澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2011-09-01

 The future of offshore¹ processing of asylum² seekers is in doubt after yesterday's High Court ruling against the Malaysia solution. Federal Cabinet has been holding crisis talks. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen isn't ruling out reopening the detention³ centre on Nauru and reintroducing temporary protection visas. 

 

BlueScope Steel workers will be holding a mass meeting at Wollongong this morning. They are angry about the axing of 800 jobs at the company's Port Kembla plant. Union leaders will report back about their discussions with management and their concerns about redundancy payments. 

 

Libya's rebels say they've arrested Muammar Gaddafi's foreign minister at his farm west of Tripoli. And in another blow to the crumbling⁴ Gaddafi regime, one of his sons is trying to negotiate his surrender. Rebel commanders say Al-Saadi Gaddafi has contacted them, asking if his safety can be guaranteed. 

 

Three suicide bombers⁵ have killed at least eight people in the Chechen capital Grozny. They struck during celebrations to mark the end of Ramadan. Six of the dead are police officers. It appears the first blast was used to attract them to the scene. Another 22 people were injured in the bombing. 

 

And it's a food fight on a grand scale. The Spanish town of Bunol is celebrating its annual Tomatina festival. It involved about 40,000 people pelting⁶ each other with 120 tonnes of squashed tomatoes for an hour.

1 offshore   

adj.海面的，吹向海面的；adv.向海面

参考例句：

• A big program of oil exploration has begun offshore.一个大规模的石油勘探计划正在近海展开。
• A gentle current carried them slowly offshore.和缓的潮流慢慢地把他们带离了海岸。

2 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。

3 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

4 crumbling   

adj.摇摇欲坠的

参考例句：

• an old house with crumbling plaster and a leaking roof 一所灰泥剥落、屋顶漏水的老房子
• The boat was tied up alongside a crumbling limestone jetty. 这条船停泊在一个摇摇欲坠的石灰岩码头边。

5 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》

6 pelting   

微不足道的，无价值的，盛怒的

参考例句：

• The rain came pelting down. 倾盆大雨劈头盖脸地浇了下来。
• Hailstones of abuse were pelting him. 阵阵辱骂冰雹般地向他袭来。