英语新闻听力教程原文

英语新闻听力教程原文 iUnit 1 Section C Item 2 Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says Pakistan and India are both optimistic about resolving their dispute over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which both countries claim. In an exclusive interview with the Associated Press, General Musharraf says he hopes to settle the issue with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh while they’re both in power. Mr. Singh and General Musharraf are expected to try to move their peace dialogue forward when they meet next week in New York at the United Nations General Assembly meeting. Item 3 North Korea is demanding that Tokyo immediately lift sanctions imposed on Pyongyang in response to its test-launch of missiles. A North Korean envoy to Japan says his country will retaliate with stronger measures if the sanctions are not lifted. After North Korea test-fired seven missiles, Tokyo barred a North Koreans ferry from Japanese ports for six months and banned North Korean officials from entering the country. South Korea today rejected Pyongyang’s request for military talks, saying they were inappropriate at this time. But it said ministerial talks will go ahead as scheduled next week. Section D Item 2 The State Department says Venezuelan police failed to protect the U.S. ambassador there as demonstrators threw eggs and food at his car. Spokesman Sean McCormack said Venezuela’s ambassador to the U.S. was summoned to the State Department to hear the U.S. complaint. A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Caracas said groups of motorcyclists attacked the car carrying Ambassador William Brownfield. He said Venezuelan police escorts did nothing to stop the demonstrators who pounded on the car and chased it for miles. The embassy spokesman said the attack appeared to have been organized by the Caracas Mayor’s office. A spokesman for the mayor denied that charge. The U.S. has been at odds with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for several years. Item 3 Russia has expressed regret for the killing of a Japanese fisherman today when a patrol vessel fired at a warning shot at a fishing boat near the disputed Kuril Islands. But Russia’s Foreign Ministry says in a statement that Japan is at fault for the incident because it does not curb Japanese fishing in Russian waters. Japan has launched a strong protest as we hear from VOA’s Steve Herman in Tokyo. “A diplomatic row broke out between Japan and Russia on Wednesday following the shooting death of a Japanese fisherman in waters claimed by both countries. The incident took place ear the island chain the Russians call the Kurils and the Japanese call the Northern Territories. The islands were seized from Japan by the Soviet Union in the closing days of world War II and have been under Russia control ever since, but Japan still claims them. Foreign Minister Taro Aso after summoning Russia’s deputy ambassador told reporters in Tokyo that the killing of the Japanese fisherman was an outrageous act. Steve Herman, VOA News, Tokyo.” Unit 2 Section C Item 2 And a meeting in New York between the foreign ministers of Guatemala and Venezuela has failed to resolve the deadlock over which country will represent Latin America and the Caribbean as a non-permanent member on the United Nations Security Council. In a BBC interview after the meeting, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro blamed Cuatemala for the ongoing impasse. He said it had shown no interest in agreeing to a compromised canidate. Item 3 Africa’s first female elected leader met with President Bush at the White House today. Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf met with Mr. Bush in the Oval Office and then the two had lunch together in the White House’s East Room. Among the issues the two discussed, there is a request for Nigeria to hand over former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who is wanted on war crimes charges. She told reporters today that she asked Mr. Bush for help. Taylor has been living in exile in Nigeria. Many Liberians blamed him for fueling a civil war that ravaged the country. Section D Item 2 Environment ministers and officials from more than 20 countries have ended four days of informal talks in Greenland in efforts to deal with global warming. Danish environment Minister Connie Hedegaard, the meeting’s host, called on participants to stop blaming one another for global warming and take concerted action. Participants of the meeting in Greenland’s Arctic town of Elucigot included the United States, China and several European countries. They focused on possible action after the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol, an accord on reducing global warming. It expires until 2012. U.N.studies show that global warming could melt polar icecaps and push thousands of species close to extinction. Item 3 G-8 leaders are gathering near Edinburgh, Scotland at this hour for a summit that will focus on aid to Africa and protecting the environment. They are expected to endorse a write-off of more than 40 billion dollars in debt owed by 18 African countries mainly in the sub-Saharan region. On a stop in Denmark en route to Scotland, President Bush said he would emphasize the need for African nations to commit to good government to get the increased aid. In villages near the G-8 conference site demonstrators smashed car windows and fought with riot police. Some tried to storm barricades surrounding the conference site and dozens were arrested. Unit 3 Section C Item 2 The United Nations relief agency says an attack on a displaced persons' camp in Sudan's western Darfur region has reportedly left 29 people dead and 10 seriously injured. A spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees told VGA it' s the first time that a displaced persons' camp has been attacked in more than two years of civil war. The spokesman says up to 300 armed Arab men on horses and camels attacked the camp on Wednesday. Item 3 The United Nations World Food Program has appealed urgently for donations of more than 150 million dollars to prevent a food crisis in southern Africa. It warned that almost 10 million people across six countries—Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland— urgently needed food aid. The shortages are blamed on drought and the effects of HIV/AIDS and chronic poverty. A BBC correspondent in southern Africa says that in Zimbabwe, children in rural areas have already started to show signs of malnutrition. She says some eat only once a day. Section D Item 2 Despite U.S. objections, the United Nations General Assembly today overwhelmingly voted to create a new human rights council to improve the UN's ability to deal with human rights offenders. The council replaces the discredited UN Human Rights Commission based in Geneva. U.S. ambassador to the UN John Bolton told the Assembly today that UN made some improvements but they are not enough. Bolton told the Assembly that rules for the new council are too weak to prevent human rights violators from obtaining seats. Under the resolution adopted today, the old commission will be abolished June 16th, and the new council will convene three days later. Item 3 The United Nations has welcomed new pledges by donor countries of nearly 600 million dollars to fund relief efforts after the South Asian earthquake. But the UN's chief relief coordinator Jan Egeland said it was not clear how much was for immediate emergency relief and how much for longer-term work. Pakistan says 79,000 people have died and Mr. Egeland had early warned that hundreds of thousands more could die without an immediate big boost in funds. Winter snow is expected in the earthquake zone within weeks. A top Pakistani relief official, General Farooq Ahmed, told the BBC that an extra 30,000 troops were in the area to help. Unit 4 Section C Item 2 British officials in Iran have denied allegations of any British involvement in violence in the southwestern province of Khuzestan where at least four people were killed in two bomb attacks on Saturday. The British embassy in Tehran condemned the attacks and said Britain rejected allegations linking it to terrorist outrages. Several Iranian Officials have made statements implicating British troops stations across the border inside southern Iraq in the bombings and in previous attacks earlier this year which killed 10 people. Item 3 For the first time, President Bush has said it could be accurate to compare the recent escalation of violence in Iraq to the 1968 Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War. The Tet Offensive marked a strong downturn in public support for both the Vietnam War and the President Lyndon Johnson Mr. Bush spoke in an ABC interview in which he addressed increased violence in Iraq. The comparison of the insurgency in Iraq to the Tet Offensive in Vietnam was made in a column by Tom Friedman in the New YorkTime. Section D Item 2. South Korea and Japan say they have not detected any radioactivity to confirm North Korea’s claim that it conducted an underground nuclear test on Monday. Late Friday unnamed U.S. officials said U.S. aircraft have detected trace in the air samples collected near the suspected North Korea test site, but they stressed no final determination had been made. Word of the latest findings comes as the UN Security Council members continue to hammer out details of a draft resolution was excepted Saturday. The UN draft resolution includes economic and weapons sanctions againstNorth Korea, including a travel ban and financial restriction. Item 3 Russian President Vladimir Putin says he will not allow foreign powers to dictateRussia’s energy policy or interfere in any of its internal affairs. In an interview broadcast from Saint Peterburg today, Mr. putin told BBC News that recent Western criticism of Russia is a mix of cold war and colonialist thinking. Mr. Putin singled out U.S. President Dick Cheney’s recent criticism of Russian energy policy in which Cheney accused Russia of using its vast oil and gas resources as tools of intimidation. Putin compared those comments to an errant gunshot by Cheney that wounded a companion on a hunting trip earlier this year. The Russian leader host President Bush and other world leaders later this week in a summit of the G-8 industrialized nations. Mr. Putin said Russian is ready to hear well-intentioned criticism from foreign leaders, but said he will categorically reject what he called interference in Russia’s internal affairs. Unit 5 Section C Item 2 A Peruvian airliner carrying 100 passengers and crew members has crashed in a northeastern jungle town, killing at least 40 people. Officials say the TANS Air Flight 204 went down Tuesday while attempting an emergency landing during a severe storm. Police at the scene say foreign nationals are among the dead, including at least one Italian and an American. Officials say at least 52 people survived the accident with most being treated at area hospitals. Item 3 Officials in Japan say the train crash near Osaka in western Japan has killed as many as 57 people, injured more than 400. A commuter train carrying around 580 passengers during morning rush hour Monday smashed into an apartment building near Amagasaki, about 400 kilometers west of Tokyo. Workers are still trying to reach some of the passengers trapped in the wreckage. The accident was Japan’s worst in more than four decades. Investigators say speed and driver inexperience may be factors in the crash. Section D Item 2 A small aircraft has crashed into the 20th floor of a high-rise apartment building in New York City, killing at least two people. The plane burst into flames on the impact and fire spread through several floors of the building. The White House said all the indications were that the crash was an accident. Investigators are at the scene gathering evidence, but the authorities don’t believe the incident was linked to terrorism. The BBC’s Gitto Harry was at the scene shortly after the incident and sent this report. “Fire engines, police cars, ambulances completely blocking the avenue, people having been pushed onto the sidewalks. All they know at this stage is that either a plane or a helicopter has crashed into a building. There are helicopters circling above. There is smoke in the air. There are police running around. The are is being cordoned off.” There authorities in New York now say that four people were killed in the plane crash in Manhattan. Reports from the United States say the plane was being piloted by the New Yankee’s baseball pitcher Cory Lidle, who died in the incident. Item 3 Thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina are still being evacuated from New Orleans. More than 10,000 people already have been taken by bus to an emergency shelter at a sports stadium in Texas more than 550 kilometers from New Orleans. Rescuers in New Orleans are working to evacuate thousands of additional flood refugees in and near the city’s former convention center, a large building without power, water or toilet facilities, overflowing with crowds calling for food, water and other assistance. Meanwhile President Bush is to visit the devastated area today. He is schedule to visit parts of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana that were wrecked by the powerful hurricane. Unit 6 Section C Item 2 The biggest ever international conference on malaria has begun in the West African state of Cameroon to discuss the latest scientific findings on the disease which kills more than 1.5 million people worldwide each year. 75% of those victims are African children. Of the 2,000 delegates meeting in the capital Yaounde, 80% are from Africa. The disease costs the continent more than 12 billion dollars in lost GDP each year. The latest research suggests that 41% of the world’s population live in areas where malaria is transmitted. Item 3 The Food and Drug Administration is investigating whether more than one food company is responsible for an outbreak of E. coli bacteria. Officials have linked bad spinach from Natural Selection Foods as one source of the E. coli. The company says the products are sold under the brand name Earth Bound Farm. Doctor David Atchison with the FDA says natural selection Foods has voluntarily recalled the spinach. The FDA advises shoppers to get rid of any fresh spinach in bags or other containers. At least one person has died. Dozens of others have gotten sick in at least 19states. Section D Item 2 A week after a toxic waste scandal brought down the government of Ivory Coast, teams of Ivorian and French experts are still trying to establish exactly what the material was composed of. Tons of waste from a ship were dumped in leaking drums in at least 11 open air locations in Ivory Coast’s biggest city Abidjian. Our correspondent James Copnall is there. The latest health ministry figures show that the health situation is deteriorating just as rapidly, however, a state of panic seems to have set in. meanwhile, teams of French and Ivorian experts were attempting to find out what exactly the toxic waste was composed of. Item 3 The White House has issued an updated version of its strategy for dealing with a possible influenza pandemic. The plan warns cities, states and businesses that they should prepare now to keep operating on their own and not count on federal help, and says that a flu pandemic could make up to 40% of the workforce too sick to work for two weeks at a time and that the infection could remain active in a community for up to two months. In the worst case, the report says, a pandemic could cause as many as two million deaths in the United States. Influenza pandemics tend to break out when a never-before-seen strain of the virus starts passing from person to person. Scientists are currently worried that the Asian bird flu might mutate into that kind of virus.