Hourly News 每日新闻 2013-10-01

 Search continues for 74 missing in South China Sea boat sinking

74 people remain missing after three fishing boats sank on Sunday afternoon amid Typhoon Wutip in the South China Sea.

The boats, all from Guangdong, went down near the Xisha Islands.

Search and rescue has managed to retrieve¹ 14 people so far.

Altogether five boats with a total of 171 people aboard were caught in the Typhoon Wutip.

The Chinese Navy has dispatched 7 ships and a helicopter to help with the search and rescue.

The rescue operations are being hampered² by strong winds and high waves.

Wutip made landfall on Vietnam's central coast last night.

 

China condemns³ strike on Damascus Chinese embassy

The Chinese goverment is condemning⁴ the launch of a mortar⁵ shell which hit the Chinese embassy in Syria.

The shell fell into the compound of the Chinese embassy in Damascus on Monday, leaving one person hurt.

It's believed the mortar may have been launched from the southern suburbs of Damascus.

Despite this, the Chinese side says it remains⁶ committed to finding a solution to the conflict.

The Chinese government has already decided⁷ to send in experts to assist in the dismantling⁸ of Syria's chemical weapons.

Li Keqiang made a speech at National Day reception

Chinese Premier⁹ Li Keqiang says development is China's first priority.

Speaking at a reception to mark this National Day, he also says the government should make sure development brings benefits to everyone.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang, and other state leaders gathered Monday evening at the Great Hall of the People to celebrate the National Day.

More than 11-hundred people attended the reception.

 

Senate rejects Obamacare delay compromise

The Democratically-controlled US Senate has rejected a proposal by the House of Representatives to delay President Barack Obama's healthcare reforms in return for temporarily funding the federal government.

The US government is just hours from being shut down.

The Senate has so far rejected all House efforts to modify Obamacare.

Failure to reach any agreement will force many federal services to shut down for the first time in 17 years.

The impasse¹⁰ will put up to 1-million federal workers on unpaid¹¹ leave.

 

Wave of car bombs across Baghdad kills 51

The death toll¹² from a series of bombings in Shiite neighbourhoods of Baghdad on Monday has reached 51. 

Dozens of others have been wounded in the assaults.

No group has claimed responsibility, although the strikes bare the hallmarks of al-Qaida's local branch in Iraq.

The attacks on Monday follow a series of bombings the day before which left 46 dead.

More than 45-hundred civilians¹³ have been killed since April amid the sectarian violence in the country.

 

Chicago train collision injures dozens

Over 30 people have been hurt following a collision involving a pair of commuter¹⁴ trains in Chicago.

The injured have been taken to local hospitals.

The crash took place during the morning rush hour.

Local officials say none of the injuries appear to be life threatening.

 

Indonesia demands closer cooperation with Australia on border issues

Indonesia's President is calling for closer cooperation with Australia on immigration issues.

The call has come amid Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot's visit to the country.

This comes just days after a boat packed with Australia-bound asylum¹⁵ seekers sank in Indonesian waters, leaving 36 dead.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says the two countries need to work together to combat the problem.

Newly-elected Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott won the September election on a promise to end asylum seeker boats ending up on Australian shores.

The Indonesian goverment has expressed concern over Abbott's plan.

The plan would see the Australian navy intercepting¹⁶ boats and forcing them back into Indonesian waters.

 

Turkish PM Erdogan announces "historic" reform plans

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced a set of proposals designed to try to strengthe ties with his country's Kurdish population.

Erdogan says his new proposals will lift certian restrictions¹⁷ on the use of the Kurdish language.

Authorities consider the reforms to be key in seeking peace with the Kurds.

Kurdish groups have demanded Erdogan lift restrictions on the Kurdish language even further, saying Kurdish children have the right to education in their mother tongue.

The PKK, the Kurdish rebels in the southwest of the country, suspended their expected pullout from Turkey earlier this year, claiming Erdogan's government has not fulfilled their promises to improve Kurdish rights.

 

First session of Kercher murder trial adjourned¹⁸ as judge and jury consider defence requests

The second appeal of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has opened in Italy.

American Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend were originally aquitted 2-years ago.

Lawyers from both sides are pressing for the re-examination of DNA¹⁹ on the knife suspected to be the murder weapon. 

Kercher was found with her throat slashed²⁰ in the home she and Knox shared in 2007.

 

Rising tennis star Zhang wins China derby at China Open

China's rising tennis star Zhang Shuai has beaten veteran Peng Shuai, 6-3, 6-3, in the first round of the China Open, winning the China derby.

Zhang won her first WTA title of her career in the recent Guangzhou women's tennis tournament earlier this month.

Following a series of outstanding performances, the 24-year old tennis star lifted her ranking to 66, a personal best.

Zhang and Peng both hail from Tianjin, a port city in east China, which boasts several top female tennis players including Duan Yingying and Zheng Saisai.

1 retrieve   

vt.重新得到，收回；挽回，补救；检索

参考例句：

• He was determined to retrieve his honor.他决心恢复名誉。
• The men were trying to retrieve weapons left when the army abandoned the island.士兵们正试图找回军队从该岛撤退时留下的武器。

2 hampered   

妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The search was hampered by appalling weather conditions. 恶劣的天气妨碍了搜寻工作。
• So thought every harassed, hampered, respectable boy in St. Petersburg. 圣彼德堡镇的那些受折磨、受拘束的体面孩子们个个都是这么想的。

3 condemns   

v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的第三人称单数 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地

参考例句：

• Her widowhood condemns her to a lonely old age. 守寡使她不得不过着孤独的晚年生活。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The public opinion condemns prostitution. 公众舆论遣责卖淫。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 condemning   

v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的现在分词 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地

参考例句：

• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。
• I concur with the speaker in condemning what has been done. 我同意发言者对所做的事加以谴责。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

5 mortar   

n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合

参考例句：

• The mason flushed the joint with mortar.泥工用灰浆把接缝处嵌平。
• The sound of mortar fire seemed to be closing in.迫击炮的吼声似乎正在逼近。

6 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

7 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。

8 dismantling   

（枪支）分解

参考例句：

• The new government set about dismantling their predecessors' legislation. 新政府正着手废除其前任所制定的法律。
• The dismantling of a nuclear reprocessing plant caused a leak of radioactivity yesterday. 昨天拆除核后处理工厂引起了放射物泄漏。

9 premier   

adj.首要的；n.总理，首相

参考例句：

• The Irish Premier is paying an official visit to Britain.爱尔兰总理正在对英国进行正式访问。
• He requested that the premier grant him an internview.他要求那位总理接见他一次。

10 impasse   

n.僵局；死路

参考例句：

• The government had reached an impasse.政府陷入绝境。
• Negotiations seemed to have reached an impasse.谈判似乎已经陷入僵局。

11 unpaid   

adj.未付款的，无报酬的

参考例句：

• Doctors work excessive unpaid overtime.医生过度加班却无报酬。
• He's doing a month's unpaid work experience with an engineering firm.他正在一家工程公司无偿工作一个月以获得工作经验。

12 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

13 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

14 commuter   

n.(尤指市郊之间)乘公交车辆上下班者

参考例句：

• Police cordoned off the road and diverted commuter traffic. 警察封锁了道路并分流交通。
• She accidentally stepped on his foot on a crowded commuter train. 她在拥挤的通勤列车上不小心踩到了他的脚。

15 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

16 intercepting   

截取（技术），截接

参考例句：

• The police had been intercepting my mail, ie reading it before it was delivered. 警方一直截查我的邮件。
• We've been intercepting radio transmissions from Moscow. 我们已从莫斯科拦截到无线电信号。

17 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

18 adjourned   

（使）休会， （使）休庭( adjourn的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The court adjourned for lunch. 午餐时间法庭休庭。
• The trial was adjourned following the presentation of new evidence to the court. 新证据呈到庭上后，审讯就宣告暂停。

19 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

20 slashed   

v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减

参考例句：

• Someone had slashed the tyres on my car. 有人把我的汽车轮胎割破了。
• He slashed the bark off the tree with his knife. 他用刀把树皮从树上砍下。 来自《简明英汉词典》