奥巴马举行白宫新闻发布会

 　　WASHINGTON, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday announced to hold a news conference at the White House Friday afternoon.

　　Obama made the announcement after he met with visiting Greece Prime Minister Antonis Samaras at the Oval Office.

　　The news conference will begin at 3 p.m. (1900 GMT) Friday, according to the White House.

　　It will be Obama's first solo news conference since April 30.

　　The U.S. president is expected to answer questions on U.S.-Russia relations as tensions are mounting between the two countries due to Edward Snowden, the U.S. National Security Agency leaker who has been granted asylum¹ by Moscow.

　　On Wednesday, the White House announced that Obama has canceled his planned meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin next month.

　　Appearing on NBC' s Late Night with Jay Leno Tuesday night, Obama claimed Moscow sometimes slipped back into a Cold War mentality², noting that he saw Putin's hand in this.

　　The news conference also comes in the midst of a terror alert that led the United States to close nearly two dozen diplomatic facilities in the Middle East and North Africa.

　　The massive closures came after U.S. intelligence agencies picked up an unusual amount of chatter³ from militants⁴, sparking fears of an attack on Americans or U.S. interests somewhere in the world in the coming weeks.

　　The U.S. president is set to leave for a nine-day vacation in Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts on Saturday.

1 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

2 mentality   

n.心理，思想，脑力

参考例句：

• He has many years'experience of the criminal mentality.他研究犯罪心理有多年经验。
• Running a business requires a very different mentality from being a salaried employee.经营企业所要求具备的心态和上班族的心态截然不同。

3 chatter   

vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战

参考例句：

• Her continuous chatter vexes me.她的喋喋不休使我烦透了。
• I've had enough of their continual chatter.我已厌烦了他们喋喋不休的闲谈。

4 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。