英语文章阅读训练

英语文章阅读训练

英语文章阅读训练 One.BBC News with Marion Marshall President Obama is preparing to give a highly charged televised address which will propose an American Jobs Act designed to stem unemployment. Some reports say the package will include tax cuts, infrastructure projects and re-hiring of laid-off teachers and police. Our North America editor Mark Mardell reports. Some suggest all this could cost as much as $400bn, and it’s very unlikely the president will get the agreement of the Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, to any increase in spending. He is of course setting a political trap for them, daring them to defy measures that he will portray as helping ordinary Americans. But there are grave dangers for the president as well; proposing what he cannot deliver may not look like an active leadership. Commentators, the markets, his opponents don’t have high expectations of the speech, but his potential supporters are less cynical and are desperately hoping this will be a pivotal moment. Nato forces in Afghanistan say a BBC reporter killed in July was shot dead by a US soldier. Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, who reported for the BBC’s Pashto service, died during a suicide attack in Uruzgan province. Initial reports suggested he was killed by the Taliban, but a Nato investigation now confirms that he was shot dead by an American who mistook him for a suicide bomber. The BBC’s director of Global News, Peter Horrocks, paid tribute to Mr Khpulwak. He said it was essential that journalists had the best possible protection so that the world could hear their stories. The Isaf spokesman Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson said the American soldier thought Omed Khpulwak was a danger. He was holding a technical gadget in his hand which happened to be his telephone probably, so the soldier believed that he was a suicide bomber, a third suicide bomber who was about to detonate himself, and therefore took action. Aid workers say hundreds of African migrants are fleeing from Libya each day because of the fear of racially motivated attacks. Mark Doyle reports. The black Africans now leaving Libya told the UN migration office they feared for their lives. They said all black people in Libya were now being seen as associated with the black mercenaries that had been fighting on the side of Colonel Gaddafi. The UN stopped short of directly blaming the anti-Gaddafi Transitional National Council forces for systematically targeting the black Africans. It said some of the attacks could have been spontaneous fights among local communities. But the UN said the new wave of xenophobic violence was definitely associated with the arrival of the anti-Gaddafi groups. The deputy head of Libya’s National Transitional Council has said the battle against Colonel Gaddafi’s forces isn’t over. In his first speech since moving to Tripoli, Mahmoud Jibril called on Libyans to be united and not attack each other as they face big challenges ahead. Forces loyal to Colonel Gaddafi have continued to show defiance in the town of Bani Walid. They fired rockets at opposition forces from the town, which is one of the former leader’s last remaining bastions. World News from the BBC The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has intensified his country’s diplomatic row with Israel. In an interview with the Arab TV station al-Jazeera, Mr Erdogan said that Turkish warships would provide an escort to any Turkish aid vessels to Gaza. Turkey has expressed growing anger over Israel’s refusal to offer a full apology for its raid on a flotilla heading for Gaza last year, during which nine Turkish activists were killed. A new controversial study of a couple of two-million-year-old skeletons suggests that humans may have evolved in a different place and earlier than previously thought. Here’s our science correspondent Pallab Ghosh. One of the big questions in human evolution is when and where did the first humans emerge. The favourite theory is that it happened in East Africa around two million years ago. But a detailed study of remains found in a cave in Malapa, near Johannesburg, has now challenged that view. The two-million-year-old specimen seem to have greater brain development, hands and teeth that are more human-like, and their pelvises are more suited to walking than any other pre-human creature found to date. Indeed, the traits are so human-like that some argue that these creatures may themselves be the very first of our kind. The United States Justice Department has issued a strongly critical report of the police force in the US territory of Puerto Rico, calling it broken in a number of critical ways. A three-year investigation found a pattern of unconstitutional behaviour, including excessive use of force and illegal searches and arrests. One of London’s most popular art galleries, the Tate Modern, has announced ambitious plans to open previously unused parts of its building in time for the Olympics next year. The first phase of the project will include opening the old 300-metre oil tanks at the former power station, which the gallery’s director Nicholas Serota said would be some of the most exciting spaces in the world for new art BBC News Two.BBC News with Marion Marshall The Nato-led mission in Afghanistan, Isaf, has suspended the transfer of detainees to some Afghan jails following allegations of widespread torture. The suspension applies to eight provinces where there are concerns that prisoners could be mistreated in custody. A UN report describes how prisoners have been beaten and in some cases electrocuted. Quentin Sommerville reports from Kabul. The torture was commonplace and systematic. Prisoners, many of whom had been handed over by Nato troops, were beaten with rubber hoses, threatened with sexual assault and in some cases given electric shocks. Most of those suspected of being insurgents were held without charge. Many of the accusations came in an as-yet unpublished UN report. In one case, a 19-year-old man was beaten for 19 days straight. He eventually bled to death. A heavily armed convoy of 50 Libyan vehicles is driving through the African state of Niger after crossing the desert border from Libya. The US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the American ambassador in Niger had discussed the convoy with officials there. She said Niger was being urged to cooperate with Libya’s National Transitional Council. Apparently a convoy has entered, and it does include some senior members of the Gaddafi regime, but we do not believe that Gaddafi himself was among them. We have strongly urged the Nigerien officials to detain those members of the regime. We’ve also urged them to work with the TNC with regard to their interest in any of these individuals and bringing those who may need to be brought to justice. The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that all military ties with Israel have been suspended. It’s a sign of Turkey’s growing anger over Israel’s refusal to offer a full apology for its raid on a flotilla heading for Gaza last year, during which nine Turkish activists were killed. Most military deals, however, have been concluded. Mr Erdogan also said that commercial relations would be suspended. The Italian government has announced its latest revisions to an austerity package aimed at stabilising the country’s finances as tens of thousands of Italians took part in protests against planned budget cuts. David Willey reports from Rome. In Milan, striking workers threw eggs and smoke bombs at banks. In Turin, they scuffled with police while in Palermo in Sicily demonstrators burnt the flags of trade unions that refused to take part in the strike. Parliament is meeting to ratify a series of austerity measures enacted by the government last month to try to reassure financial markets. The $68bn austerity package has been radically revised in recent days as coalition members bickered over where the biggest new tax burden is to fall and which public services are to be axed. BBC News An Israeli air strike on Gaza is reported to have killed a Palestinian militant and injured two civilians. The attack, near the city of Khan Yunis, came after militants fired mortars towards Israel. Earlier, Israeli soldiers clashed with militants near a border crossing between Israel and Gaza. Politicians in Somalia have approved a deal aimed at installing an elected government within a year and restoring peace and security after decades of instability. At the end of a UN-backed conference in Mogadishu, they also agreed to pass anti-piracy legislation and write a new constitution. Here’s our East Africa correspondent Will Ross. Somalia’s politicians have done the easy part - putting pen to paper. At the United Nations-backed conference in Mogadishu, they signed an agreement which sets out the roadmap towards elections next August and includes the lofty task of making the country secure. The Islamist insurgent groups like al-Shabab were not at this conference and have promised to keep fighting the government. Somalia’s politicians are deeply divided along clan lines, and in the eyes of many Somalis, they’ve failed the people for years. Putting aside the political wrangles to implement this roadmap would be a major achievement. The Central Bank of Nigeria has announced plans to switch up to 1/10 of its financial reserves to the Chinese currency, the yuan, becoming the first African country to do so. The governor of the bank said the US budget deficit and the downgrading of its creditworthiness along with the European sovereign debt crisis meant there was a need for diversification of reserve currencies. The Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has signed a series of deals with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina during a high-profile visit to Dhaka but failed to agree on a key issue of sharing water. Progress was made on trade, their common border and the fate of thousands of people living in enclaves in both countries. BBC World Service News Three.BBC News with Marion Marshall Thirty-six ice hockey players, among them top internationals from several European countries, have been killed in a plane crash in Russia. The victims included the captain of the Slovakian national team and the Swedish international goalkeeper. Steve Rosenberg reports. It was one of Russia’s top ice hockey teams. Lokomotiv Yaroslavl had players from across Europe, including from Sweden, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Today, the club was on a charter flight to Minsk ahead of a match in the Continental Hockey League. But shortly after take-off, the plane, a Yak-42, crashed into a riverbank nearby. It’s feared that 43 out of the 45 people on board were killed. Only one of Lokomotiv’s players survived, Alexander Galimov. He and one member of the plane’s crew are in a critical condition in hospital. Libya’s National Transitional Council says it’s sending a delegation to Niger to ask them not to give refuge to Colonel Gaddafi, should he try to enter the country, or any of his associates who’ve crossed the border in the past few days. They said they would also request that any cash or gold which was brought on the convoy of Libyan vehicles be returned. Earlier, the Nigerien foreign minister confirmed that three convoys carrying high-level fugitives had arrived from Libya. A spokesperson for the US State Department, Victoria Nuland, said they were under close watch. They are now being held in the capital, in government villas, and they are being monitored closely by Nigerien officials. Niger is also in direct contact with members of the Libyan Transitional National Council to discuss the future of these folks and their property. The judge at the trial of the ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has said that the country’s current military ruler, Field Marshal Tantawi, will give evidence in a closed session on 11 September. It’s been a key prosecution demand for Mr Tantawi to testify. Nearly 1,000 prisoners have escaped in the Democratic Republic of Congo after their jail was stormed by eight masked gunmen. They unlocked all the cells at the prison in Lubumbashi, the capital of the southeastern province of Katanga. A civilian visitor to the jail was killed in the attack, and other people are believed to have been wounded. Thomas Hubert reports from Kinshasa. Armed men opened fire on the Kassapa prison on Wednesday morning. They stormed the building, unlocked all the cells and freed more than 960 inmates, including the former militia leader Gedeon Kyungu Mutanga, known as Commander Gedeon. Mr Mutanga was on death row for his involvement in the Mai Mai insurrection in the province of Katanga between 2003 and 2006. The UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, to whom he had surrendered before his trial, have confirmed his escape.Officials say many of the other prisoners have been recaptured. World News from the BBC Syrian security forces are reported to have killed at least 14 people in a fresh assault on the city of Homs. Activists said there was heavy gunfire in several parts of the city through the night and for much of the day. Videos posted online apparently show protesters in Homs being shot by snipers. The French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has accused the Syrian government of crimes against humanity. Western governments have been accused by Europe’s leading human rights organisation of shielding their intelligence services from accountability for serious violations. The report’s author, the rapporteur for the Council of Europe Dick Marty, said these had occurred during anti-terrorist operations. He said a licence to abduct, torture or kill only existed in films and dictatorships. The Italian Senate has passed a controversial austerity package worth $76bn in savings. There were 165 votes in favour to 141 against. As the voting took place, hundreds of demonstrators opposing the measures tried to storm parliament but were dispersed by police. David Willey reports from Rome. The final version of the austerity package, which has changed several times at the insistence of different pressure groups in recent days, will reduce government spending by over $75bn during the next two years. That’s more than originally planned. A new wealth tax, a rise in the basic rate of VAT and delayed pensions for women workers are among the main provisions. Stocks rose over 4% Wednesday on the Milan stock exchange, which has been in free fall in recent days. The Brazilian security forces have sent reinforcements into a poor district of Rio de Janeiro after a police patrol came under fire from suspected drugs traffickers. Extra troops and armoured vehicles were deployed after overnight gun battles, in which a teenage girl was reported killed. BBC News

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