Hourly News 每日新闻 2013-11-20

 P5+1 talks to kick off again in Geneva

Chinese President Xi Jinping is calling on Iranian negotiators to be flexible in their forthcoming nuclear talks with the P5+1, which will resume later today in Geneva.

As part of a telephone conversation with Iranian officials, Xi Jinping is asking the Iranian side to seize the opportunity to seek a broad consensus¹ with China, Britain, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany.

Xi Jinping says China is willing to work to create the conditions needed for a comprehensive settlement.

For his part, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the nuclear issue should be settled in accordance with international law and norms of international relations.

 

UN condemns² Beirut blasts

The UN Security Council is condemning³ an explosion outside the Iranian embassy in Beiruit which has left 23 people dead, including an Iranian cultural attaché.

An al Qaeda-linked group in Lebanon, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, has claimed responsibility for the attack.

A pair of suicide bombers⁴ detonated their explosives outside the front entrance of the Iranian embassy.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the blasts are meant to undermine security throughout the region, as well as Lebanon.

 

First Chinese rescuers to depart for Philippines: FM

The first group of Chinese emergency responders are due to make their way to the Philippines this Wednesday.

The emergency medical and rescue team are members of the Chinese Red Cross.

Chinese authorities say this first group is going to be followed by the Chinese navy's medical boat "Peace Ark," which recently returned to China following a mission in south Asia.

The first batch⁵ of Chinese humanitarian⁶ aide arrived in the Philippines earlier this week.

This comes as the Philippines struggles in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, which tore its way through the central Philippines two Friday's ago.

The official death toll⁷ currently stands at just under 4-thousand.

However, around 15-hundred people remain unaccounted for.

 

Beijing fire casualties climb to 11

At least 11 people are dead following a massive fire in Beijing last night.

The fire engulfed⁸ a storage facility in the Xiaowuji area of southeastern Beijing.

At least 4 others have been injured in the massive blaze, which at one point engulfed an area covering over 500-square meters.

The fire first broke out around 8:30pm last night.

Fire fighters needed an hour-and-a-half to get the blaze under control.

The two owners of the storage facility have been placed in police custody⁹.

It's unclear at this point what sparked the fire.

 

At least 1 killed, 29 injured in S. Africa mall collapse¹⁰

At least one person is dead and over 2-dozen hurt after the roof of a shopping mall collapsed¹¹ in the South African city of Durban.

Around 100-meters worth of 18-inch thick concrete slabs¹² came crashing down while the malls was under construction.

Of the 29 injured, many have suffered traumatic injuries.

All those hurt are believed to be part of the construction crew.

Authorities also say they believe a number of others may still be trapped.

The cause of the collaspe remains¹³ unclear.

 

Israeli warplanes strike Gaza after rocket attack

The Israeli airforce has launched a number of strikes inside the Gaza Strip.

This, after a mortar¹⁴ round was fired from the Hamas-controlled area into southern Israel.

Israeli warplanes responded with three separate strikes.

One of the strikes is said to have targeted a tunnel being built from Gaza into Israel.

Hamas has pledged to continue building tunnels into Israel.

The tunnels have been used to smuggle¹⁵ Hamas fighters into Israel.

 

Yemen may delay presidential election set for next year: UN envoy¹⁶

A leading UN official in Yemen is suggesting the country may delay its scheduled Presidental election this coming February.

UN envoy Jamal bin¹⁷ Omar says all parties in Yemen have agreed they need more time to work through a national reconciliation¹⁸ process before the vote can go forward.

If the vote is delayed, it will mean that current President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in power until after his mandate¹⁹ expires.

Hadi was installed in a UN-backed power transfer deal in February of 2012 following the uprising which forced then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh from power.

The national dialogue in Yemen was supposed to be finished in September.

However, a number of issues, including the instability in southern Yemen, have held the process up.

In top of al-Qaeda's presence in the southern regions of Yemen, many there have demanded the creation of their own state, complaining of marginalization following the 1994 civil war.

 

Reeducation camps in Shanghai dissolved

Local authorities in Shanghai say all of the people who had been interred²⁰ at the city's reeducation-through-labor camps have been released.

The move follows the decision by the Chinese leadership to abolish the system.

Local officials in Shanghai say the facilities themselves are now ready "for a change of role".

The controversial system, known as the Laojiao, began in the 1950s. 

Under the system, people could be detained for up to 4-years without trial.

 

China to adjust family planning policies according to changing circumstances

The National Health and Family Planning commission is suggesting this country's population is likely to increase by a million people every year after authorities loosen the one-child policy.

This would be the equivilant of an annual increase of between 6 and 7-percent.

Under the changes to the policy, couples with one spouse²¹ who is an only child are going to be permitted to have a 2nd child.

The old rules only allowed couples to have a 2nd child if both parents were the product of the one-child policy.

 

1 consensus   

n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识

参考例句：

• Can we reach a consensus on this issue?我们能在这个问题上取得一致意见吗？
• What is the consensus of opinion at the afternoon meeting?下午会议上一致的意见是什么？

2 condemns   

v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的第三人称单数 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地

参考例句：

• Her widowhood condemns her to a lonely old age. 守寡使她不得不过着孤独的晚年生活。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The public opinion condemns prostitution. 公众舆论遣责卖淫。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 condemning   

v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的现在分词 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地

参考例句：

• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。
• I concur with the speaker in condemning what has been done. 我同意发言者对所做的事加以谴责。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

4 bombers   

n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 )；投弹手；安非他明胶囊；大麻叶香烟

参考例句：

• Enemy bombers carried out a blitz on the city. 敌军轰炸机对这座城市进行了突袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Royal Airforce sill remained dangerously short of bombers. 英国皇家空军仍未脱离极为缺乏轰炸机的危境。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 batch   

n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量

参考例句：

• The first batch of cakes was burnt.第一炉蛋糕烤焦了。
• I have a batch of letters to answer.我有一批信要回复。

6 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

7 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

8 engulfed   

v.吞没，包住( engulf的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was engulfed by a crowd of reporters. 他被一群记者团团围住。
• The little boat was engulfed by the waves. 小船被波浪吞没了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

10 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

11 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

12 slabs   

n.厚板，平板，厚片( slab的名词复数 )；厚胶片

参考例句：

• The patio was made of stone slabs. 这天井是用石板铺砌而成的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The slabs of standing stone point roughly toward the invisible notch. 这些矗立的石块，大致指向那个看不见的缺口。 来自辞典例句

13 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

14 mortar   

n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合

参考例句：

• The mason flushed the joint with mortar.泥工用灰浆把接缝处嵌平。
• The sound of mortar fire seemed to be closing in.迫击炮的吼声似乎正在逼近。

15 smuggle   

vt.私运；vi.走私

参考例句：

• Friends managed to smuggle him secretly out of the country.朋友们想方设法将他秘密送出国了。
• She has managed to smuggle out the antiques without getting caught.她成功将古董走私出境，没有被逮捕。

16 envoy   

n.使节，使者，代表，公使

参考例句：

• Their envoy showed no sign of responding to our proposals.他们的代表对我方的提议毫无回应的迹象。
• The government has not yet appointed an envoy to the area.政府尚未向这一地区派过外交官。

17 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

18 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。

19 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

20 interred   

v.埋，葬( inter的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Marie Curie's remains were exhumed and interred in the Pantheon. 玛丽·居里的遗体被移出葬在先贤祠中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The body was interred at the cemetery. 遗体埋葬在公墓里。 来自《简明英汉词典》

21 spouse   

n.配偶(指夫或妻)

参考例句：

• Her spouse will come to see her on Sunday.她的丈夫星期天要来看她。
• What is the best way to keep your spouse happy in the marriage?在婚姻中保持配偶幸福的最好方法是什么？