专四听力训练 VOA 100篇

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VOA 100

VOA News Item 1

Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and his counterparts from the Association of

Southeast Asian Nations sealed the agreement in Bangkok Thursday. They met on the sidelines

of

the annual ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting.

The

agreement creates one of Asia’s biggest trading areas and integrates India’s fast growing

economy with 10 of its neighbors.

Trade between India and ASEAN amounts to $$40 billion each year. Under the pact, India and

ASEAN will eliminate tariffs on various goods by 2016.

VOA News Item 2

Britain’s political life has been dominated for the past three decades by two parties the

Conservatives, now led by David Cameron, and Labor headed by current Prime Minister Gordon

Brown.

But a third party, the Liberal Democrats, are turning this election into a three-horse race.

Their campaign was given a major boost by Britain’s first ever televised debate last week;

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg emerged as the clear winner.

Viewer polls taken after this second debate, which focused on foreign policy, showed there

was no runaway victor.

The last time Britain had a hung parliament was in 1974. A final televised debate is to take

place next Thursday, followed by the election on May 6.

VOA News Item 3

On the second day of debate all signs continued to point toward an easy confirmation win for

Sotomayor, the 55-year-old federal court judge nominated by President Barack Obama earlier

this

year.

Although most of the 40 Senate Republicans are likely to vote against her, the decision

Wednesday of Missouri Senator Kit Bond added to the number of Republicans who have

committed to voting for her.

Senator Bond, who is one of several Republicans retiring from the Senate next year, said

while he respects and agrees with the legal reasoning others in his party used to oppose

Sotomayor,

lawmakers have an obligation to show deference to a president’s choice of a nominee.

VOA News Item 4

Foreign ministers of the Southern African Development Community met in Maputo to

prepare a report on the region’s political crises. It is to be presented to African leaders at their

upcoming summit in Ethiopia.

SADC’s Political and Diplomatic Committee has been mediating three major crises in the

region.

SADC officials said the ministers are pleased the various parties to the unity government in

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Zimbabwe resumed negotiations on implementing their power-sharing agreement. They said

they

believed Zimbabwe was on the right path.

The officials said the ministers also believe that progress is being made toward easing the

conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and that reconciliation efforts between the

government and various rebel groups were on the right track.

But the officials said they were less optimistic about the political crisis in Madagascar. It

erupted in March after Andry Rajoelina, backed by the military, seized power following the

ouster

of then-President Marc Ravalomanana.

SADC and the African Union do not recognize the Rajoelina government and have

suspended Madagascar from their organizations.

VOA News Item 5

Security has been tightened around Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak after he received

dozens of death threats. Security sources say the threats were made by Jewish militants who

oppose th

e government’s partial freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank. The freeze

was imposed in November under pressure from the United States, which sees the settlements as

an

obstacle to peace.

The death threats are being taken seriously. In 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin

was assassinated by an Orthodox Jew opposed to his policy of trading land for peace with the

Palestinians.

VOA News Item 6

Government officials say they will investigate just how three leaders of the anti-government

protests managed to escape when police tried to surround their hotel Friday.

One of the leaders climbed down three floors using a rope, and was rushed away by

supporters thronging the building.

Officials earlier Friday said the government is preparing to arrest people linked to clashes

with security forces last Saturday that left 24 soldiers and protesters dead.

The government says armed men infiltrated protester ranks and fired on troops trying to

disperse a rally.

The anti- government movement, led by the United Democratic Front against Dictatorship or

UDD, demands that the Government call fresh elections. UDD supporters have held protests in

Bangkok for more than a month.

Thailand is facing its most severe political crisis in almost 20 years. Some parties

in the

governing coalition want to set a clear time frame for elections to ease tensions. But the

government says it will only call elections once the political situation has cooled.

VOA News Item 7

Kyrgyzstan’s five

-day-old provisional government is vowin

g to use the country’s military to

launch a special operation to neutralize President Kurmanbek Bakiyev if he does not resign.

Interim Kyrgyz leader Roza Otunbayeva says her government is willing to negotiate his

departure from the country and wants to resolve the standoff without any more harm to

innocent

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civilians.

The president was effectively ousted after last Wednesday’s clashes between government

forces and protesters. Authorities say about 80 people have died and more than 1,600 were

wounded.

VOA News Item 8

On the eve of Israel’s 62nd Independence Day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the

nation must not rely on the help of foreigners.

Commentators say it is a clear reference to Israeli ties with the United States, which have

plummeted over Jewish construction in disputed in East Jerusalem. The U.S. backs Palestinian

demands that East Jerusalem should be the capital of a future Palestinian state.

But Israel sees all of Jerusalem as its eternal capital, and Mr. Netanyahu, who heads a

right-wing government, has rejected U.S. demands to stop building there. As a result, the

Palestinians have refused to return to U.S.-sponsored peace talks, and the diplomatic process has

been deadlocked for 15 months.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak took a softer approach. Barak said Israel would not make any

compromises when it comes to the security of the state. But he said it would show courage in

the

struggle for peace with the Palestinians based on the two-state solution.

VOA News Item 9

Nearly 5,000 farmers in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal, and Sierra Leone are

exporting organically-grown produce to Europe, after gaining organic and fair-trade certification

with help from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The program focuses on all stages of production from planting and harvesting to packaging

and promotion, increasing the profitability of farmers who previously struggled to afford costly

chemical fertilizers.

30 small-scale pineapple farmers in Ghana saw sales grow from 26 tons to more than 115

tons after gaining their organic certification.

Pascal Liu is an economist with the FAO’s trade and markets division. Liu says the United

Nations expects demand for organic foods will grow by between five and 15 percent during the

next five years. And African farmers are well positioned to benefit from more people eating

healthier food.

VOA News Item 10

The heads of the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank were in Berlin

Wednesday for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel and other senior officials. The aim: to get

agreement on a bailout package for Greece.

Greece has been in negotiations with EU member countries and the IMF to secure a bailout

money that would allow it to pay debts coming due in time to avoid having to default.

In return Greece is under pressure to restructure its economy and implement austerity

measures.

Disgruntled public-sector workers went on strike in Greece Wednesday to protest against the

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cutbacks. A daylong general strike has been called for next week.

Opinion polls show the majority of Greeks are against an IMF-EU bailout, seeing it as

foreign interference.

Worries about the Greek economy’s potential meltdown have sent jitt

ers through world

markets. And help is imperative because the Greek crisis could spread.

A joint EU-IMF package for Greece is put at $$60 billion, but some European officials said

Wednesday the full cost could be much higher, reaching about $$160 billion over three years.

VOA News Item 11

Aiming his appeal directly at the financial industry and skeptics within it, and at Republican

critics in Congress, the president warned of the danger of a repeat of economic collapse.

Calling the financial crisis the outcome of a failure of responsibility from Wall Street to

Washington, he said the time has come to seize the moment to make fundamental changes in

the

rules of the financial road.

With many, but not all, of the most prominent executives of Wall Street firms present, the

president outlined key aspects of legislation the U.S. Senate will debate in coming days.

These include steps to impose new oversight and controls on hedge funds and complex

financial instruments known as derivatives, and protections for consumer

s of financial products.

Of particular importance would be a system to ensure that troubled financial companies could

be dismantled in an orderly way without posing the kind of systemic risk they did in 2008.

Calling the Senate bill and one the House of Representatives approved last year a significant

improvement over flawed rules now in place, he said changes would be advantageous for the

industry and the country.

VOA News Item 12

The International Air Transport Association says global carriers are losing an estimated $$200

million a day in revenue as a result of airline groundings related to the Iceland volcano. Albert

Tjoeng, a Singapore-based spokesman for the association, says that is just part of the problem.

Travelers waiting around here are missing out on income because they cannot return to work.

The flight cancellations are expected to have additional repercussions for smaller Southeast

Asia countries, where travel and tourism is a major share of the economy.

VOA News Item 13 WFP

The World Food Program is now expecting to feed more than 1.5 million people in next

month’s general food distribution, along with specialized therapeutic feeding for 500,000

children

under the age of six.

That is because poor rains last year have brought forward the time when people no longer

have enough to eat.

WFP is trying to raise $$182 million to scale up its operations in Niger.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization is also stepping in to aid cattle herders in Niger

and Chad. Livestock pastures are dry, so herders are selling their animals at lower prices to buy

food for their families.

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Eight FAO projects in Niger worth more than $$12 million are aimed at helping two million

people.

VOA News Item 14 2010

Cobo Center is home to the 2010 North American Auto Show in downtown Detroit. For the

event, the Center has been transformed into an expanse of flashy displays and trendy marketing

displays, featuring the latest in automotive engineering.

Known as the Detroit Auto Show, the annual event is one of the industry’s bigge

st. It helps

generate publicity for some models, like the newly- redesigned Ford Focus, and it helps promote

new technology, like the electric battery in the Chevrolet Volt.

But in the wake of one of the worst years for U.S. automobile sales, this year’s

show has a

different feel.

General Motors and Chrysler two of the Detroit “Big Three” automakers, which also

include Ford went bankrupt last year and received billions of dollars in federal aid. Although

some of that money has been paid back, the U.S. government is still a major shareholder in both

companies.

VOA News Item 15

China celebrated the opening of the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai with an evening of

fireworks and fanfare. Dubbed the “Economic Olympics,” by Chinese officials, some 190 nations

and 50 international organizations are participating in the multi-billion dollar event.

Similar to how 2008 Beijing Olympic Games put the Chinese capital in the international

spotlight, Shanghai’s hosting of the World Expo has given the city of 20 some million pe

ople and

China a chance to showcase its emergence as a global economic power.

The theme for the Shanghai World Expo is “Better City, Better Life” and features major

exhibitions that look at modern and future urban life, and consider issues such as sustainable

development and the interaction between cities and the environment.

The Shanghai 2010 World Expo runs until the end of October.

VOA News Item 16

First the good news: after contracting slightly in 2009, global economic output is expected to

grow more than 4 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. With a

fledgling recovery gaining strength, it is easy to forget how close major industrialized nations

came to economic collapse less than two years ago, an outcome that almost surely would have

triggered a worldwide depression rivaling the Great Depression of the 1930s.

In short, the pain, havoc, and economic devastation could have been far worse, according to

the head of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Texas, Richard Fisher. Addressing central

bankers from Europe and elsewhere, Fisher said central banks and national governments averted

catastrophe through aggressive intervention.

VOA News Item 17

Rocket alarms have terrified Israeli border communities near the Gaza Strip for years. But

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now Israel has a high- tech answer to the thousands of low-tech rockets that Palestinian militants

have fired across the border since Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005.

Israel has successfully tested its Iron Dome defense system, which uses cameras and radar to

track incoming rockets and can shoot them down within seconds of their launch. The system was

developed by Rafael, the Israel Military Industries, at a cost of $$200 million.

VOA News Item 18

Computer security engineer Alan Paller recal

ls how the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of

Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, spurred the U.S. government to accelerate its lagging

space technology program. Now Paller, research director at an educational company called the

SANS Institute, is leading the campaign to bring that kind of energy to defending cyberspace

from

assault by pranksters, thieves and spies.

VOA News Item 19

It’s another day of stringent security checks at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport. About a million

passengers pass through the airport each month, on average. But here, the lines move quickly

thanks to what Israeli security experts say is an approach that unlike other countries relies

more on eye contact with passengers and less on technology.

VOA News Item 20

The Italian aid group Emergency has had a tense relationship with local authorities in

violence- wracked Helmand province, due in part to its policy of treating all patients.

Afghan officials said they detained three Italian Emergency workers Saturday, a doctor, a

nurse and a logistics worker. Afghan officials said they were held as part of an investigation into

an alleged plot to kill the governor of Helmand province.

Helmand Province Governor Gulab Mangal said an Emergency staff member received

$$500,000 as an advance payment for killing him. In total nine people, including six Afghans, were

held after explosive suicide vests, hand grenades and other weapons were discovered in the

storeroom of the Emergency-

run hospital in Helmand’s capital, Lashkar Gah.

Emergency founder Gino Strada denounced the detentions of the aid group’s three workers,

calling it a mafia- style attempt to silence a witness.

VOA News Item 21

The U.N. Security Council has lifted its arms embargo on Liberia for one year, primarily to

allow its peacekeeping mission there to receive military equipment. But it also allows the

government of President Ellen Johnson- Sirleaf to acquire arms and training to fight crime.

Government misuse of force under former President Charles Taylor brought about the arms

embargo 10 years ago. Its lifting, even temporarily, has been met with both pride and worry

among Liberians still recovering from a long civil war.

VOA News Item 22

Reaction to the attempted bombing of a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day has been mixed

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among the six African nations with direct air links to the United States.

Ghana has announced it will install full-

body scanners at Accra’s international airport by next

month. Nigeria has also announced it will install the scanners at Lagos international airport.

Nigerian student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab departed from Accra and transited through

Lagos and Amsterdam. He subsequently attempted to set off a bomb on a Northwest Airlines

flight

traveling to Detroit.

Abdulmutallab successfully passed through metal detectors and hand luggage searches at

both airports, allegedly by concealing powdered explosives under his clothes.

The full-body scanners are more powerful than metal detectors that are standard at most

airports. They can detect non-metallic materials hidden on the human body.

But some rights groups consider the scanners an invasion of privacy, because they show

private physical characteristics in detail.

South Africa, whose airports handle the largest number of travelers flying directly between

Africa and the United States, says it does not intend to install the scanners at this time.

VOA News Item 23

The Discovery crew is set to launch early Tuesday to deliver nearly 8,000 kilograms of

equipment to the International Space Station. NASA engineers cleared the shuttle to fly on

Sunday,

after deciding there were no technical concerns to delay launch from Kennedy Space Center in

Florida.

Shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters said the skies should be clear for the evening launch,

but storms could delay the delicate process of filling the shuttle’s external fuel tanks.

VOA News Item 24

A new study out this week highlights the role that coral reefs play in evolution, adding

another reason to preserve these delicate, diverse, and often beautiful ecosystems.

Many of the world’s coral reefs are threatened by ocean acidification and pollution, among

other things.

Wolfgang Kiessling of Berlin’s Natural History Museum says that concerns ecologists

because of the vital role reefs play in ocean ecosystems.

VOA News Item 25

The researchers will set sail for Antarctica early next month, in an expedition funded by the

Australian and New Zealand governments.

The scientists hope their journey to the Southern Ocean will

help to disprove Japan’s claims

that whales have to be killed to properly study them.

During their six-week voyage, researchers will employ a range of techniques to unlock some

of the secrets of the giant marine mammals.

They will fire darts from small air rifles to collect blubber and skin for genetic testing, and to

attach satellite- tracking tags to monitor the whales. Samples of dung will also be gathered,

photographs taken, and acoustic instruments will record the animals’ distinctive calls.

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VOA News Item 26

Taller mothers are more likely to have children who are healthier indeed, their children

are more likely not just to thrive, but to survive compared to children of shorter mothers.

That’s the conclusion of a massive new study of millions of childre

n in low- and middle-income

countries.

“The key finding of this paper was to show a consistent association between maternal height

and offspring health, which was mainly defined in terms of offspring mortality by age five and

the

risk

of experiencing a failure in growth.”

The Harvard researcher says that while the association is clear, the “why” still needs more

work.

VOA News Item 27 H1N1

The World Health Organization is warning countries to prepare for further spread of the

H1N1 influenza pandemic in coming months.

However, aid agencies say it will be more difficult to fight the disease in poorer countries,

which have weak health systems, poor health status and limited resources.

They say countries overburdened by diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria,

will have great difficulty dealing with the surge of pandemic flu cases.

World Health Organization spokesman, Paul Garwood, says this Call to Action aims to

reduce the impact of H1N1 by offering a range of measures applicable to all countries.

VOA News Item 28

Americans are just as divided on health care as they were before President Obama’s health

care reform legislation became law.

Protesters in Washington carried signs on Thursday calling for the repeal of the legislatio

n.

They say it represents runaway spending.

A new

Associated Press-GfK

poll shows that 50 percent of Americans oppose the new health

care law and opposition is strongest among those 64 and older. Many older Americans worry

that

their care will be affected by cuts in federal payments to hospitals and other providers.

In another survey, this one by

Ipsos/Reuters

, only 51 percent of Americans thought they

could get adequate, affordable health care. The survey included people in 22 nations. Women,

adults under the age of 55 and less educated people in all the countries included in the study

reported low satisfaction with health care access.

Yet another study showed that Americans without medical insurance, often delay going to a

hospital after a heart attack.

VOA News Item 29

For nearly a decade, the popularity of Australian universities rose rapidly among Indian

students, and the number of those heading to the country for higher education rose from about

10,000 in 2001 to more than 70,000 last year.

But that could change this year due to a string of negative publicity generated by attacks on

Indian students in Australia.

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A travel advisory by the Indian government earlier this week warned that Indian students in

Australia face an increased risk of assault. It was issued after an Indian graduate was stabbed to

death in Melbourne. His stabbing came on the heels of a spate of attacks on Indian students in

Australia in recent months, which the Indian media have dubbed as racist.

It is a charge that Australian officials have strongly denied. They say the attacks are purely

criminal, and the country is safe for foreign students.

Nevertheless, as concerns rose in India, foreign minister S.M. Krishna called on Indians to

assess their options while exploring the possibility of studying in Australia.

VOA News Item 30

For some, the wave of suicides at France Telecom reveals the downsides of the scramble to

stay competitive amid the pressures of globalization and the recent economic downturn. More

than

40 France Telecom employees have taken their lives since 2008. Unions say that includes a dozen

suicides this year alone.

The probe by the Paris prosecutor’s office follows a court complaint filed by the union

Solidaires Unitaires Democratic (SUD). Union lawyer Jean-Paul Tessionniere blamed working

conditions at the company for the suicides.

A February report by the French labor inspector’s office linked 14 France Telecom suicides

directly to the company’s management practices.

France Telecom denies its management practices have led to the suicides. France Telecom

lawyer Claudia Chemarin told French television that each suicide will be examined individually.

She said that under no condition can it be claimed that there was an organized policy that led to

them.

In March, France Telecom’s new boss Stephane Richard outlined ways the company planned

to improve employee working conditions.

France Telecom is not the only French company grappling with employee suicides. But because

of

the numbers of employee deaths and the media attention they have attracted, critics say France

Telecom’s problems have emerged as a warning story about the downsides of valuing

productivity

and growth over employee well being.

VOA News Item 31

Jewish settlement councils have declared a gen

eral strike to protest the Israeli government’s

freeze on construction in West Bank communities. Settlement leaders demonstrated outside the

Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem as the Cabinet held its weekly meeting. They carried signs

saying, you can freeze in the North Pole, but not in Israel.

The settlers helped elect right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but now they

accuse him of abandoning his nationalist ideals.

VOA News Item 32

The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis Presley, was born 75 years ago

last week in a two-room

house in the town of Tupelo in the piney woods of the deep southern state of Mississippi. So this

time of year, and again in August on the anniversary of the King’s death, pilgrimages of Elvis fans

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descend upon that furniture manufacturing center of 34,000 people.

Surprisingly, you don’t see a lot of Elvis markers there. There is one sign that says The King

is Up Ahead, but that’s for an automobile dealership. Visitors can take a self

-guided Elvis Presley

driving tour. One stop is the Tupelo Hardware where Elvis got his first guitar. The folks there say

Elvis had wanted a rifle. But his mother, Gladys would have none of it. She stood him on a keg

and let him play around with a guitar. He loved it, and Mrs. Presley bought it for him for $$7.95.

VOA News Item 33

A funny thing is happening in the world of language instruction. Only it’s not funny at all for

one language in particular.

Because of the growing importance of global commerce and contact, foreign language

instruction is booming at U.S. colleges. But because of the tight economy, many colleges are

eliminating fulltime language-teaching positions or filling them with cheaper lecturers who are

not

faculty members at all.

This is the case at the University of Maryland’s f

lagship College Park campus, a prestigious

state-run school in the eastern U.S.. To save costs, the university plans to cut its one

Yiddish-

teaching position. It’s the latest blow in what has been a steady decline in the study and

use of Yiddish, which began among European Jews in the Middle Ages as a conversational

Germanic language that uses Hebrew characters.

Today, Yiddish is struggling to survive. It’s thought that fewer than 500,000 people, mostly

the elderly, speak it worldwide. Most young, accultura

ted Jews speak only their countries’

principal language, plus Hebrew during worship.

VOA News Item 34

The Mekong River is the lifeblood of Southeast Asia, with the largest inland fisheries in the

world. About 40 million people depend to some degree on the fisheries, worth about $$2.5 billion

a

year.

But fisheries experts say plans by Cambodia, Laos and Thailand to build hydropower dams

on the Mekong would block fish migration, threatening already endangered species.

Environmental activists say plans by Laos to build a dam in the Don Sahong area near the

Cambodian border could doom the nearly extinct Irrawaddy dolphin.

VOA News Item 35

Haiti is prone to disasters, but this huge quake is the worst to hit the Caribbean island state in

two centuries. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on Tuesday destroyed much of

the

country’s capital, Port

-au-Prince.

The International Red Cross fears up to three million people may have been affected by the

earthquake, which not only devastated the capital city, but many smaller nearby communities.

The United Nations reports electricity has been cut off and communications are difficult. It

says bridges have been knocked out, hospitals and care facilities have been damaged or

destroyed.

Haiti’s envoy to the United States

estimates losses could run into the billions.

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VOA News Item 36 ?

For Mike Zito, singing “Dirty Blonde” from Pearl River, the phrase “up

-and-

comer” is a

thing of the past. As one reviewer writes, “With his husky vocals and hard rocking guitar, Mike is

well on his way to the big time.”

Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Zito gravitated to the guitar after hearing an album

by ’80s rockers Van Halen. Guitar greats Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and B.B. King also made an

impression, as well as Prince and Buddy Guy.

Mike crafted his skills while working in a local guitar shop frequented by legendary rocker

Chuck Berry. Looking back, Mike says, “I soaked up the sounds of that store, and began building

my own style.”

After a succession of independent releases in the 1990s, Mike picked up a steady stream of

followers on extensive tours across the country. When he wasn’t touring, he spent his time off

playing nightly gigs in his hometown.

Weary from touring, and close to giving up altogether on a career in music, Mike remained

confident that he was close to gaining a major label contract. He says, “Music can change

everything; how you feel; how you see and what you believe.” Sure enough, he was offered a

national distribution deal with Delta Groove Music.

VOA News Item 37

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel hopes to begin peace negotiations with the

Palestinians next week, during a visit by U.S. envoy George Mitchell. Mr. Netanyahu spoke to his

Cabinet a day after the Arab League endorsed indirect peace talks for a period of four months.

The

prime minister said direct talks are necessary to reach a peace agreement, but indirect talks are

an

acceptable way to restart the diplomatic process. Peace talks broke down more than a year ago,

and the Palestinians have refused to return to the negotiating table until Israel freezes all

settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The Palestinians rejected Israel’s

offer of a partial freeze. But now, the American proposal of indirect talks mediated by

the United

States has provided a way out of the impasse. Palestinian officials say the first order of business

during the four- month talks is charting the borders of a future Palestinian state. An agreement

on

borders could lead to direct talks on the thorniest issues of the conflict, including the status of

Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.

VOA News Item 38 9-11

Last November, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that five alleged conspirators

of the 9-11 attacks including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would go on trial in a federal court in

New York City in connection with the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York, Washington and

Pennsylvania. But that decision may be about to be reversed, according to senior Obama

administration officials cited in the Washington Post and by other sources. A decision to reverse

course could come as early as next week and would be the latest twist in a political firestorm

that

erupted over the issue of civilian trials since it was announced by Attorney General Holder last

year.

The question of whether to try the alleged 9-11 conspirators in a civilian court or through a

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military justice track sparked an intense debate in Congress and on the nation’s airwaves. Former

Vice President Dick

Cheney spoke recently on ABC’s “This Week” program. “I think trying

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York is a big mistake, It gives him a huge platform to

promulgate his particular brand of propaganda around the world. I think he ought he ought to be

at

Gua

ntanamo. I think he ought to be tried at Guantanamo in front of a military commission.”

VOA News Item 39

While the health care reform debate in the United States has been dominated on lowering the

cost of health insurance, other health care activists and experts are working behind the scenes to

lower barriers to quality health care for African- Americans and Hispanics. One well-respected

figure says the key is bringing more minorities into the profession. Numerous studies indicate

African-Americans and Hispanics receive a poorer quality of health care than non-Hispanic

whites,

even when they have the same levels of income and health insurance coverage. Researchers say

the reasons for this disparity include stereotyping of patients by health care providers, and a

severe

shortage of minority health care professionals. Dr. Louis Sullivan says minority health care

professionals fill a key role in serving ethnic communities. “There are studies that have shown

that

African American physicians or Hispanic American physicians are three to five times more likely

to establish their practices in African American or Hispanic American communities.” Sullivan,

who once served as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, says

minority physicians see a higher percentage of patients with either no insurance, or covered by

Medicaid, the government insurance program for low-income Americans.

VOA News Item 40

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan fired National Security Advisor Sarki Mukhtar and

replaced him with retired Lieutenant General Aliyu Gusau. Gusau held that post under former

president Olusegun Obasanjo and is seen by many as a potential presidential candidate in next

year’s election, having finished second to President Umaru Yar’Adua in the last ruling

-party

primary. Mr. Jonathan’s move to sack a national security advisor chosen by President Yar’Adua is

the latest move by the acting president to solidify his position at a time when President Yar’Adua

is still recovering from a heart condition and the nation is facing renewed civil unrest. Nigerian

troops are patrolling villages near the city of Jos after Plateau state officials say the death toll

from

Sunday’s ethnic and religious violence could be as high as 500. Residents in the village of Dogo

Nahawa say Fulani herdsmen raided their village before dawn, shooting in the air to draw people

out of their homes before attacking them with machetes and knives. Many of those killed were

women and children who could not outrun their attackers.

VOA News Item 41

Vice President Joe Biden told an audience at Tel Aviv University the United States remains

deeply committed to Israel’s security, saying the United States has no better friend than the

Jewish

state. He said it is now in the best interest of Israelis to make a serious attempt to make peace

with

the Palestinians. “It is really hard to be a beacon for others, when you are constantly at war. To

end

this historic conflict, both sides must be historically bold, because if each waits stubbornly for the

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other to

act first, this will go on and be waiting for an eternity.” Despite U.S. demands for Israel

to

stop or restrain construction of Jewish housing in disputed East Jerusalem and the occupied

West

Bank, during the Biden visit Israeli officials announced their approval of construction of 1,600

new Jewish housing units in East Jerusalem. Israel said it did not intend to embarrass Biden, the

highest-ranking Obama administration official to visit the region.

VOA News Item 42

Indian and Russian officials say the two prime ministers held wide-ranging discussions.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says his talks with Mr. Putin went beyond the 22

agreements they signed. “There is much that India and Russia can do together to advance global

peace and stability and the

process of global economic revival. We’ve agreed to intensify our

consultations on Afghanistan and the challenges posed by terrorism and extremism in our

region.”

But most of the attention focused on the billions of dollars worth of deals they signed. To help

India meet a shortage of electricity for its booming economy, Russia is to build between 12 and

16

nuclear power plants here, six of them by 2017. Russia is already constructing two units in the

southern state of Tamil Nadu. Earlier in the day, during a video conference with Indian business

leaders gathered in several cities, Mr. Putin said Russia would also supply India with fuel for the

reactors and cooperate on disposal of nuclear waste from the new plants. He called Russia’s

nuclear technology among the safest in the world.

VOA News Item 43

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized Washington with his own words, as he

appeared at a news conference alongside Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul. Earlier this

week, visiting U.S. Defense Secre

tary Robert Gates accused Tehran of playing a “double game” in

Afghanistan being friendly to the Afghan government, while at the same time trying to

undermine Afghan and international forces. Iran denies the allegations, and Mr. Ahmadinejad

struck back. He says that in his view, U.S. officials are the ones playing a double game. He said

they created terrorism in Afghanistan and then declared a need to fight it. The United States

supported Afghan rebels more than two decades ago when the Soviet Union fought in

Afghanistan.

But the support vanished after the Soviets pulled out, and eventually, analysts say instability in

Afghanistan created a safe haven for al-Qaida. While touring an Afghan army training center

outside Kabul, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressed his concern about the Iranian

leader’s visit. “As I told President Karzai, we think Afghanistan should have good relations with

all of its neighbors, but we also want all of Afghanistan’s neighbors to p

lay an upfront game in

dealing with the government of Afghanistan.”

VOA News Item 44

At the Besuki Public School in Jakarta, eight year old student Chavielda Najma and

classmates are rehearsing a dance number they hope to perform for the school’s most famo

us

alumni. She says she likes President Obama very much because he was very good in social

sciences. She, like many Indonesians, feels a personal connection with the U.S. president because

he spent part of his childhood years living in Jakarta and attending this school. There is even a

14

statue of him at the entrance to the school. The statue was originally erected at a nearby park

but

was moved when some people complained that an Indonesian hero should be honored there

instead. Still, political analyst Wimar Witoelar says President Obama is quite popular in Indonesia

because most people believe the president understands Indonesian culture and values.

VOA News Item 45

Clinton is discounting reports of a major crisis in U.S.-Israel relations, but she is making

clear that she wants to see substantial gestures by the government of Israeli Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu to repair damage from last week’s housing announcement. The Israeli

government angered and embarrassed the Obama administration a week ago when it

announced,

as Vice President Joe Biden began a visit to Israel, that it will build 1,600 new Jewish housing

units in mainly-Arab East Jerusalem. The United States is seeking assurances from Mr. Netanyahu

that such an incident will not be repeated, as well as pledges that it is prepared to discuss all of

the

core issues of the Middle East peace process including Jerusalem in talks with the

Palestinians. At a press event with Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin, Clinton said the U.S.

administration is in very active consultations with Israel over steps by the Jewish state that in her

words “would demonstrate the requisite commitment” to the peace process.

VOA News Item 46

Cardinal Sean Brady chose to issue a very public apology in his St. Patrick’s Day

sermon in

the cathedral in Armagh, in Northern Ireland. Speaking to journalists afterwards, he explained. “I

apologized to those who have suffered as a result of abuse in the past and particularly, I

apologized to those who due to my failures in the past

have suffered.” Cardinal Brady’s apology

centers on the case of pedophile priest, Father Brendan Smyth, who was arrested, tried and

convicted in 1994 of abusing and raping young boys and girls in Ireland as well as in the United

States. Smyth died in a mil

itary prison in Ireland in 1997. It’s been revealed that Sean Brady, then

a junior church official, knew of Smyth’s abuse in 1975. He was involved in an investigation into

abuse allegations and met with two of Smyth’s young victims. Brady did not tell the

police and

the

two young boys were instead told to sign a secrecy oath. At the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI said

he was deeply concerned about the crisis. Speaking before a weekly general audience, the pope

said he would send a pastoral letter to Ireland’s R

oman Catholics about the scandal.

VOA News Item 47

The last time an American president visited Australia, large numbers of protesters angry at

the war in Iraq rallied in Sydney when President George W. Bush attended an Asia-Pacific

economic conference. Demonstrators are again planning to march in several Australian cities

during President Barack Obama’s visit next week, although the protests are expected to be far

smaller. Foreign policy analysts say Mr. Obama’s trip is mainly about maintaining the alliance

or dropping in on friends. He is to address Australia’s federal Parliament in Canberra, only the

sixth world leader to do so. Washington and Canberra signed a formal security pact in the early

1950s, in which the Americans agreed to defend Australia in the event of an attack. Brendon

O’Connor, an associate professor at the U.S. Studies Center at the University of Sydney, thinks

15

many Australians trust that President Obama will make the relationship even stronger.

VOA News Item 48

In one month’s time, the

country will launch an ambitious plan to provide free health care to

lactating and pregnant women and children under five, in an attempt to reduce maternal and

child

mortality in the country. Sierra Leone has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in

the

world.

Lack of essential drugs to keep pregnant women and young children healthy is a major hurdle to

providing comprehensive care. Lianne Kuppens leads UNICEF’s child survival and development

team in Sierra Leone. She says the drugs are essential, if some of the people in the country are to

achieve real free health care. “The drugs, indeed worth around $$7 million, are covering… are in

line with the national essential drugs. It is a list which has been combined, which has been made

with all the stakeholders in support of the government. And, it is covering diseases like diarrhea,

like malaria, like pneumonia, all the basic diseases that people face and then, of course, we try to

address the most vuln

erable among all of them.” The drugs will also address conditions such as

diabetes and hypertension that put pregnant women at risk for complications during pregnancy.

VOA News Item 49