week 2 afl3a38

US Supreme Court rules gay marriage is legal nationwide

by  US & Canada

27 June 2015

The US Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex marriage is a legal right across the United States.

It means the 14 states with bans on same-sex marriage will no longer be able to enforce them.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that the plaintiffs asked "for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right."

The ruling brings to an end more than a decade of bitter legal battles.

Same-sex couples in several affected states including Georgia, Michigan, Ohio and Texas rushed to wed on Friday.

However officials in other states, including Mississippi and Louisiana, said marriages had to wait until procedural issues were addressed.

President Barack Obama said the ruling was a "victory for America".

"When all Americans are treated as equal, we are all more free " he said.

However, Christian conservatives condemned the decision.

Former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee called it "an out-of-control act of unconstitutional, judicial tyranny".

And Kellie Fiedorek, a lawyer for an anti-gay marriage advocacy group, said the decision "ignored the voices of thousands of Americans".

Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, a state where marriages licences will now be issued to same-sex couples, said the justices "have imposed on the entire country their personal views on an issue that the Constitution and the Court's previous decisions reserve to the people of the states".

Loud cheers erupted outside the court after the ruling was announced, and there were tears, hugs, and cheers of "USA USA USA!".

A sea of rainbow flags overwhelmed the few anti-gay marriage activists who reacted in disbelief, and the demonstration seemed to turn into a street party.

A tour bus drove past honking as hundreds cheered the decision.

One of the demonstrators, Jordan Monaghan, called his mother from his mobile phone amid the celebrations.

"Hey mom, I'm at the Supreme Court. Your son can have a husband now," Mr Monaghan said.

Minutes after the ruling, couples in one of the states that had a ban, Georgia, lined up in hope of being wed.

In Texas, Yasmin Menchaca and her partner Catherine Andrews told the BBC that they are "trying to round up our parents" in order to get married on Friday.

The two have been together for six years, and had attempted to marry in Washington state - but decided to wait because of the financial burden of flying their parents across the country.

On social media, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton merely tweeted the word "proud" and the White House changed its Twitter avatar into the rainbow colours.

The case considered by the court concerned Jim Obergefell, an Ohio resident who was not recognised as the legal widower of his late husband, John Arthur.

"It's my hope that gay marriage will soon be a thing of the past, and from this day forward it will simply be 'marriage,'" an emotional Mr Obergefell said outside the court.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33290341

Structure of the Lead：

WHO-The US Supreme Court

WHEN-not given

WHAT-rules gay marriage is legal nationwide

WHY-not given

WHERE-the United States

HOW-not given

Keywords:

1. legal: 合法的

2. enforce: 強迫

3. dignity: 尊嚴

4. conservative: 保守者

5. condemn: 譴責

6. unconstitutional: 違反憲法的

7. tyranny: 暴政

8. erupt: 爆發

9. Supreme Court: 最高法院

10. round up: 聚集

week 1 afl3a38

Nobel laureates warn Aung San Suu Kyi over 'ethnic cleansing' of Rohingya

by Oliver Holmes

30, December, 2016

More than a dozen fellow Nobel laureates have criticised Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader, for a bloody military crackdown on minority Rohingya people, warning of a tragedy “amounting to ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity”.

The open letter to the UN security council from a group of 23 activists, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Malala Yousafzai, warned that the army offensive had killed of hundreds of people, including children, and left women raped, houses burned and many civilians arbitrarily arrested.

It was delivered as Bangladesh announced around 50,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled the violence across its border.

“Access for humanitarian aid organisations has been almost completely denied, creating an appalling humanitarian crisis in an area already extremely poor,” reads the letter, whose signatories include current and former political and business leaders and campaigners such as Yousafzai, the youngest winner of the Nobel peace prize.

“Some international experts have warned of the potential for genocide. It has all the hallmarks of recent past tragedies – Rwanda, Darfur, Bosnia, Kosovo,” the letter reads.

“If we fail to take action, people may starve to death if they are not killed with bullets.”

The government of predominantly Buddhist Myanmar says it is responding to several attacks carried out by Rohingya militants that killed nine police officers on 9 October.

But the signatories to the letter said the army’s response had been “grossly disproportionate”.

“It would be one thing to round up suspects, interrogate them and put them on trial,” the letter said. “It is quite another to unleash helicopter gunships on thousands of ordinary civilians and to rape women and throw babies into a fire.”

The Rohingya are a minority of about a million people who, despite living in the country for generations, are treated as illegal immigrants and denied citizenship. They have been persecuted for years by the government and nationalist Buddhists.

The recent bloodshed is the most deadly since hundreds were killed in clashes in 2012 and more than 100,000 were forced into squalid camps.

An Amnesty International report this month, based on extensive interviews with Rohingya as well as analysis of satellite imagery, claimed that actions by Myanmar’s military may constitute crimes against humanity.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent much of the past two decades under house arrest and was awarded the 1991 Nobel peace prize, won elections last November, ending decades of junta rule.

But the Myanmar armed forces, or Tatmadaw, retain significant power in Myanmar. Under the army-drafted constitution, the military controls the three most powerful government ministries: home, defence and border affairs.

Aung San Suu Kyi is foreign minister and state counsellor, as the law bars her from the presidency, which is held by her close aide Htin Kyaw. However, she is widely considered the country’s de facto leader.

The open letter said that “despite repeated appeals to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi we are frustrated that she has not taken any initiative to ensure full and equal citizenship rights of the Rohingyas. Daw Suu Kyi is the leader and is the one with the primary responsibility to lead, and lead with courage, humanity and compassion.”

Nobel peace laureates who signed the letter include Jose Ramos-Horta, former president of East Timor, and Yemeni opposition activist Tawakul Karman. It was also signed by former prime minister of Italy Romano Prodi and British business leader Sir Richard Branson.

Bangladesh has stepped up patrols to try to stop refugees crossing the border during the last three months, and its foreign ministry had summoned Myanmar’s ambassador to express “deep concern at the continued influx”.

“Around 50,000 Myanmar citizens took shelter into Bangladesh since 9 October 2016,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

A spokesman for the United Nations high commissioner for refugees told AFP that at least 43,000 Rohingya have taken shelter in Bangladesh since October.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/30/nobel-laureates-aung-san-suu-kyi-ethnic-cleansing-rohingya

Structure of the Lead：

WHO-Aung San Suu Kyi

WHEN-not given

WHAT-a dozen fellow Nobel laureates have criticised Aung San Suu Kyi

WHY-warning of a tragedy amounting to ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity

WHERE-Myanmar

HOW-bloody military crackdown on minority Rohingya people

Keywords:

1. laureate: 得獎者

2. ethnic cleansing: 種族淨化

3. crackdown: 鎮壓

4. humanity: 人道

5. arbitrarily: 武斷地

6. take action: 採取行動

7. starve: 挨餓

8. bullet: 子彈

9. signatory: 簽署國

10. minority: 少數民族