[日期：2008-01-01]

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BBC 2007-12-14


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BBC News with Jerry Schmitt.

A major investigation into the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball in the United States has implicated some of the sport's biggest stars. The report by former Senator George Mitchell says all thirty major league baseball teams have had at least one player who's used banned anabolic steroids or other drugs. Announcing the findings Senator Mitchell said a higher percentage of players had tested positive for drugs. "The evidence we uncovered indicates that this has not been an isolated problem, involving just a few players or a few clubs. Many players were involved. Each of the thirty clubs has had players who had been involved with such substances at sometime in their careers. "

Legislators in the American state of New Jersey have voted to abolish the death penalty making it the first state to do so in more than 40 years. Campaigners said they hoped the vote would encourage other states to follow suit. Fewer people were executed in the United States last year than at any time in over a decade. The US Supreme Court is currently considering a legal challenge against the use of lethal injections.

The BBC has learnt that the United States has tabled proposals at the climate summit in Bali which would remove binding international targets on reducing GREenhouse gas emissions from the final agreement. Roger Harrabin reports.

Green groups were furious at America's latest negotiating ploy tabled around midnight Bali time. A UK government representative said warily in the early hours it's the usual US tactics we are not surprised. America's now desperately seeking backing for its proposal to strip out all elements of compulsion from the final Bali declaration. If it stands alone against the idea of a comprehensive international treaty, this will be a very high political risk with the American public increasing the concerns about climate change.

A southern African regional court has ordered Zimbabwe not to proceed with the seizure of a white farmer's land. The South African Development Community Tribunal in Namibia said the farmer Mike Campbell should be allowed to remain on his land until Zimbabwe's Supreme Court heard a challenge to the government's policy of expropriating white-owned farms. James Reeve reports.

This is the first major case to be heard by the SADC tribunal which was set up to ensure southern African countries maintain regional standards on human rights and the rule of law. Mike Campbell argued that the seizure of white-owned farms in Zimbabwe was racist and therefore illegal under the SADC charter. By ordering that he'll be allowed to remain on his land pending further appeal, the judges on the new tribunal had struck a blow at President Robert Mugabe's land reform policy, something regional political leaders have been reluctant to criticize. Whether the Zimbabwean authorities will accept the ruling is another matter.

World News from the BBC.

The US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has told the BBC that he wants NATO countries to overhaul the entire strategic approach of the alliance. Mr. Gates said the organization that was structured to cope with a mass Soviet invasion in Europe now needed to adopt a strategy to cope with counter-insurgencies in far-flung parts of the world. Mr. Gates also says some NATO countries were not contributing enough to the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

A military court in the United States has found a US marine guilty of killing an Iraqi soldier when they were on sentry duty together in the city of Fuluja. Lance Corporal Delano Holmes faces up to 8 years in prison for a negligent homicide. The five-day trial in San Diego focused on the politically sensitive issue of how American marines interact with the Iraqi security forces. Peter Burs reports from Los Angeles.

Lance Corporal Delano Holmes told the court-martial in San Diego that he had fought with the Iraqi soldier Private Munther Jasem Muhammed Hassin when the two were on a night time sentry duty in Fuluja. He said he suspected that the Iraqi might be signaling to an insurgent sniper with a lit cigarette and a mobile phone. Prosecutors accused Holmes of repeatedly stabbing the Iraqi soldier with his bayonet. They said Private Hassin was an ally of the United States and there was no evidence he was anything but a peaceful guy.

An inquest in London into the death of Diana the Princess of Wales has said that she was not pregnant despite suggestions to the contrary by the businessman Mohamed Al Fayed. A close friend of the princess Rosa Monckton told the inquest that Diana had had her period ten days before her death in a car crash in Paris in 1997. Ms. Monckton added the princess had no intention of marrying Mr. al-Fayad's son Dodi. Fragments of matters were also published that suggested an affectionate relationship between the princess and her father-in-law Prince Philip.

BBC News.


Glossary

ploy n.
1. （为了得到利益而使用的）花招
2. （挫敌的）策略，手段 A typical ploy is to feign illness, procure medicine, then sell it on the black market. 一种典型手段是先装病，借此弄到药品，然后在黑市上将其卖出。
3. （社交性的）玩耍
4. 职业，活动
vt.
[军]（使）由横队变为纵队

expropriate vt.
1. 没收（财产等）；征用（土地）
expropriate sb. from an estate 没收某人的财产
The State expropriated the king. 国家没收了国王的财产。
The State expropriated his palace. 国家征用了他的宅邸。
The local government expropriated all the trucks and tractors during the flood. 洪水期间当地政府征用了所有的卡车和拖拉机。
expropriated the property owners who lived in the path of the new highway 没收居住在通向新高速公路的道路上的人的财产
2. 让渡（所有权）
3. 把他人财产转到自己名下
4. 把……据为己有，侵占；剥夺……的所有权


sentry

1. [军]卫兵；哨兵
A sentry give the challenge, "who goes there?" 哨兵喝问：“谁”？
The sentry guard dived into his foxhole and closely observed the stranger towards him. 哨兵跳入了散兵坑，密切注视着陌生人向他走来。
a sentry on colours 军旗卫兵
2. 警卫，看守
3. 望楼