中央9英语新闻视频.docx

1、中央9英语新闻视频中央9英语新闻视频篇一:新闻英语9 Security Council Endorses Ban for Second Term as UN Chief The U.N. Security Council has endorsed Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for a second five-year term as U.N. chief. The South Korean diplomat faces no other candidates and is likely to sail to reappointment in the U.N.

2、General Assembly ne_t week. The U.N.?s most powerful organ held closed door consultations on Ban?s reappointment Thursday and then endorsed his second term Friday by acclamation in another private meeting. Had any of the five permanent members of the council vetoed recommending Ban s reappointment h

3、e would not have been eligible for another term. After the meeting, the president of the U.N. Security Council for June, Gabonese Ambassador Nelson Messone, read a communiqu from the _-member council. The Security Council, having considered the question of the recommendation for the appointment of t

4、he secretary-general of the United Nations, recommends to the General Assembly that Mr. Ban Ki-moon be appointed secretary-general of the United Nations for a second term of office from 1 January _ to 31 December _, he said. Speaking from the capital of Brazil, where he is on a Latin American tour,

5、Ban said he was deeply honored by the Security Council s vote. On Tuesday, the _2-member General Assembly is e_pected to reconfirm Ban in a resolution also to be adopted by acclamation. Under the U.N. Charter, the post of secretary-general is rotated regionally and is currently held by Asia. Ban, no

6、w 67, moved from being South Korea?s foreign minister to U.N. chief in January _. During his tenure he has made climate change, disarmament, gender inequality, and peace and security among his top priorities. He has been a near-constant traveler, personally e_tending U.N. and international support t

7、o countries in crises from natural disasters to armed conflict. Ban?s critics say he has not been as outspoken as he should be on issues such as human rights and complain that his quiet diplomacy has failed in reigning in the world?s dictators and despots. As Space Shuttle Program Nears End, So Do J

8、obs As crew members of the upcoming NASA space shuttle mission prepare for the final flight of the shuttle program, they say they are inspired by NASA s accomplishments, but also about the retirement of the shuttle fleet and lay-offs among the NASA community. To the uninitiated, it might sound like

9、people speaking in code - or gibberish - but that is the sound of astronauts and mission controllers in Houston communicating during an ascent simulation ahead of ne_t month s launch of the space shuttle Atlantis. Astronaut Chris Ferguson, commander of the upcoming Atlantis mission, told reporters a

10、t the Johnson Space Center in Houston that while the astronauts are in space, their lives are in the hands of those on the ground. We count on those guys to get us through, said Ferguson. Members of the Atlantis crew say that while their mission is at the forefront of their thoughts, the fact that t

11、his is the final shuttle flight is in the back of their minds. It means saying good-bye to the shuttles - and good-bye to contract workers who have long worked on the shuttles at both Kennedy and Johnson Space Centers. Again, Commander Ferguson: It s a pivotal time for them in their lives, he said.

12、They want to see the shuttle program through as safely and as successfully as the missions that preceded it, but at the same time, they have other factors on their minds as well. Other factors, Ferguson said, such as what they are going to do when Atlantis returns to Earth and the shuttle program en

13、ds. NASA relies heavily on contractors for its shuttle program. According to figures provided by the space agency, as of last month, five out of every si_ people working on the shuttle program were contractors. Once this mission is over, NASA s 1,1_ full-time employees dedicated to the shuttle progr

14、am will be absorbed into other NASA divisions - but thousands of contractors are not guaranteed work at the U.S. space agency. Much of the contract work has already dried up. During the past five years, the number of contractors working on the shuttle program dropped from _,_0 to about 5,_0. That fi

15、gure will decline even further once Atlantis returns. Astronaut Sandra Magnus, one of the four members of the Atlantis crew, said the program s end has not hit her completely, but instead in bits and pieces. She told reporters about a trip to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in April to look at t

16、he orbiter and review the hardware with the ground team. And the day after we had this test, about half the team we were working with was going to be let go, said Magnus. That was their last day. And that was really, for me, the first time it became, I guess I became emotional about it, because it w

17、as just so. . . It was very sad, but it was also very inspiring. Magnus said she was struck by the dedication of the workforce. Even though they were leaving a job that they had for decades, they were still very e_cited about being a part of the space program, and they were very determined that they

18、 were going to give us Atlantis in the best shape it could be in, she said. NASA is ending the 30-year-old shuttle program to focus on creating spacecraft that can go to asteroids or Mars. Atlantis, the final shuttle to launch, is set to lift off July 8. Food Prices Top G-_ Farm Ministers Meeting Ag

19、enda High food prices have pushed an estimated 44 million more people into poverty in the past year, according to the World Bank. France says taming food price volatility is one of its major goals as current head of the Group of _ leading and emerging economies. For the first time, G-_ agriculture m

20、inisters will meet in Paris from June _-23. The reasons and remedies for today?s volatile food prices are comple_, says French Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire, and finding consensus among the G_ members has been a challenge. I think at the beginning of the negotiation I was quite pessimistic, he

21、 said. For e_ample, there are contentious debates over the role of price speculation in the commodity markets. Investors have poured billions of dollars into these markets in just the past few years. Critics say that is fueling sharp spikes in prices. Le Maire says that while the investors profit, t

22、he developing world feels the pain. Nobody can accept to have speculation on the poorest countries in the world, on the poorest people in the world, Le Maire added. France is leading calls for more regulations on commodity trading. But many economists are not convinced that would help. They say the

23、evidence does not prove the case that the flood of new investment money is really behind the price spikes. Le Maire says this has been one of the most difficult areas of discussion. But he is hopeful the agriculture ministers can find common ground. After _ months of negotiation, I really think that

24、 a consensus among G-_ members is not out of reach, he said. Le Maire says he would also like to see G-_ members reach a consensus to oppose e_port bans in response to crises. Russia suspended its wheat e_ports last summer after a serious drought cut its harvest by a third. Although the move was int

25、ended to protect Russia?s own food supplies, it was widely condemned for contributing to this year?s run-up in wheat prices. Shenggen Fan, head of the International Food Policy Research Institute, says he does not e_pect the G-_ to pledge to keep markets open. I think probably we will not reach cert

26、ain agreement. But maybe some language will be there. Countries should be discouraged to use e_port bans to safeguard their own domestic food security. By doing that they will starve their neighbors, Fan said. Fan says there may be an agreement to e_empt humanitarian food supplies from a ban, but no

27、t much more. One of the biggest and most controversial issues in the food security debate that will likely not be addressed is the role of biofuels. National policies in the United States, Europe and Brazil support the use of food crops to produce fuel. Fan is one of many critics. We know that biofu

28、el has been a major cause of the last two rounds of food price increases. So, we do need to take urgent actions to prevent further e_pansion of biofuel production, Fan said. But these industries have strong domestic political support, and France did not include biofuels on the agenda for the Paris m

29、eeting. On the positive side, analysts say the G-_ ministers might agree to set up an emergency grain reserve that can provide food supplies in humanitarian crises. And there may be another financial commitment to help developing-world farmers become more productive. G8 leaders pledged $_ billion fo

30、r this purpose in L?Aquila, Italy, in _. But e_perts estimate that only about a quarter of that money has been delivered so far, and budgets are e_tremely tight in many G-_ countries. Charlotte Hebebrand of the International Food and Agricultural Trade Policy Council says wealthy countries should br

31、eak the habit of over-promising and under-delivering. I think countries are going to lose credibility when these ambitious pledges are announced to great fanfare and then they are not implemented, Hebebrand said. On some levels, e_perts say what is most significant about the G-_ agriculture minister

32、s meeting is that it is happening at all. Agriculture has been a neglected issue for years, which is part of the reason for the current crisis. The ne_t challenge for the farm ministers, they say, is to convince their bosses to keep food security high on the agenda. German authority detects first human spreading E. coli BERLIN, June _ (_inhua) - German authority said on Friday first case of human spreading deadly E. coli is detected, as death toll increases to 39 worldwide.A woman working in a kitchen of a catering company was infected by E. coli from sprouts, though she did