2007年VOA标准英语-France's First Lady in Libya to Urge Release of

By Anita Elash
Paris
23 July 2007

The wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy is in Libya Monday for a second time to negotiate the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to life in prison for allegedly contaminating children with AIDS. Libya`s top court last week commuted¹ the death sentences against six to life imprisonment². Anita Elash reports for VOA from Paris.

 

French First Lady Cecilia Sarkozy, 14 Jul 2007

According to news reports, Cecilia Sarkozy flew to Tripoli on Sunday to help prepare the nurses' return to their home countries.

She is accompanied by Claude Gueant, the secretary general at the French Presidential Palace, and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European Union's externalrelations commissioner³.

News reports say Mrs. Sarkozy met with the daughter of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on Monday. Nicolas Sarkozy also spoke⁴ to the president of the European Commission, Manuel Barrosso, several times overnight by phone.

French secretary of state in charge of parliamentary relations, Roger Karoutchi, said Mrs. Sarkozy has no power to negotiate but is in Libya as an intermediary.

But after her first visit to Libya, Mr. Gueant, the president's secretary general, said that her visit was meant to send a strong message to the Libyan government.

He told the French radio station TF1 that since no one is closer to Nicolas Sarkozy than Cecilia Sarkozy, her presence underlined the French government's concern over the future of the six prisoners.

 

Libyan security guards stand in front of the dock during the trial of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor in Tripoli, 04 Nov 2006

Bulgaria's foreign minister said he expected negotiations⁵ to free the nurses would end sometime on Monday. It's expected that they would then be flown to Sofia aboard Mrs. Sarkozy's plane.

The government in Bulgaria wants them to be allowed to return home. It has granted citizenship⁶ to the Palestinian doctor so that he may also benefit from any deal to transfer the nurses to Bulgaria.

The six, who say torture was used to extract their confessions⁷, have been imprisoned⁸ in Libya since 1999, accused of deliberately⁹ spreading HIV in a childrens' hospital.

Foreign experts say the infections started before the nurses arrived at the hospital, and are more likely to have been a result of poor hygiene¹⁰.

The French news agency, AFP, quoted sources saying that in return for the nurses' freedom, Mr. Sarkozy has promised to modernize¹¹ the Benghazi hospital wherethe infected children were staying.

1 commuted   

通勤( commute的过去式和过去分词 )； 减（刑）； 代偿

参考例句：

• His sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment. 他的判决由死刑减为无期徒刑。
• The death sentence may be commuted to life imprisonment. 死刑可能減为无期徒刑。

2 imprisonment   

n.关押，监禁，坐牢

参考例句：

• His sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment.他的判决由死刑减为无期徒刑。
• He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for committing bigamy.他因为犯重婚罪被判入狱一年。

3 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

6 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

7 confessions   

n.承认( confession的名词复数 )；自首；声明；（向神父的）忏悔

参考例句：

• It is strictly forbidden to obtain confessions and to give them credence. 严禁逼供信。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Neither trickery nor coercion is used to secure confessions. 既不诱供也不逼供。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

9 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

10 hygiene   

n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic）

参考例句：

• Their course of study includes elementary hygiene and medical theory.他们的课程包括基础卫生学和医疗知识。
• He's going to give us a lecture on public hygiene.他要给我们作关于公共卫生方面的报告。

11 modernize   

vt.使现代化，使适应现代的需要

参考例句：

• It was their manifest failure to modernize the country's industries.他们使国家进行工业现代化，明显失败了。
• There is a pressing need to modernise our electoral system.我们的选举制度迫切需要现代化。