NPR 2010-10-09

More people are still losing jobs faster than they're finding them. This morning, the Labor¹ Department released its September employment report. Ninety-five thousand jobs went away last month and kept the unemployment rate stuck at 9.6 percent. It was discouraging news to President Obama just weeks away from a tough midterm election for his Democratic Party. While touring a small business outside Washington DC today, the president reacted to the latest economic news and said that the small business sectors² are so vital to job growth.

“Small businesses like this one are the bricks and blocks of our entire economy. And over the past two years, my administration has been doing everything we can to help encourage more success stories like this — because it is small businesses that will power our growth and put our people back to work.”

Stocks have been dancing around the 11,000 mark for much of the day. With investors³ confident, the Federal Reserve will take additional steps to protect economic recovery. At last check, the Dow was up 55 points at 11,003, NASDAQ up 18 to 2,402, and the S&P 500 gaining seven points at 1,165.

The world’s most prominent peace activists⁵ are hailing this year’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, jailed Chinese political activist⁴ Liu Xiaobo. The academy describes Liu as the foremost symbol of the struggle for human rights in China. He’s serving  an 11-year prison sentence on subversion⁶ charges. His wife Liu Xia told the BBC through an interpreter that her husband is committed to a lifelong struggle for human dignity.

“He says that for the last 20 years he’s had a responsibility and duty and he’ll carry on regardless of whether or not the government allows him to speak. Liu Xiaobo believes we might never achieve our dreams, but we have to continue striving in order to earn our dignity.”

China, meanwhile, is accusing the Nobel committee of awarding a criminal.

Chilean rescuers could be hours away from completing drilling of an escape shaft⁷ to reach 33 miners who've been trapped underground for more than two months. Mining Minister Laurence Golborne.

“We should break (in the next) within the next 24 hours.”

Golborne spearheading the rescue effort.

Two Hamas militants⁸ have been killed in an Israeli raid in the West Bank city of Hebron. More from NPR’s Lourdes Garcia-Navarro.

In the early hours of the morning, Israeli soldiers surrounded the house in Hebron where the suspects were hold up. According to the army, the two men were high-level Hamas operatives. The IDF also said they refused to surrender and attacked the soldiers. The IDF in return retaliated⁹, killing¹⁰ the two men. Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, issued a statement, threatening to avenge¹¹ the deaths. Hamas has confirmed that the two militants were high-level members of their armed wing. Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, NPR News, Jerusalem.

From Washington, this is NPR News.

The White House is losing another senior aide, National Security Adviser¹² General James Jones. He's resigning after spending nearly two years in that position. Today, he credited President Obama with bringing the country a long way in the last two years. Jones’ deputy Tom Donilon will take over as national security adviser.

A fifth person, make that, a seventh person has died as the result of the spill of red toxic¹³ sludge from a Hungarian aluminum¹⁴ factory. More remain in serious condition. The Hungarian government says it has prevented most of the pollution from reaching the Danube River. But as Larry Miller¹⁵ reports from London, the EU is taking a wait-and-see approach.

The European Commission’s environmental spokesman says there’s still the risk the sludge could spill into the Danube and through to neighboring countries. Joe Hennon says there’s great concern and EU experts are heading for Hungary to advise on decontamination and containment¹⁶. While Hungary’s prime minister insists the situation is under control, Hennon says the EU is only cautiously optimistic.

“But I don’t think anybody should be safe to take it, sitting back and taking anything for granted and I don’t think anybody will.”

Hennon says under European regulations, the aluminum factory must pay spill-related costs with the Hungarian government ultimately responsible. The volume of the sludge is almost as much as the oil that spilled into the Gulf¹⁷. For NPR News, I’m Larry Miller in London.

California is a big step closer to ending its record 100-day run without a budget. State lawmakers have approved legislation aimed at closing a 19-billion-dollar deficit¹⁸ in that state. The bill is now headed to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for his signature.
 

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 sectors   

n.部门( sector的名词复数 )；领域；防御地区；扇形

参考例句：

• Berlin was divided into four sectors after the war. 战后柏林分成了4 个区。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Industry and agriculture are the two important sectors of the national economy. 工业和农业是国民经济的两个重要部门。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 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

4 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

5 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 subversion   

n.颠覆，破坏

参考例句：

• He was arrested in parliament on charges of subversion for organizing the demonstration.他因组织示威活动在议会上被以颠覆破坏罪名逮捕。
• It had a cultural identity relatively immune to subversion from neighboring countries.它的文化同一性使它相对地不易被邻国所颠覆。

7 shaft   

n.(工具的)柄，杆状物

参考例句：

• He was wounded by a shaft.他被箭击中受伤。
• This is the shaft of a steam engine.这是一个蒸汽机主轴。

8 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。

9 retaliated   

v.报复，反击( retaliate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• When he once teased her for her inexperience, she retaliated. 有一次，他讥讽她没有经验，她便反唇相讥。 来自辞典例句
• The terrorists retaliated by killing three policemen. 恐怖分子以杀死三名警察相报复。 来自辞典例句

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 avenge   

v.为...复仇，为...报仇

参考例句：

• He swore to avenge himself on the mafia.他发誓说要向黑手党报仇。
• He will avenge the people on their oppressor.他将为人民向压迫者报仇。

12 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

13 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

14 aluminum   

n.(aluminium)铝

参考例句：

• The aluminum sheets cannot be too much thicker than 0.04 inches.铝板厚度不能超过0.04英寸。
• During the launch phase,it would ride in a protective aluminum shell.在发射阶段，它盛在一只保护的铝壳里。

15 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

16 containment   

n.阻止，遏制；容量

参考例句：

• Your list might include such things as cost containment,quality,or customer satisfaction.你的清单上应列有诸如成本控制、产品质量、客户满意程度等内容。
• Insularity and self-containment,it is argued,go hand in hand.他们争论说，心胸狭窄和自我封闭是并存的。

17 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

18 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。