AU news 0715

The bodies of eight soldiers killed in one of Britain’s deadliest days in Afghanistan have been repatriated. Thousands of mourners lined the streets of Wootton Bassett as flag-draped hearses made their way to a hospital morgue. The small English market town has become the focus of national mourning.

The former Liberian President Charles Taylor has denied war crime charges against him during his trial at The Hague. He is accused of directing rebel groups from Liberia to seize control of Sierra Leone’s diamond mines. The 61-year-old is charged with murder, terrorism, rape and torture of thousands of civilians in Sierra Leone.

Two French officials have been kidnapped in Somalia. The French Foreign Ministry says the men were on an official mission when they were abducted by a group of armed men. They were taken from their hotel in the government-held part of the capital Mogadishu.

North Korea has released new pictures of leader Kim Jong-Il, a day after it was reported that he had pancreatic cancer. The pictures of visits to factories, farms and military bases are being seen as an attempt to convey a sense of normalcy in the Stalinist state.

And France celebrated Bastille Day with a military parade down the Champs-Elysées, and fireworks at the Eiffel Tower. The annual holiday marks the storming of the Bastille prison and sparks the French Revolution.

And that’s ABC World News.

• New Words
• Pronunciation
• Simple Meaning

• deadly
•  
• If something is deadly, it is likely or able to cause someone's death, or has already caused someone's death.

• repatriate
• [riːˈpeitriˌeit]
• If a country repatriates someone, it sends them back to their home country.

• mourner
• [ˈmɔːnə]
• A mourner is a person who attends a funeral, especially as a relative or friend of the dead person.

• flag-draped hearses
•  
• 国旗覆盖着的灵车

• morgue
• /mɔːɡ/
• A morgue is a building or a room in a hospital where dead bodies are kept before they are buried or cremated, or before they are identified or examined.

• rebel
•  
• a person who fights against the government of their country

• seize
• /siːz/
• If a government or other authority seize someone's property, they take it from them, often by force.

• rape
• /reɪp/
• he rape of an area or of a country is the destruction or spoiling of it.

• tortrue
• /ˈtɔːtʃə(r)/
• If someone is tortured, another person deliberately causes them great pain over a period of time, in order to punish them or to make them reveal information.

• civilian
•  
• In a military situation, civilian is used to describe people or things that are not military.

• kidnap
•  
• To kidnap someone is to take them away illegally and by force, and usually to hold them prisoner in order to demand something from their family, employer, or government.

• abduct
•  
• If someone is abducted by another person, he or she is taken away illegally, usually using force.

• pancreatic
•  
• 胰的

• normalcy
•  
• Normalcy is a situation in which everything is normal.

• parade
•  
• Parade is a formal occasion when soldiers stand in lines to be seen by an officer or important person, or march in a group.

• fireworks
•  
• Fireworks are small objects that are lit to entertain people on special occasions. They contain chemicals and burn brightly or attractively, often with a loud noise, when you light them.

• spark
•  
• to cause sth to start or develop, especially suddenly

• Somalia
•  
• 索马里

• The French Foreign Ministry
•  
• 法国外交部

• Kim Jong-Il
•  
• 金正日

• the Stalinist state
•  
• 北韩（朝鲜）

• Bastille Day
•  
• 法国革命纪念日，巴士底日

转载于:https://www.cnblogs.com/cnxyang/archive/2009/11/13/1602377.html