美联社新闻一分钟 2006-03-30

（单词翻译）

1. Baghdad police found 17 bodies under a bridge Wednesday. The men had been handcuffed and then shot. Hundreds of Iraqis have been killed in sectarian violence and by death squad¹s operating inside the Shiite-dominated ministry³ since the February 22nd bombing of an important Shiite shrine⁴.

2. Closing arguments are today in the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui. The jury will decide if Moussaoui receives the death penalty or life in prison. He is the only person charged in the U.S in the 9/11 attacks.

3. Former Liberian President Charles Taylor was flown back to his homeland after escaping custody⁵ in Nigeria and spending several days on the run. Taylor's facing trial for war crimes.

4. And people gather from Brazil to Mongolia to watch a solar eclipse Wednesday. A solar eclipse is a rare moment when the Sun, Earth and Moon line up perfectly⁶ to cover the sun. The last total eclipse happened three years ago.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. handcuff :verb [T often passive] (INFORMAL cuff)
to put handcuffs on someone:
e.g. He arrived in court handcuffed to two police officers.

2. death squad :group noun [C]
an unofficial armed group who look for and illegally kill particular people, especially the enemies of a political party

3. custody :noun [U]
the state of being kept in prison, especially while waiting to go to court for trial:
e.g. A man is being held in police custody in connection with the murder.

4. on the run :
trying to escape or hide, especially from the police
e.g. After a month on the run, the prisoners were finally recaptured by the police.

5. eclipse:noun [C]
when the sun disappears from view, either completely or partly, while the moon is moving between it and the Earth, or when the moon darkens while the shadow (= darkness) of the Earth moves over it:
e.g. On Wednesday there will be a partial eclipse of the sun.