英语听力精选进阶版 7639（在线收听）

The Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has signed a deal to transfer power to his vice-president, ending his rule of more than 30 years. The agreement followed nine months of protests in Yemen. Frank Gardner reports.

Three times Yemen's president has agreed to step down; three times he's gone back on his word. But today in the capital city of his powerful neighbour Saudi Arabia, President Ali Abdullah Saleh finally signed an agreement to transfer power, ending his 33-year rule. Saleh's opponents are saying he's the latest dictator to be toppled by this year's Arab uprising. But even if this time the president does stick to his word and leave office, this will not be the end of Yemen's troubles.

The latest attempt to restore calm in an area of Tahrir Square in Cairo, where there have been violent clashes between demonstrators and police, has broken down. Leaders from a local mosque had appealed for a truce, but police have again used tear gas against the protesters. Meanwhile, small fires have been lit in the square in the hope that the rising smoke will carry the tear gas with it. There's been mounting pressure on Egypt to end what the UN human rights chief has called "excessive force" against demonstrators.

The head of an independent commission of inquiry in Bahrain into the violent suppression of pro-democracy protests in February has given a detailed account of the abuse suffered by many detainees. From Bahrain, here's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes.

The chief of the Independent Commission of Inquiry found the Bahraini authorities guilty of illegal arrests, forced confessions, unfair trials and the systematic use of torture. In his speech in reply, King Hamad welcomed the report. He talked of this being a day that will be remembered in the history of Bahrain. But a short distance away in a Shia neighbourhood of Bahrain, they were burning tyres and calling for the king to step down. Speaking with Professor Bassiouni after the speeches, he admitted it will very much depend now on what Bahrain's king does with the report: will he push for reform and remove hard-liners from his government, or will he use the report as window dressing to appease opinion in America and Europe.

The global fund to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria has decided not to fund any new programmes as a result of cuts in its resources from donor nations.

全球用于治疗艾滋病、肺结核和疟疾的基金决定不再资助任何新项目，因为其捐赠国削减了资金来源。

The fund says it will continue to support only essential services in existing programmes after a shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars. A spokesman for the fund told the BBC the cuts put the progress in combating disease at risk and threatened the lives of people in the developing world.

该基金称，由于数千万美元的缺口，将只对一些关键项目提供资助。一位发言人告诉BBC，削减计划影响了与疾病作斗争，威胁发展中国家人们的生命。

The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has apologised for the killing of more than 13,000 Kurds by the Turkish military in the 1930s. Mr Erdogan is the first Turkish leader to apologise for the killings, which took place when the military used aerial bombardment and poisonous gas to pacify Kurds in central Turkey. But some Kurds see Mr Erdogan's apology as an opportunistic move against the main opposition party, the CHP, which was in power at the time of the massacre.

土耳其总理Recep Tayyip Erdogan为20世纪40年代屠杀13,000多名库尔德人表示道歉，Erdogan是为杀戮行为道歉的第一位土耳其领导人，当时军队在土耳其中部使用空中轰炸和毒气镇压库尔德人。而一些库尔德人认为，Erdogan的道歉不过是反对主要的反对派CHP的机会主义行动，CHP当时是屠杀发生时的执政党。

World News from the BBC

Germany has struggled to borrow all the money it sought from the financial markets. The government wanted to sell $8bn worth of 10-year bonds, but managed only half that. Here's Andrew Walker.

德国想方设法从金融市场寻求借贷，政府希望出售价值80亿美元的十年债券，但只出售了一半。安德鲁·沃克报道。

Sometimes these partial failures, if you like, of government bond sales do occur, but this one is regarded by a lot of people in the financial markets as being particularly unwelcome - partly I think a general spread of the anxiety about the whole euro area, spreading from first the smaller peripheral countries to some of the larger ones like Italy, even France. And now it does look like some investors are more reluctant than they were to hold even German government debt.

有时候政府债券会部分难以出售，不过在金融市场上的许多人看来，本国债券有些不受欢迎，我想这部分是因为人们普遍担忧整个欧元区，这种忧虑先从小的外围国家蔓延到一些诸如意大利的较大国家。目前看来，一些投资者更倾向于持有德国政府债券。

Brazil is temporarily suspending the American company Chevron from drilling for oil in its territory. The National Petroleum Agency said it would suspend Chevron Brazil's activities until it had established the cause of an oil spill off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. Chevron has apologised for the leak.

巴西暂停美国雪佛龙公司在领土内开采石油，全国石油公司称，将暂停雪佛龙在巴西的开采活动，直到弄清里约热内卢海岸漏油事件的原因为止。雪佛龙已对漏油事件表示道歉。

A court in France has agreed to a request by Panama for the extradition of its former military ruler Manuel Noriega. He's wanted for embezzlement and the murder of two opponents during his time in power between 1983 and 1989. He's been serving a prison sentence in France for money laundering.

法国一家法院同意巴拿马引渡前军事统治着Manuel Noriega的请求，Noriega因在1983到1989在位期间贪污和谋杀两位反对者被通缉。他还因洗钱在法国监禁。

An American auction house is selling artefacts from the failed Apollo 13 mission to the Moon in 1970. This includes the checklist which helped the crew return to Earth after an oxygen tank exploded on board. Here's Jane Peel.

美国一家拍卖公司将出售1970年失败的阿波罗13号登月计划中的文物，包括氧气瓶在舱内爆炸后帮助飞行员返回地球的一项清单。Jane Peel报道。

"OK, Houston, we've had a problem here."

“喂，休斯顿，我们在这儿遇到问题了。”

"This is Houston. Say again, please."

“这里是休斯顿，请重复一遍。”

"Houston, we've had a problem."

“休斯顿，我们遇到问题了。”

"Houston, we've had a problem" was the mother of all understatements. An explosion on board the spacecraft two days into Nasa's third mission to the Moon left the three astronauts in grave danger. Commander Jim Lovell had just 15 minutes to make a series of critical mathematical calculations before a loss of power threatened to strand them in space. It is Commander Lovell's checklist that's being auctioned in Dallas next week.

“休斯顿，我们遇到问题了”这句不过是轻描淡写。美国国家航空航天局第三次登月计划开始的第二天，舱内发生爆炸，三名宇航员处于危急关头。在失重威胁到他们在舱内安全之前，指令长吉姆·洛韦尔只有15分钟时间进行系列数学计算。下周将被拍卖的就是指令长洛韦尔的那张清单。