美联社新闻一分钟 2008-06-27（在线收听）

Americans can keep guns at home for self-defense. That’s according to the Supreme Court who struck down the District of Colombia’s 32-year-old ban on handguns today. The court’s 5-to-4 decision is the first major ruling on gun rights in U.S. history.

On Wall Street the Dow tumbled more than 300 points in afternoon trading, hitting its lowest level of the year. The drop comes after word that oil prices would spike and warnings of trouble in key financial, automotive and high-tech industries.

This British man was sentenced to two life prison terms for shooting to death his wife and 9-month-old baby inside their Massachusetts home. Neil Entwistle was convicted yesterday of two counts of first-degree murder for the 2006 deaths.

A grocery store is voluntarily recalling ground beef after E.coli outbreak in 2 states. Kroger says people who bought its ground beef between May 21st and June 8th should return it to stores for an exchange or a refund. Nearly 3 dozen people in Ohio and Michigan have been sickened.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1.strike down

law to say that a law, decision etc is illegal and officially end it

2.tumble[intransitive][always + adverb/preposition]

to fall down quickly and suddenly, especially with a rolling movement

3.spike[intransitive]

if the number or rate of something spikes, it increases quickly and by a large amount

4.automotive adj.[only before noun]

relating to cars

5.life time term无期徒刑

term [countable]n.a fixed period of time during which someone does something or something happens

6.ground beef [uncountable]n.

American English beef that has been cut up into very small pieces, often used to make hamburgers [= mince British English]

7.E.coli [uncountable]n.大肠杆菌

a type of bacteria that can make you very ill if it is in any food that you eat

8.sicken[intransitive]v.

old-fashioned to gradually become very ill