, he raped her. She went to a college nurse who gave her a contraceptive pill, but Esparza did not notify the police. According to Esparza, She instead told an ex-boyfriend, Gianni Anthony Van, about the assault and he became enraged. A few weeks after the alleged rape, she identified Ramirez in a bar. Leaving Esparza behind, Van and three friends, Shannon Gries, Kody Tran and Diane Tran, allegedly tailed their quarry, crashed his truck and abducted him when he got out. He was beaten, hacked with a meat cleaver and hung from the ceiling of a transmission shop owned by Kody Tran. Esparza saw the body before it was dumped on the side of Sand Canyon Road in Santa Ana. After her arrest last year she was freed on $300,000 bail. After rejecting the plea deal offered by prosecutors, they then argued that she was a flight risk. Her co-defendants Van, 44, Gries, 42, and Diane Tran, 45 deny the charges and are also being held without bail. Kody Tran died in a shootout with police last year. The trial is expected to start in January.