英国新闻听力 64

BBC News with Nick Kelly.

A report just released in Washington has concluded that the President-elect Barack Obama had no direct involvement in the scandal which has erupted in his home state Illinois around the Governor Rod Blagojevich. It's alleged¹ that Mr.Blagojevich was trying to profit personally from negotiations² to fill Mr. Obama's vacant seat in the Senate. From Washington, Jonathan Beale reports.

This report concludes that there was no indication of inappropriate behavior by Mr Obama's advisers³. But it confirms that Mr Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, did discuss the Senate seat with the Illinois governor and the governor's staff. The report insists that there was no mention of any personal benefit for the governor. It's also emerged that Barack Obama himself has been interviewed by the federal prosecutor⁴ investigating the corruption⁵ charges. That fact and the sketchy⁶ details of Mr. Obama's own report leave many questions unanswered.

El Salvador has announced that it will end its military presence in Iraq at the end of the month. President Elías Antonio Saca said that when the current United Nations resolution runs out at the end of this year, his country's troops will be withdrawn⁷. El Salvador has had troops in Iraq since 2003.

Army officers in the West African state of Guinea have staged a coup⁸ attempt, but civilian⁹ and military leaders say they failed to overthrow¹⁰ the government. An army captain early went on National Radio to claim that the government had been overthrown¹¹ just hours after the death was announced of the long-serving President Lansana Conte. Later, the head of the armed forces, General Diana Kamala, told French Television that the rebel officers were in a minority within the army.

They do not have the unanimous support of the army at present, and I don't know what their real aims are, I don't know if it is simply because they want to take power or because of the economic and political situation in the country, but I think it is a little premature¹², because the death of the president has hardly been announced before you have people coming and making a statement that they are taking power.

The Iraqi parliament has approved a resolution to allow British and other non-American foreign troops to stay in the country, after their United Nations mandate¹³ expires at the end of the year. American forces are covered by a separate agreement. They are to leave by the end of 2011. Here is Andrew Bolton.

The resolution passed after days of turmoil¹⁴ in the Iraqi parliament lets the troops stay until the end of July, next year. The parliamentary unrest had led to delays on the decision, and the agreement finally came shortly after the resignation of the Speaker of the Parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani. Mr. al-Mashhadani, a Sunni, had long been a controversial figure, and / Iraqi MPs had been calling on him to stand down over a number of issues. But matters came to a head after he used crude language and insults during a debate last week. Shiite and Kurdish politicians clamored for him to go, and they finally got their wish.

You are listening to the World News from the BBC.

The Sri Lankan government has rebuffed a call by the campaign group Human Rights Watch for aid agencies to be allowed to return to the north of the country where the army is fighting Tamil Tiger rebels. The government ordered aid workers out in September, saying it couldn't guarantee their safety. The government's human rights spokesman indicated that the order wouldn't be reversed.

A Canadian woman has survived after being buried alive by a snow storm for three days. She went missing after her car got stuck in a blizzard¹⁵ near the town of Ancaster, west of Toronto. The vehicle was found the next day but it took a further two days for a police dog to find her almost completely submerged in the snowdrift. She is now in hospital with hyperthermia. The police attribute her survival to the snow which insulated her from the freezing temperatures. Ray Lau is the police officer whose dog discovered the woman, he says he was amazed to find her still alive.

From a survivability standpoint, the odds¹⁶ were against her, from a search and rescue standpoint, it's a miracle that she is still with us. I really didn't think that it was necessarily search/ and rescue mission by this point, but she has obvious proved a lot of the probability tables wrong.

Israeli forces say they've killed three Palestinian militants¹⁷ at the edge of the Gaza Strip. They say the men were shot as they tried to plant explosives. There has been no comment from Palestinian officials so far. The shooting is the most serious reported incident since the truce¹⁸ between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist Movement Hamas expired at the weekend.

And President Bush in one of his last acts in office has granted the posthumous¹⁹ pardon to an American who broke the US neutrality law to supply aircraft/to Jews fighting for the state of Israel in 1948. The man, Charles Winters, who was not Jewish, served 18 months in prison after working for others to deliver two converted Flying Fortress²⁰ aircrafts to the Middle East .In 1961, the then-Israeli Prime Minister Golden Mayuf commended Mr. Winters for his contribution to Israel.

1 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

2 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。

3 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。

4 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

5 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

6 sketchy   

adj.写生的，写生风格的，概略的

参考例句：

• The material he supplied is too sketchy.他提供的材料过于简略。
• Details of what actually happened are still sketchy.对于已发生事实的详细情况知道的仍然有限。

7 withdrawn   

vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出

参考例句：

• Our force has been withdrawn from the danger area.我们的军队已从危险地区撤出。
• All foreign troops should be withdrawn to their own countries.一切外国军队都应撤回本国去。

8 coup   

n.政变；突然而成功的行动

参考例句：

• The monarch was ousted by a military coup.那君主被军事政变者废黜了。
• That government was overthrown in a military coup three years ago.那个政府在3年前的军事政变中被推翻。

9 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

10 overthrow   

v.推翻，打倒，颠覆；n.推翻，瓦解，颠覆

参考例句：

• After the overthrow of the government,the country was in chaos.政府被推翻后，这个国家处于混乱中。
• The overthrow of his plans left him much discouraged.他的计划的失败使得他很气馁。

11 overthrown   

adj. 打翻的，推倒的，倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词

参考例句：

• The president was overthrown in a military coup. 总统在军事政变中被赶下台。
• He has overthrown the basic standards of morality. 他已摒弃了基本的道德标准。

12 premature   

adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的

参考例句：

• It is yet premature to predict the possible outcome of the dialogue.预言这次对话可能有什么结果为时尚早。
• The premature baby is doing well.那个早产的婴儿很健康。

13 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

14 turmoil   

n.骚乱，混乱，动乱

参考例句：

• His mind was in such a turmoil that he couldn't get to sleep.内心的纷扰使他无法入睡。
• The robbery put the village in a turmoil.抢劫使全村陷入混乱。

15 blizzard   

n.暴风雪

参考例句：

• The blizzard struck while we were still on the mountain.我们还在山上的时候暴风雪就袭来了。
• You'll have to stay here until the blizzard blows itself off.你得等暴风雪停了再走。

16 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

17 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

18 truce   

n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束

参考例句：

• The hot weather gave the old man a truce from rheumatism.热天使这位老人暂时免受风湿病之苦。
• She had thought of flying out to breathe the fresh air in an interval of truce.她想跑出去呼吸一下休战期间的新鲜空气。

19 posthumous   

adj.遗腹的；父亡后出生的；死后的，身后的

参考例句：

• He received a posthumous award for bravery.他表现勇敢，死后受到了嘉奖。
• The legendary actor received a posthumous achievement award.这位传奇男星在过世后获得终身成就奖的肯定。

20 fortress   

n.堡垒，防御工事

参考例句：

• They made an attempt on a fortress.他们试图夺取这一要塞。
• The soldier scaled the wall of the fortress by turret.士兵通过塔车攀登上了要塞的城墙。