AP美联社一分钟新闻 2008-11-17（在线收听）

1. Fire crews in southern California are getting some help from calmer winds. The fires have destroyed hundreds of homes and forced thousands of people to evacuate. Some 34 square miles have been blackened since Thursday.

2. Two top Republican senators are saying they will oppose a Democratic plan to bail out Detroit automakers, calling the US industry "a dinosaur" whose "day of reckoning" is coming. Democratic leaders want to use 25 billion dollars of the 700-billion-dollar financial industry bailout to help General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.

3. Iraq's Cabinet has approved a security agreement that lets US forces stay there for another three years. A stamp of approval from parliament is considered likely.

4. And a dramatic video shows the aftermath of a bridge collapse in an Indian-controlled region of Kashmir. Four workers were killed, 19 others missing. The bridge was under construction.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. dinosaur: n.

If you refer to an organization as a dinosaur, you mean that it is large, inefficient, and out of date.

2. reckoning: n.

a time when you are judged or punished for your actions, or when they have results that affect you