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1. A judge in Atlanta sentences Brian Nichols to multiple life sentences with no chance of parole. Nichols killed four people in a brazen¹ courthouse shooting in 2005. The case was repeatedly bogged³ down by legal complications, angering families of victims.

2. A bomb explosion in an Oregon bank, kills two law enforcement officers including a bomb technician. Now authorities are looking for any leads in the case and asking why an employee brought the device into the bank after finding it in bushes outside.

3. President-elect Barack Obama names New York housing commissioner⁴ Shaun Donovan as secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Donovan is a Harvard-educated architect with a reputation for curtailing⁶ low-income foreclosures.

4. In China, this panda pair gets ready for a journey to Taiwan, part of an exchange to ease tensions between the long-time rivals. The male and female will travel with bamboo, apples and steamed cornbread to ease the adjustment.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. brazen: adj.

used to describe a person or the actions of a person who is not embarrassed about behaving in a wrong or immoral⁷ way

2. bog² down: phr v.

if a process or plan becomes bogged down, it is delayed so that no progress is made.

3. curtail⁵: v.

If you curtail something, you reduce or limit it. (FORMAL)