英国新闻听力 美联储主席为AIG"奖金门"辩护

The Labor¹ Party in Israel has voted to join a coalition² led by the Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu. The decision should give Mr. Netanyahu the parliamentary majority he needs to form a government. Under the deal, it’s reported that the Labor leader Ehud Barack will remain defence minister. Mr. Netanyahu has already signed coalition agreements with two far-right parties. One Labor member of the Israel parliament, Matan Vilnai told reporters why he’d voted in favor of joining the coalition,

" it's better to be part of the government in order to shift from the deep right to the center , and the peace process that is very important for us, when we are there in the government , I’m sure that it will continue.”

The United States government has announced a 700-million-dollar plan to help combat the illegal drugs trade in Mexico. Washington will step up border’s security and provide the Mexican army with five helicopters on a surveillance plane. An estimated 8000 people have been killed in the last two years in Mexico's drug wars. The new plan was announced by the US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

Our goal is two-fold, to provide assistance to the government of Mexico, to break up these huge cartels, which are funneling³ tonnage quantities of illegal drugs into our country on a regular basis. The second is to guard against an increase in violence in the United States as a result of the actions undertaken in Mexico.

Opposition⁴ parties in Nigeria have agreed to unite to fight to the governing People’s Democratic Party in elections in two years time. The group which has yet to adopt an official name is now seeking to register with the authorities. Here is Mary Harper of our Africa desk.

Nineteen Nigerian opposition parties have decided⁵ that the best way to challenge the government of President Umaru Yar'Adua is to form what they describe as one big mega-party. Political heavyweights are involved including former presidential contenders Atiku Abubakar and Muhammadu Buhari, who also served as head of state. The opposition parties say they are uniting in order to save Nigeria. They accuse the governing People’s Democratic Party of running the country into the ground, and acting⁶ as if Nigeria was a one-party state.

The Indian cricket authorities have confirmed that the multi-million dollar tournament to the Indian Primer League will now be played in South Africa. It was moved for security reasons from India where it would have coincided with the general election. The organizers said the overwhelming reason for choosing South Africa over England was thechangeable British spring weather. The IPO chairman Lalit Modi said the costs will now be much higher, but the game he said was more important.

United States Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has defended the 180-billion-dollar bailout for the insurance company AIG. He told a congressional committee the company's failure could have brought about a catastrophic global economic meltdown, similar to that of the 1930s. AIG provoked widespread anger earlier this month when it paid millions of dollars in bonuses to staff after being rescued by the government.

The International Monetary⁷ Fund has announced reforms of its lending procedures. The changes are intended to make the IMF's provisional financial help to member countries more flexible and to help them weather the global financial crisis. Here is our economics correspondent Andrew Walker.

One of the key reforms could turn out to be the creation of a new flexible line of credit. It’s intended for countries with strong economic policies but are still potentially vulnerable to the financial crisis. The IMF says it will be especially useful for crisis prevention. It replaces of a facility that was created last October for a similar purpose, but has not been used. An IMF statement says the new arrangement is likely to be seen by member countries as more useful. The repayment⁸ period is longer, countries will be able to borrow larger amounts, and once that qualified⁹, there will be none of the controversial conditions that the IMF usually requires of borrowers.

A second man has been charged with the murder of a policeman in Northern Ireland earlier this month. The 37-year-old is expected to in court on Wednesday. A 17-year-old has already appeared in court charged with the same murder. He was also accused of belonging to the dissident republican group Continuity IRA.

A judge in the US state of Pennsylvania has ordered an 11-year-old boy charged with homicide to stand trial as an adult. The boy Jordan Brown is accused of fatally shooting his father's pregnant fiancée as she slept. Prosecutors¹⁰ believe the killing¹¹ was premeditated.

以色列劳工党已通过表决，加入新任总理内塔尼亚胡组建的联盟。这一决定使内塔尼亚胡在议会中占多数席位，这是组建政府所需要的。据报道，根据协议，劳工党领导人埃胡德.巴拉克将继续任国防部长。内亚尼亚胡已同两个极右派签署联盟协议。以色列议会的一位劳工党成员 Matan Vilnai告诉记者，他已投票支持加入联盟。

“这对政府有好处，可以使其从极右转向中间立场，和平进程对我们来说非常重要，只要我们还在政府任职，我相信和平进程就会继续。”

美国政府宣布一项7亿美元的方案，帮助墨西哥打击毒品贸易。华盛顿加强了边境安全，为墨西哥军队的一架侦察机提供五架直升飞机。在过去两年的墨西哥禁毒战中，估计有八千人死亡。新方案是由美国国土安全部长珍妮特·纳波利塔诺宣布的。

这是一个双重的目标：一是为墨西哥政府提供援助，毁灭这些大型团伙，它们每年定量向我国输入成吨的非法毒品；二是提防墨西哥打击行动引起的美国暴力活动的增加。

尼日尼亚反对派已同意联合起来，共同对抗执政的人民民主党两年后的大选。这个尚无官方称谓的组织正在设法取得官方注册。

19个尼日尼亚反对派认为，挑战总统奥马鲁.亚拉杜瓦政府的最好途径是组建一个“超级大党”。一些重量级的政治人物已经加入进来，包括前总统的竞争者阿提库.阿布巴卡尔和也曾担任国家领袖的穆罕穆杜.布哈里。反对派说他们联合起来是为了挽救尼日利亚，他们指控执政的人民民主党把国家搞砸了，尼日利亚好像已经成了一党专政的国家。

印度板球当局已决定，耗资数百万的印度超级联赛(IPL)将在南非举办。赛场从印度转移是为了安全的目的，因为它与印度大选的日期相冲突。组织者说，选择南非而不是英格兰的最重要原因，是英国春季多变的天气。IPO主席 Lalit Modi说，这样成本会很高，但是比赛更重要。

美国联邦储备主席伯南克为AIG保险公司1800亿美元救市资金辩护，他告诉国会委员会，如果AIG破产，将会导致上世纪30年代那样灾难性的全球经济崩溃。本月早些时候，由于用政府救助资金向员工发放数百万奖金，AIG公司引起举国声讨。

国际货币基金组织(IMF)宣布对借贷程序进行改革，改革将使IMF向成员国提供的临时性金融资助更加灵活，帮助它们度过全球金融危机。

即将出台的改革，重点之一是设立新的、更为灵活的信用贷款最高限额。这是为那些经济政策强大、但仍潜在地受金融危机影响的国家设置的。IMF认为这将对预防危机发生非常有用。它取代了去年为同一目的设立但未实施的规定。IMF声明说，成员国可能会觉得新的规定更有用。还款期限更长，可以借更多资金，一旦获得借款资格，IMF不再会像过去一直那样，对借款国要求任何有争议的条件。

已有第二人被指控涉嫌本月早些时候北爱警察谋杀案，这名37岁的男子周三将出庭受审，另一名17岁的男孩已因同样的罪名出庭，他也被指控属于持不同政见组织传承爱尔兰共和军。

美国宾夕法尼亚州一名法官命令一名被指控杀人的11岁男孩子以成年人资格出庭，这个名叫 Jordan Brown的男孩，持枪射死父亲怀孕的未婚妻，当时她在熟睡中。检举人认为这是预谋杀人。

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

3 funneling   

[医]成漏斗形：描述膀胱底及膀胱尿道交接区

参考例句：

4 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

7 monetary   

adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的

参考例句：

• The monetary system of some countries used to be based on gold.过去有些国家的货币制度是金本位制的。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

8 repayment   

n.偿还，偿还款；报酬

参考例句：

• I am entitled to a repayment for the damaged goods.我有权利索取货物损坏赔偿金。
• The tax authorities have been harrying her for repayment.税务局一直在催她补交税款。

9 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

10 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

11 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。