澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2014-09-21

 The decision by Scotland to stay in the UK reduces the risk of financial instability in Europe, so as the British pound has hit a two-year high against the Euro. And it's up against the Australian dollar and the greenback. 

 

It's been a positive session on the Australian share market even as mining stocks fell:

 

By the close, the All Ords was up 18 points or half a percent, the ASX 200 Index matching that gain. 

 

Turning across the region:

 

And Japan's Nikkei has surged over one and a half percent, and it's a very strong session in Hong Kong as well. The Australian dollar is holding below 90 US cents today against the strengthening greenback.

 

The Chinese Internet giant Alibaba is preparing to list on the New York Stock Exchange tonight. It's set the price of each share at 68 US dollars, valuing the Internet company at almost 168 billion US dollars. Redhot demand for its shares is set to raise around 22 billion US dollars. Last year, the company sold more goods than Amazon and eBay combined. 

 

Microsoft has axed more than 2,000 jobs as part of a campaign to drastically reduce its global workforce¹. The company is shedding a total of 18,000 staff around the world as it moves away from software to focus on mobile and online technology. Microsoft is also shutting down its research and development center in California's Silicon² Valley.

 

1 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

2 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。