Beyond rolling hills in the village of Taltuna, Shamseddeen Darra, his three brothers, their wives and more than a dozen children share a small room in the belly of the earth, a gloomy underground shelter he and his family now call home. “We’re living here for lack of a better option,” says 35-year-old Darra, who calls their makeshift shelter “the cave.”
After fleeing a deadly offensive by Syrian government forces on their home region of Idlib, they found nowhere else to go. The region is run by jihadists and allied rebel groups, and is home to around three million civilians.
The violence has forced 900,000 of them to flee their homes or shelters, more than half of them children. Of those displaced since December, about 170,000 live out in the open or in unfinished buildings, the UN says. But in the town of Sarmada further north, Yusra Harsuni said she and her family had reached new lows.
Photo: AFP
照片:法新社
She, her daughter-in-law and grandchildren were now among 60 families living in the hall of the local cemetery. When the rain stops during the daytime, men and women emerge to stroll between the graves. They and their children sit on the grass, breathing in fresh air beyond the white marble tombstones.
One night a small boy started screaming and people thought he was possessed. “The sheikh had to come twice and recite the Quran” to rid the place of any spirits, she said. But the grandmother says she has now resigned herself to living among the dead. “Of course, here in the middle of tombs, people are scared of death,” she said. “But it’s the lesser of two evils.”
(AFP)
Photo: AFP
照片:法新社
在塔爾圖納村連綿起伏的山丘遠方,夏姆瑟丹‧達拉、他的三名兄弟、他們的妻子,還有十幾個孩子,窘迫地擠在地底深處一個狹小的空間裡。這個陰暗的地下避難所現在是達拉一家人的家。三十五歲的達拉稱這個臨時避難所為「洞窟」,他說:「我們沒有更好的選擇,所以才住在這裡。」
達拉一家人為了躲避敘利亞政府軍方的致命入侵,逃離家鄉伊德利布省,卻發現他們已無處可去。該省目前是聖戰士和結盟的叛軍組織把持的地區,也是大約三百萬名平民的家鄉。
戰爭暴力已經迫使其中的九十萬人逃離家鄉或避難所,超過一半的人都還是兒童。聯合國表示,自去年十二月以來新增流離失所的民眾,其中大約有十七萬人在野外餐風露宿,或住在仍未完成的建築中。在更北邊的薩瑪達鎮,尤蘇拉‧哈素妮表示,她們一家人的處境已經跌至谷底。
Photo: AFP
照片:法新社
哈素妮和她的媳婦與孫子,現在跟其他六十個家庭住在當地公墓的大廳裡。當白天雨停的時候,男男女女就會冒出來,在墳墓間散步。他們和子女們坐在草地上,在白色大理石墓碑旁邊呼吸新鮮空氣。
有一天晚上,有一個小男孩突然開始尖叫,其他人以為他著魔了。哈素妮說:「謝赫(伊斯蘭教教長或是部落長老的尊稱)不得不兩次前來這裡誦讀《古蘭經》」,以驅除當地的惡靈。這位祖母也說,她已經被迫接受和死者相伴的生活了。「當然,在圍繞著墳墓的這裡,人們會害怕死亡。」她說,「但我們也只能兩害相權取其輕。」
(台北時報章厚明譯)
Photo: AFP
照片:法新社
The strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years killed at least 16 people and damaged dozens of buildings, but the destruction was largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness work. Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity along the Pacific Rim, and — much like neighboring Japan — has a long history of catastrophic quakes. How does April 3 compare with other recent quakes? The April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, was felt across Taiwan. It was the most severe since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 killed
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
Everyone has seen a piece of fruit turn brown after being cut. Have you ever wondered why that happens? It is a common phenomenon that occurs due to a chemical reaction called enzymatic browning. The appearance, flavor and nutritional value of the fruit are all affected by this reaction. Some fruits, such as apples, pears, bananas, avocados and peaches, are more prone to enzymatic browning than others. These fruits contain high levels of an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase, or PPO for short. __1__ This causes a chain of chemical reactions that ultimately transforms the phenolic compounds into