VOA新闻.docx

1、VOA新闻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 Asias biggest trading areas and integrat

2、es Indias 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 2016.2. Britains political life has been dominated for the past three decades by two parties - the Conse

3、rvatives, 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 Britains first ever televised debate last week; Liberal Democrat leader

4、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

5、6.3. 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

6、 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 h

7、ave an obligation to show deference to a presidents choice of a nominee.4. Foreign ministers of the Southern African Development Community met in Maputo to prepare a report on the regions political crises. It is to be presented to African leaders at their upcoming summit in Ethiopia. SADCs Political

8、 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 Zimbabwe resumed negotiations on implementing their power-sharing agreement. They said they believed Zimbabwe was on the right p

9、ath. 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

10、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 organizati

11、ons.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 the governments partial freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank. The freeze was imposed in Nov

12、ember 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.6. Gov

13、ernment 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 earlie

14、r 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 th

15、e 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 c

16、lear time frame for elections to ease tensions. But the government says it will only call elections once the political situation has cooled.7. Kyrgyzstans five-day-old provisional government is vowing to use the countrys military to launch a special operation to neutralize President Kurmanbek Bakiye

17、v 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 civilians. The president was effectively ousted after last Wednesdays clashes between governme

18、nt forces and protesters. Authorities say about 80 people have died and more than 1,600 were wounded.8. On the eve of Israels 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 wit

19、h 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-

20、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 an

21、y 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.9. Nearly 5,000 farmers in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal, and Sierra Leone are exporting organically-grown produce to E

22、urope, 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 affo

23、rd 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 FAOs trade and markets division. Liu says the United Nations expects demand for organic foods wil

24、l 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.10. The heads of the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank were in Berlin Wednesday for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel

25、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 t

26、o restructure its economy and implement austerity measures. Disgruntled public-sector workers went on strike in Greece Wednesday to protest against the 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

27、 as foreign interference. Worries about the Greek economys potential meltdown have sent jitters 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

28、 be much higher, reaching about $160 billion over three years.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 fai

29、lure 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 legislatio

30、n 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 consumers of financial products. Of particular importance would be a system to ensure that troubled financ

31、ial 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 indus

32、try and the country.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 t

33、he 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.13. The World Food Program is now expecting to feed more than 1.5 million people in next m