NPR 2009-11-11

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Carol Van Dam.

Two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers have been acquitted¹ on all charges of lying to investors² about dealings in mortgage-backed securities at the start of the financial crisis. The jury in the US District Court in Brooklyn, New York reached its verdict this past hour after less than six hours of deliberations. The month-long trial against the two defendants³ was the first trial against high-profile Wall Street executives, stemming from mortgage securities that led to the market’s collapse⁴.

President Obama attended a memorial service this afternoon to pay tribute to 13 people killed by a gunman at Fort Hood⁵ last week. From Killeen Texas, NPR s Jeff Brady reports.

Soldiers in uniform and hundreds of others, many wearing red white and blue ribbons gathered outside the command building near the entrance to Fort Hood. President Obama said / it might be difficult to understand the twisted logic⁶ that led to the tragedy. "No faith justifies⁷ these murderous and craven acts. No just and loving God looks upon them with favor. For what is done we know that the killer⁸ will be met with justice in this world then the next.” Earlier the President and First Lady met with families of those killed, they also talked with some of the 43 wounded who’ve since been released from the hospital. 15 people including the alleged⁹ shooter Nidal Hasan remain in the hospital. Jeff Brady, NPR News, Killeen, Texas.

The FBI is investigating whether it mishandled information early on about Major Nidal Hasan, the man who's accused of killing¹⁰ 13 people and wounding others at Fort Hood. Just under a year ago, terrorism investigators¹¹ conducted what the FBI calls an assessment¹² of Hasan, the agency decided¹³ Hasan did not pose a threat. Hasan will be tried in a military court.

President Obama is now considering four options for a new Afghanistan strategy. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says the President will discuss those options in a meeting tomorrow with his war advisors¹⁵. NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly has more.

The White House will not say what the four remaining options are or where they came from, whether these were presented by the top Pentagon brass¹⁶, for example, or by the top commander in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal. But the detail that the review has now narrowed to four options does suggest that the President and his advisors are making progress. Still the White House is dismissing media reports that the President has made a decision either on troop levels or on the overall strategy for the war. In a statement released late Monday, National Security advisor¹⁴ James Jones dismissed recent press reports as “absolutely false”. A formal announcement of a new Afghanistan strategy is not expected until late next week at the earliest. Mary Louise Kelly, NPR News, Washington.

On Wall Street, just before the close, the Dow Jones Industrial average is up 20 points to 10, 247. The NASDAQ Composite Index is down two points to 2, 151. And the S&P 500 down a fraction.

 

This is NPR News.

Convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad is scheduled to die by injection tonight after Virginia Governor Tim Kaine denied his clemency¹⁷ request today. For three weeks in 2002, Muhammad terrorized the Washington metropolitan¹⁸ area in a killing spree that left ten people dead. He was sentenced to death for killing Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas Virginian gas station. His teenage accomplice¹⁹ Lee Boyd Malvo has been sentenced to life in prison.

A new Justice Department study says thousands of unsolved rapes²⁰ and murders include forensic²¹ evidence that has never been analyzed²² by a crime lab. NPR’s Ari Shapiro reports.

People have known for years that crime labs don’t have the capacity to process all the evidence that police gather. This is the first study that tries to measure the consequences of that gap. The Justice Department found that in the last five years, almost 4, 000 unsolved homicides included forensic evidence that was never sent to a crime lab. The same is true of more than 27, 000 unsolved rapes. It’s not clear that the forensic evidence could solve these cases. Prosecutors²³ said in some cases the forensic evidence doesn’t seem useful, and many law enforcement agencies don’t send evidence to a crime lab unless they have a suspect. But in about a quarter of the cases, people responding to the study said they never sent the evidence to a crime lab, because the lab was slow or underfunded. Ari Shapiro, NPR News.

The Obama administration has selected a 36-year-old doctor and former executive with the Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation to run the country’s foreign aid agency. Dr. Rajiv Shah will supervise the US Agency for International Development. Shah is currently working at the Department of Agriculture on food security, one of the Obama administration’s top aid priorities. The Senate must still confirm him as head of USAID.

I’m Carol Van Dam, NPR News in Washington.

1 acquitted   

宣判…无罪( acquit的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（自己）作出某种表现

参考例句：

• The jury acquitted him of murder. 陪审团裁决他谋杀罪不成立。
• Five months ago she was acquitted on a shoplifting charge. 五个月前她被宣判未犯入店行窃罪。

2 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

3 defendants   

被告( defendant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The courts heard that the six defendants had been coerced into making a confession. 法官审判时发现6位被告人曾被迫承认罪行。
• As in courts, the defendants are represented by legal counsel. 与法院相同，被告有辩护律师作为代表。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

4 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。

5 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

6 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。

7 justifies   

证明…有理( justify的第三人称单数 )； 为…辩护； 对…作出解释； 为…辩解（或辩护）

参考例句：

• Their frequency of use both justifies and requires the memorization. 频繁的使用需要记忆，也促进了记忆。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• In my judgement the present end justifies the means. 照我的意见，只要目的正当，手段是可以不计较的。

8 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

9 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

10 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

11 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

13 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

14 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

15 advisors   

n.顾问，劝告者( advisor的名词复数 )；（指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• The governors felt that they were being strung along by their advisors. 地方长官感到他们一直在受顾问们的愚弄。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• We will consult together with advisors about her education. 我们将一起和专家商议她的教育事宜。 来自互联网

16 brass   

n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器

参考例句：

• Many of the workers play in the factory's brass band.许多工人都在工厂铜管乐队中演奏。
• Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc.黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。

17 clemency   

n.温和，仁慈，宽厚

参考例句：

• The question of clemency would rest with the King.宽大处理问题，将由国王决定。
• They addressed to the governor a plea for clemency.他们向州长提交了宽刑的申辨书。

18 metropolitan   

adj.大城市的，大都会的

参考例句：

• Metropolitan buildings become taller than ever.大城市的建筑变得比以前更高。
• Metropolitan residents are used to fast rhythm.大都市的居民习惯于快节奏。

19 accomplice   

n.从犯，帮凶，同谋

参考例句：

• She was her husband's accomplice in murdering a rich old man.她是她丈夫谋杀一个老富翁的帮凶。
• He is suspected as an accomplice of the murder.他涉嫌为这次凶杀案的同谋。

20 rapes   

n.芸苔( rape的名词复数 )；强奸罪；强奸案；肆意损坏v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的第三人称单数 )；强奸

参考例句：

• The man who had committed several rapes was arrested. 那个犯了多起强奸案的男人被抓起来了。 来自辞典例句
• The incidence of reported rapes rose 0.8 percent. 美国联邦调查局还发布了两份特别报告。 来自互联网

21 forensic   

adj.法庭的，雄辩的

参考例句：

• The report included his interpretation of the forensic evidence.该报告包括他对法庭证据的诠释。
• The judge concluded the proceeding on 10:30 Am after one hour of forensic debate.经过近一个小时的法庭辩论后，法官于10时30分宣布休庭。

22 analyzed   

v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析

参考例句：

• The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程，因为对他来说，爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》

23 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。