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听力文稿 ( Transcript )
The White House has declassified the main findings of a report on global terrorism drawn up by all 16 of the United States spy agencies. The report says if Islamic militants in Iraq perceived themselves to have failed, fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on. But it also says that the conflict is a cause celebre for Islamic militants, shaping a new generation of militant leaders. Justin Webb reports from Washington.
Excerpts from this report were leaked to the New York Times over the weekend, those excerpts suggesting that the intelligence community did not believe the Iraq war had made America safer. This is such a crucial issue with congressional elections coming in just a few weeks time that the Bush Administration has had to act. Mr. Bush declassified the key findings of the report in question, trends in global terrorism, in an effort to persuade voters that the White House is right when it asserts that Iraq has not been a security disaster for America.
The British Prime Minister Tony Blair has warned that a retreat from Iraq and Afghanistan would be an act of surrender that would threaten future security. Mr. Blair was delivering his last speech as prime minister to his party's annual conference in the northern English city of Manchester before his planned resignation within a year. He said the threat from terrorism was a global phenomenon which had been growing for decades and was not a response to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This is a struggle that I believe will last for generation and more, but I also believe this passionately, we will not win until we shake ourselves free of the wretchedcapitulation to the propaganda of the enemy that somehow we are the ones responsible.
Two Colombian brothers who run one of the world's largest ever cocaine cartels have pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in the United States. The men, Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, were sentenced to 30 years in prison by a court in Florida, but have agreed to hand over billions of dollars of assets in a deal that would prevent their relatives from being prosecuted. Rodriguez Orejuela brothers run the Cali Cartel, which was the world's largest in the 1990s, when it was thought responsible for 80% of cocaine smuggling into the US.
You are listening to the World News from the BBC.
The Prime Minister of the Irish Republic Bertie Ahem has admitted receiving the equivalent of about 60, 000 dollars from friends in the early 1990s when he was finance minister. But he denies any wrongdoing. Speaking on Irish television, Mr. Ahem said he'd been going through a separation from his wife at the time and he regarded the money as loans to cover legal bills. Mr. Ahem said he had broken no rules, ethical, tax or legal.
Romania and Bulgaria have welcomed the decision to admit them to the European Union at the beginning of next year. But both countries sounded a note of caution about the stringent conditions attached. They have been warned they will be closely monitored in the areas of corruption and organized crime. The Romanian Prime Minister Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu said his countrymen had good reason to be proud of themselves, but the targets would not be easy to meet.
I would like to start by saying that all Romanians have today a good reason to be proud of themselves and of their country. The European Commission decided today to meet the final recommendation for Romania to join the EU. We are joining the EU under the same conditions as the other 10 countries that joined the EU in 2004.
The former chief financial officer of the energy giant Enron Andrew Fastow has been sentenced to 6 years in prison for his role in one of the biggest corporate collapses in American history. The judge reduced by four years the sentence that Mr. Fastow had been offered in return for giving evidence for the prosecution. From New York, here's Guto Harri.
The man who was the chief financial officer of Enron when it was America's seventh largest company was originally indicted on 98 counts of fraud, insider trading and money laundering. But US District Judge Kenneth Hoyt was impressed by his visible remorse, his role in securing conviction in the trial of the top Enron bosses and help he since given victims of the company's collapse in suing for compensation. Andrew Fastow has forfeited 24 million dollars so there will be no fine at this stage and the sentence, in effect, has now been halved.
A Berlin opera company Deutsche Oper has cancelled the production of Mozart's "Idomeneo" because of the scene featuring models of the severed heads of the Prophet Muhammad, Jesus and Buddha and other religious figures. In a statement, the managers of the company said that, with great regret, they had withdrawn the production due to the security risk.
BBC World News.
Words and Expressions: cause celebre - A cause célèbre is an issue, person, or criminal trial that has attracted a lot of public attention and discussion. (FORMAL) Excerpts - An excerpt is a short piece of writing or music which is taken from a larger piece. wretched - You use wretched to describe someone or something that you dislike or feel angry with. (INFORMAL) capitulation - surrender
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