英国新闻听力 香港立法会否决政改方案(在线收听

Police in the United States are searching for a white gunman, who shot dead nine people during a prayer meeting at an African-American church in the southern city of Charleston. From Washington, here is Tom Bakemen.

“Officers are now searching for the gunman, who they say was white and in his twenties, and they are treating the attack as a hate crime. The Mayor of Charleston Joseph Riley said it was an unspeakable tragedy.

“It is the large death totally act that one cannot possibly imagine. And we will bring that person to justice.”

The shooting took place at one of the oldest African-American churches in the southern United States, which traces its roots back two centuries. The police have said they would put all of their energies into finding the man who carried out the attack.

Hong Kong legislators have rejected controversial proposals to change the way the territory chooses its leader, with a dramatic end to the debate on the reforms. Julian Liu is in Hong Kong.

“When Hong Kong government officials gave their final speeches, it was hours ahead of schedule. Journalists scrambled to retake their seats in the main chamber of the legislative council. Then a bell rang reminding legislators to gather. The Cabinet Room echoed with tension. A voice called out asking to halt the proceedings with just minutes to spare. The Head head of the Council declined. Pro-government lawmakers walked out in protest. As a result, the controversial political reform plan failed by a wide margin.”

The United Nations says the number of people forced to flee their homes because of war or persecution is at the highest level ever recorded. More than half of the nearly sixteen million, who fled last year, were children. Most of the refugees were from Syria. The UN High Commission for Refugees said the international community seemed incapable of stopping conflicts.

Finance ministers from the Euro Zone are meeting in Luxemburg today to try to prevent Greece from defaulting on its debt in less than two weeks and being forced out of the single currency. But all parties played down any hopes of a breakthrough. Christ Morris reports.

“Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has said we are bringing no new proposals to the meeting. So he is saying, as the Greek government has been saying for some time now, what we need to do is to discuss this at the very highest level,in other words, leaders of Euro Zone countries, Alexis Tsipras, Angela Merkel, Francoise Hollande, sitting down and sorting it out at a political level rather at a technical one. But on the other side, the Euro Zone countries are saying there’s no point in politicians sitting down, if there isn’t any technical document in their hands to start with.”

Denmark is going to the polls today with the issues of immigration and the economy holding center stage. Voters will decide whether to keep the country's first female Prime Minister Helle Thorning- Schmidt, or elect her center right rivals who were promising tax cuts.

World news from the BBC.

A British corporate investigator says the Chinese authorities denied him urgent medical treatment in order to extort a confession. Peter Humphrey has just been released from a prison in China after admitting that he illegally gathered information about Chinese citizens in a case involving the pharmaceuticals giant Glaxo Smith Kline, Kerry Gracie reports.

“Free at last and back on British soil. Peter Humphrey told the BBC his two years in a Shanghai jail cell, had been a shattering experience. He said Chinese authorities had denied him treatment for prostate problems as a way of trying to force him to confess, already now has a tumour as a result of not getting the medical attention he needed.”

Israeli police say a fire that's part of a Catholic church may have been an arson attack. The church, which Christians believe is the site where Jesus performed a miracle for multiplication of the loaves and fishes, is on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. A police spokesman said Hebrew graffiti found in scroll and red script paint denounced the worship of idols.

For the first time in more than a century, a new ten dollars note in the United States will feature the portrait of a woman. The US Treasury is asking Americans to submit ideas for whose image should be used. The new ten-dollar note will mark the centenary of American women gaining the rights to vote.

A court in Australia has banned a woman from breastfeeding because she got a tattoo. A judge said this put her eleven-month old son at risk of picking up infection. From Sydney, John Donison has this report.

“The court in Sydney granted the injunction to stop the woman from breastfeeding despite the fact she had negative blood tests for both HIV and hepatitis. Nevertheless, Judge Mathew Myers said there was still an unacceptable risk to the baby because the tests were not conclusive. Breastfeeding advocates in Australia criticized the decision saying the risk was incredibly small.”

美国警方正在搜捕一名白人持枪男子,此人在南部城市查尔斯顿非裔美国教堂祈祷仪式上开枪打死9人。汤姆·贝克曼在华盛顿报道。

“警方目前在搜捕这名男子,据悉此人是20多岁的白人,警方认为这场袭击为仇恨罪,查尔斯顿市长约瑟夫·赖利称这是难以言表的悲剧。”

“这场袭击案造成的死亡令人难以想象,我们会把凶手抓拿归案的。”

枪击案发生在美国南部最古老的非裔美国人教堂,该教堂有两百年历史了。警方称将全力搜寻袭击案凶手。

香港立法会议员否决了要求修改选举特首的有争议提议,有关改革的辩论戏剧性地收尾。朱利安·刘在香港报道。

“香港政府官员做最后讲话时比事先计划提前了几小时,记者纷纷回到立法委员会的座位上。然后一声铃响提醒委员们开始开会,内阁会议室紧张地回应。然后有声音要求暂停这一程序,当时只剩下几分钟了,立法会主席表示拒绝。亲政府议员们走出来表示抗议,结果,这场有争议的政治改革计划以惨败告终。”

联合国称战争或迫害导致的流离失所者人数创下历史最高纪录,去年有近1600万人逃离家园,其中一半多是儿童,大多数是来自叙利亚的难民。联合国难民事务高级专员署称国际社会似乎无力阻止冲突发生。

欧元区财政们今天在卢森堡开会,试图阻止希腊在两周内出现债务违约并被迫退出这一单一货币。但各方都降低了实现突破的希望,克里斯·莫里斯报道。

“财长雅尼斯·瓦鲁法克斯称准备在会议上提出新提议,所以,就像希腊政府一直表示的那样,他说我们需要做的是在最高层面上商讨此事,也就是说在欧元区国家领导人之间进行谈论,由阿列克西斯·齐普拉斯、安吉拉·默克尔和弗朗索瓦·奥朗德坐下来在政治层面上找到解决办法,而不是在技术层面上努力。但另一方面,欧元区国家称,如果这些政客手里没有任何技术性的文件,那么坐下来商谈是没有意义的。”

丹麦人今天准备就移民和经济问题进行投票,选民们将决定是否让该国首位女性首相赫勒·托宁·施密特继续任职,还是选举承诺减税的中间右派对手。

BBC世界新闻。

一名英国企业调查者称中国当局为逼供拒绝让他接受治疗,韩飞龙承认在与制药巨头葛兰素史克有关的案件中非法收集有关中国公民的信息,目前他已被从中国监狱中释放。凯里·格雷西报道。

“韩飞龙终于获释并回到英国国土,他告诉BBC他在上海监狱的两年很痛苦。他说中国当局为让他逼供拒绝让他接受前列腺治疗,由于没有得到他所需要的治疗,目前他已长有肿瘤。”

以色列警方称一座天主教堂发生的火灾可能是纵火案,基督徒认为这座位于加利利海沿岸的教堂就是耶稣变出面包和鱼奇迹的地点。警方发言人称教堂里被喷上反对偶像崇拜的希伯来语涂鸦。

美国新的10美元纸币将出现女性头像,这是100多年来的第一次。美国财政部请求美国公民对头像献计献策,新的10美元纸币纪念美国女性获得选举权100周年。

澳大利亚法院禁止一名妇女哺乳,原因是她身上有刺青。法官称这就使得她11个月大的儿子有感染的危险,约翰在悉尼报道。

“尽管这名妇女的HIV和肝炎的血液化验都呈阴性,悉尼法院还是禁止她哺乳。法官马修·迈尔斯称因为化验并不具备确定性,因此她的孩子仍面临不可接受的风险。澳大利亚母乳倡导者们批评该决定,称其风险非常小。”

  原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/ygxwtl/537150.html