美联社新闻一分钟 2006-03-09

（单词翻译）

1. 3 college students were arrested Wednesday for allegedly setting fire to 9 Baptist churches across Alabama. One of the suspects allegedly said the first fires were set as a joke. The others were started to throw investigators¹ off track.

2. President Bush is heading back to Washington after a Gulf² Coast visit. During this tenth trip, the President called on Congress to give an additional 20 billion dollars for levee repair and hurricane relief.

3. In a rare reversal advisors³ are telling the Food & Drug Administration the promising⁴ multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri should be returned to the market. Regulators say they are still concerned the drug is connected to a rare brain disease.

4. NFL owners are facing a deadline for responding to the latest labor⁵ proposal from the Players Union that twice postponed⁶ free agent signing period opens at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. Baptist :noun [C]
a member of a Christian⁷ group that believes that baptism should not happen until a person is old enough to ask for it and to understand its meaning

2. reversal :noun [C]
when something changes to its opposite:
e.g. He demanded a reversal of the previous decision.

3. multiple sclerosis :noun [U] (ABBREVIATION MS)
a disease in which the covering of the nerves gradually becomes destroyed, damaging a person's speech and sight and ability to move 多发性硬化