Task 1 (M4 LA1 )

In order to analyze news reports in the three aspects, you will first need to have a very good understanding of the contents. This is what you will do in Task 1.

1.    First, you will read to understand the three news reports below. Make sure that you know the meaning of every word and every part of each news report.

2.    Then, read the news aloud as if you were a news anchor. Make sure you read them meaningfully and fluently, with accurate pronunciation, word stress, and intonation. Record your voice, and then email the recording to <email address>.

You may first need to learn how to do it by observing news reading at any news websites, such as https://edition.cnn.com/specials/latest-news-videos or http://www.bbc.com/news/video_and_audio/headlines/10462520/one-minute-world-news.

News Report 1

Aussie man dies while surfing in Lombok mataram: An Australian tourist named Andrew Richard Wiseman has died after drowning while surfing at Tanjung Aan Beach in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara. Based on reports received by police, the 52-year-old man went surfing alone around 11 a.m. on Sunday, Central Park police Chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Kholilur Rochman said. Andrew was found dead at around 1 p.m. During his time in Lombok, Wiseman was living in a homestay in Kuta village, Pujut district, in Central Lombok. The police questioned two other foreign tourists, Eva, from Germany and John Robert Haton, from Australia, who had seen the incident firsthand. “They were the ones who saw the victim drown. Based on their information, the victim drowned directly below his surfboard,” Kholilur said on Monday. The two tourists, as well as local residents, immediately brought Wiseman back to shore using a boat. Wiseman was given emergency first aid for 25 minutes, but he could not be resuscitated, Kholilur said. Personnel from the Kuta Police came to the location after receiving reports and brought Wiseman’s body to the local health clinic. The victim’s brother, Steven Wiseman, took the body and refused an autopsy. — JP (Taken from Jakarta Post, Tuesday, March 20, 2018, p. 4)

News Report 2

Fire erupts at illegal oil well in Indonesia 26 April 2018 — 10:26am Jakarta: A fire erupted at an illegal oil well site in Indonesia's northernmost province on Wednesday, killing at least 18 people and injuring about 40 others, some of whom were badly burnt, authorities said. The fire broke out around 1.30am at a backyard well in a village in Aceh province, on the northern tip of Sumatra Island, according to the National Disaster Management Agency. Authorities were still trying to determine what had caused the fire. Local news reports said it may have started with a spark from a blowtorch or a worker smoking a cigarette. Television news footage and photos showed flames rising at least 10 metres into the air in the farming village of Pasir Putih in East Aceh district, which is about 1600 kilometres north-west of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. Villagers had gathered at the well shortly after midnight, carrying buckets, jars and barrels, in hopes of collecting crude oil after being told about a massive spill there, according to the disaster agency. "A group of people came to gather up oil and they weren't supposed to be there," the disaster agency said in a statement. At least five homes were gutted by the fire, the agency said. Firefighters and other emergency personnel, along with villagers, were still trying to contain the blaze on Wednesday evening. Indonesia's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and the state-owned oil company Pertamina sent teams to Aceh, which has industrial oil and gas operations, to investigate the incident, said Agung Pribadi, a ministry spokesman. "This is a case of illegal drilling and the ones responsible for it must be dealt with by the law," he said. Agung said the well was being operated by local residents, adding that he was not sure if there were other illegal wells in the area. Lieutenant Colonel Wahyu Kuncoro, chief of the East Aceh district police, told reporters at the scene that firefighters were trying to "break the chain of oxygen" in the well to stop the fire. He confirmed the well operation was illegal, but he said many villagers depended on it for their livelihood. Illegal well operations are common in Indonesian regions where oil is present, including on the islands of Sumatra and Java. In some cases, the wells were abandoned by the Dutch colonial administration that once ruled Indonesia, and are now run by groups of villagers working around the clock. "Oil doesn't come up to the surface easily in these old wells, so they try to pump it up manually, then try to separate the oil by distillation in barrels, and that's where they probably had the fire," said Mangantar Marpaung, former chief of the Indonesian Mining Fire and Rescue Agency. "Then they sell it as kerosene to the local market, or for motorcycles and fishing boats," he said. "Those are their customers. The local governments know, but because they can't provide any other jobs, they look the other way." New York Times https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/fire-erupts-at-illegal-oil-well-in-indonesia-20180426-p4zbq0.html Visited on 26 April 2018, 22:07

News Report 3

Elephant poachers arrested in Malaysia malaysia: Four heavily armed poachers who targetted wild elephants in Malaysia have been caught, officials said Tuesday, the second such arrest in less than two years. Wildlife officials said the gang caught near the town of Gerik in the nothern Malaysian state of Perak was found with deer antlers and suspected tiger bones. A joint police and wildlife department investigation also led the agents to find an elephant shot dead by the poachers in a nearby forest with its tusks ripped out. “This crew is notorious. They hunt elephants,” wildlife department chief Abdul Kadir Abdul Hashim told AFP. “There are maybe two more [poaching] groups [in the area]. We are working together with the police on this.” A police statement said weapons including rifles and homemade shotguns as well as animal snares were found after they arrested the gang. The elephant’s tusks were not found, with a wildlife official believing that they were already sold. He added that the gang – all locals – were believed to have been operating since 2009, and were also active in the nearby state of Kelantan. The arrests come a year after a seven-man gang was arrested in Kelantan, with explosives, guns and parts of tusks seized.. – AFP (Taken from The Jakarta Post, Thu, March 15, 2018, p.10)