Paris terror attack, Abaaoud, French father and son, blindfolded Muslim, hug

France had been on high alert for terrorism since the Charlie Hebdoshooting and a series of related attacks in January by militants belonging to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and had increased security in anticipation of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, scheduled to be held in Paris at the beginning of December, as well as reinstating border checks a week before the attacks.

Throughout 2015, France witnessed smaller attacks: the February stabbing of three soldiers guarding a Jewish community centre in Nice, the June attempt to blow up a factory in Saint-Quentin Fallavier, and the August shooting and stabbing attack on a passenger train.

The Bataclan theatre had been threatened a number of times because of its public support for Israel. Two Jewish brothers, Pascal and Joël Laloux, owned the Bataclan for more than 40 years before selling it in September 2015. In 2011, a group calling itself Army of Islam told French security services they had planned an attack on the Bata clan because its owners were Jewish.

In the weeks leading up to the Paris attacks, ISIL and its branches had claimed responsibility for several other attacks: the downing of Metrojet Flight 9268 on 31 October and the suicide bombings in Beirut on 12 November.

Intelligence agencies in Turkey, Iraq and Israel had all warned of an imminent attack on France months beforehand, but were ignored by the French authorities.

1.      reinstate (v) 復職

2.      stab (v) 刺痛；刺傷

3.      theatre (n) 劇院

4.      imminent (a) 即將發生的；逼近的

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_2015_Paris_attacks

曼谷爆炸案：Bangkok bomb, explosion/blast

On 17 August 2015, at 18:55 ICT(11:55 UTC), a bomb exploded inside the grounds of the Erawan Shrine, near the busy Ratchaprasong Intersection in Bangkok's city centre. The Royal Thai Police said that 3 kilograms (6.6 lb) of TNT had been stuffed in a pipe and left under a bench near the outer rim of the grounds surrounding the shrine, and that an electronic circuit suspected to have been used in the attack was found 30 metres (98 ft) from the scene.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. The attacks are thought to have targeted Thailand's tourism and economy, but there has been a range of inconsistencies in the statements of Thai authorities on those arrested and the reasons for the attack. The Thai government has at times suggested the bombers acted to avenge a crackdown on their human trafficking network, to take revenge for Thailand's deportation of a group of Uighurs back to China in July 2015, to strike a blow for the insurgents fighting the Thai government in the Deep South, or for reasons related to Thailand's domestic politics. The government has implicated a range of other suspects in the bombing, mostly Thai opponents of the military regime.

The site of the bombing had been cleaned, and the crater paved over with cement, by 19 August.

1.      Erawan Shrine (n) 四面佛

2.      rim (n) 輪緣

3.      shrine (n) 神社

4.      circuit (n) 電路

5.      metre (n) 公尺

6.      crackdown (v) 鎮壓

7.      deportation (v) 被驅逐出境

8.      Uighurs (n) 維吾爾人

9.      insurgents (n) 叛亂份子

10.  regime (n) 政權

11.  crater (n) 彈坑

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Bangkok_bombing

New Horizons, Pluto, Earth 2.0, Kepler 452b

The planet takes 385 Earth days to orbit its star. It is 60% bigger than Earth, and lies within the conservative habitable zone of its parent star.

It has a probable mass five times that of Earth and its surface gravity is twice Earth's, though calculations of mass for exoplanets are only rough estimates. If it is a terrestrial planet, it is most likely a super-Earth with many active volcanoes due to its higher mass and density. The clouds on the planet would be thick and misty, covering much of the surface as viewed from space. From the surface, its star Kepler-452 would look almost identical to the Sun as viewed from the Earth.

It is not known if Kepler-452b is a rocky planet or a small gas planet, but based on its small radius, Kepler-452b has a reasonable chance of being rocky. It is not clear if Kepler-452b offers habitable environments. It orbits a G2V-type star, like the Sun, with nearly the same temperature and mass and 20% more luminous. However, the star is six billion years old, making it 1.5 billion years older than the Sun. At this point in its star's evolution, Kepler-452b is receiving 10% more energy from its parent star than Earth is currently receiving from the Sun. If Kepler-452b is a rocky planet, it may be subject to a runaway greenhouse effect similar to that seen on Venus.

1.      orbit(v) 環繞

2.      habitable(a) 可居住的，適於居住的

3.      exoplanet(n) (太陽系以外的)外部行星

4.      terrestrial(a) 陸地的；人間的；地球上的

5.      misty(a) 模糊的；多霧的；朦朧不清的

6.      luminous(a) 明亮的；清楚的；有見識的；明白易懂得

7.      Venus(n) 金星

1.      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler-452b