美联社新闻一分钟 2008-06-26（在线收听）

1. A guilty verdict for Neil Entwistle on two counts of first-degree murder. The British man was convicted of shooting to death his wife and infant daughter. Jurors rejected his claim that the woman had killed their baby and then committed suicide.

2. Police say six employees are dead at a western Kentucky plastics plant after an angry worker opened fire before committing suicide. The killings stunned the small town where officials say many of the residents know a worker at the plant.

3. The Federal Reserve has left its benchmark interest rate unchanged. The federal funds rate, the rate that banks charge each other remains at two percent. The Fed cited both high uncertainty about the inflation outlook and downside risks to growth.

4. U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission held its annual fireworks safety demonstration ahead of the Fourth of July celebrations. Last year nearly ten thousand Americans were treated for fireworks-related injuries. The CPSC says the best way to avoid injury is to leave the fireworks up to the professionals.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1.verdict 判决，裁决

an official decision made in a court of law, especially about whether someone is guilty of a crime or how a death happened

2. benchmark interest rate 基准利率

Also called base interest rate, it is the minimum interest rate investors will demand for investing in a non-Treasury security. It is also tied to the yield to maturity offered on the comparable-maturity treasury security that was most recently issued (on-the-run).

基准利率是金融市场上具有普遍参照作用的利率，其他利率水平或金融资产价格均可根据这一基准利率水平来确定。基准利率是利率市场化的重要前提之一，在利率市场化条件下，融资者衡量融资成本，投资者计算投资收益，客观上都要求有一个普遍公认的基准利率水平作参考。所以，基准利率是利率市场化机制形成的核心。

3.The federal funds rate 联邦基金利率

美国联邦基金利率（Federal Funds Rate）是指美国同业拆借市场的利率，是一家存托机构利用手上的资金向另一家存托机构借出隔夜贷款利率，是美国最重要的利率。

In the United States, the federal funds rate is the interest rate at which private depository institutions (mostly banks) lend balances (federal funds) at the Federal Reserve to other depository institutions, usually overnight.[1] Changing the target rate is one form of open market operations that the Chairman of the Federal Reserve uses to regulate the supply of money in the U.S. economy

4. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (U. S. CPSC)美国消费品安全委员会

is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government created in 1972 through the Consumer Product Safety Act to protect “against unreasonable risks of injuries associated with consumer products”.