NPR 2009-04-27

The acting¹ head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Richard Besser, says there have been 20 confirmed cases of swine flu so far in the US. All 20 people have recovered and only 1 required hospitalization. "It looks to be the same virus as it is causing the situation in Mexico. And given the reports out of Mexico, I would expect that over time, we're gonna see more severe disease in this country. " Besser says CDC investigators² are hard at work tracking the spread of the virus in the US.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has declared a public health emergency which she called standard operating procedure given the uncertainty³ of the situation. "We are leaning forward. We are preparing in an environment where we really don't know ultimately what the size or seriousness of this outbreak is going to be."

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs acknowledged that the outbreak is serious. "We are taking the proper precautions to address anything that happens. It's not a time to panic, then I think that's important to understand. It's also important to understand that the President is being kept aware every few hours of the developments that are going on. " Gibbs was on NBC’s Meet the Press

The World Bank is giving Mexico more than 200 million dollars in loans to help deal with this swine flu outbreak there. Hundreds of Mexicans have been sickened by the virus and at least 20 people have died. Canada has confirmed 6 cases of this swine flu. Dan Karpenchuk has more.

Nova Scotia's Chief Public Health officer Dr. Robert Strang says the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg has confirmed that 4 young people are recovering from mild cases of this swine flu. The students between the ages of 12 and 18 are all from the same high school and had recently travelled to Mexico's Yokotan Peninsula. Strang says no one needed to be hospitalized and there have been no severe cases such as those seen in Mexico. He also said that the Canadians, who had fallen ill with this swine flu, have so far only had very mild symptoms. And British Colombia Center for Disease Control confirmed 2 cases in people who had also recently returned from Mexico. Health officials say it's likely to be just a matter of time before more cases appear in Canada. They say 600, 000 people a year travel between Canada and Mexico. For NPR news, I'm Dan Karpenchuk in Toronto.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Lebanon today meeting with officials there. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.

Secretary Clinton came to Beirut as it prepares for parliamentary elections in June. She said that she wanted to show support for Lebanon's independence and send a message that people here should be allowed to vote in these elections without outside interference. One of her aides said that the Lebanon is one of the places that the US needs to reassure⁴ that the US diplomatic overture⁵ to Iran and Syria won't come at Lebanon's expense. The Secretary is making an appointed visit in the place where former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in 2005. That was an attack they galvanized the popular movement that forced Syrian troops out of Lebanon.

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Iraq's Prime Minister is demanding that the US hand over to face trial the officers responsible for a raid against alleged⁶ militants⁷ in a southern Shiite city. At least one bystander was killed. The military says it properly notified Iraq in advance of the raid.

Pakistan's military says it has launched a new offensive against Taliban militants in the country's northwest province in an area that borders the militant⁸ field, Swat valley. From Islamabad, NPR's Julie McCarthy has the story.

The army issued a statement, saying it started operations early Sunday morning against what it called militant hideouts in the district known as Lower Dir. The military said the attack by Pakistan's frontier core which was reported to include helicopter gunships, killed 30 militants including an important local commander. One Pakistani security member died in the clash. The army says it was launched after the provincial⁹ government in a restive¹⁰ area asked for help. It was not possible to immediately verify the details in the remote dangerous area but Lower Dir has been known to be a crossing for militants coming from Pakistan's tribal¹¹ frontier. Losing Dir to extremists will be a significant loss not only for Pakistan but also the United States. Lower Dir borders Afghanistan where the US is deploying¹² thousands more troops to shore up its protracted¹³ war against Al-Qaeda and its associates. Julie McCarthy, NPR News, Islamabad.

Gasoline prices have mainly held steady over the past 2 weeks, up less than a penny a gallon to a national average of $2.05 a gallon for regular. Industry analyst¹⁴ Trilby Lundberg says the recession has helped prevent the kind of spike¹⁵ in prices at the pump seen in last spring and summer. Gas prices are about $1. 42 a gallon lower now than they were at this time last year.

1 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

2 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》

3 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

4 reassure   

v.使放心，使消除疑虑

参考例句：

• This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently.这似乎使他放心一点，于是他更有信心地继续说了下去。
• The airline tried to reassure the customers that the planes were safe.航空公司尽力让乘客相信飞机是安全的。

5 overture   

n.前奏曲、序曲，提议，提案，初步交涉

参考例句：

• The opera was preceded by a short overture.这部歌剧开始前有一段简短的序曲。
• His overture led to nothing.他的提议没有得到什么结果。

6 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

7 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。

8 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

9 provincial   

adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes.城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。
• Two leading cadres came down from the provincial capital yesterday.昨天从省里下来了两位领导干部。

10 restive   

adj.不安宁的，不安静的

参考例句：

• The government has done nothing to ease restrictions and manufacturers are growing restive.政府未采取任何措施放松出口限制,因此国内制造商变得焦虑不安。
• The audience grew restive.观众变得不耐烦了。

11 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

12 deploying   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的现在分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Provides support for developing and deploying distributed, component-based applications. 为开发和部署基于组件的分布式应用程序提供支持。
• Advertisement, publishing, repair, and install-on-demand are all available when deploying your application. 在部署应用程序时提供公布、发布、修复和即需即装功能。

13 protracted   

adj.拖延的；延长的v.拖延“protract”的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The war was protracted for four years. 战争拖延了四年。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We won victory through protracted struggle. 经过长期的斗争，我们取得了胜利。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

15 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。