澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2011-10-23

 News Corporation has held its annual meeting of shareholders¹ in the US. In his opening remarks at the meeting, chief executive Rupert Murdoch told angry shareholders there was simply no excuse for phone-hacking scandal and vowed² to put things right. He says the company must admit to and confront its mistakes and establish a rigorous and vigorous procedure to put things right.

 

US President Barack Obama has signed into law long-sought free trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia. The agreements are expected to lift exports by $13 billion a year and create American jobs. The White House signing ceremony of the bills capped a five-year push by Republicans to get them approved.

 

The head of one of Australia's largest energy companies says coal seam gas has been demonized by the environment movement. Origin Energy managing director Grant King says gas, including the increasingly controversial coal seam gas, will play a central and long-term part of any carbon-constrained future. He dismissed the idea that it'll only be an interim³ fuel.

 

And checking the market figures, the US market has closed significantly higher, the Dow up more than 260 points. European stocks also made gains. The FTSE 100 was up just over 100 points. Back home, and both the All Ords and the ASX 200 closed down slightly yesterday. And checking commodities, and gold is higher. And on the currencies market, the Aussie dollar is buying 103 US and 64 pence.

1 shareholders   

n.股东( shareholder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The meeting was attended by 90% of shareholders. 90%的股东出席了会议。
• the company's fiduciary duty to its shareholders 公司对股东负有的受托责任

2 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

3 interim   

adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间

参考例句：

• The government is taking interim measures to help those in immediate need.政府正在采取临时措施帮助那些有立即需要的人。
• It may turn out to be an interim technology.这可能只是个过渡技术。