UN Security Council Approves International Force for Afghanistan
Breck Ardery
United Nations
20 Dec 2001 21:25 UTC
The United Nations Security Council has unanimously approved a resolution authorizing an international security force for Afghanistan.
The resolution authorizes the force for a six-month period to assist the interim Afghan government in providing security in and around the Afghan capital of Kabul. The resolution calls on all Afghans to cooperate with the security force and notes that all Afghan parties have agreed to withdraw their military units from Kabul.
Jeremy Greenstock
Britain will be leading the force and British ambassador Jeremy Greenstock told reporters the first group of troops will arrive in Kabul in time for the official start of the interim government on Saturday. "The United Kingdom is ready to go," he said. "We will have a small number of troops on the ground on the day, Saturday, in Kabul. The full British contingent will be in place a certain number of days thereafter."
Mr. Greenstock said if the interim government decides it wants the security force to deploy outside of the Kabul area, it would require a additional Security Council resolution.
AP
John Negroponte
United States ambassador John Negroponte said U.S. military forces will continue to operate in Afghanistan but not as part of the security force. "Our forces are there with a particular set of responsibilities, which is to root out the al-Qaida and fight against the remnant elements of the Taleban. In other words a war-fighting mission," he said.
Mr. Negroponte indicated that there should be no conflict between the mission of U.S. forces and the international security troops in Afghanistan.
DEVELOPMENT REPORT: Tuberculosis Control Program in India
By Jill Moss
Broadcast: December 9, 2002
This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
There are more people with tuberculosis in India than in any other country in the world. Each year, tuberculosis infects about two-million people in India and kills nearly five-hundred-thousand people. However, this is starting to change. Researchers
recently studied a tuberculosis control program in India. The study says the program has saved about two-hundred-thousand lives and more than four-hundred-million dollars.
The New England Journal of Medicine published a study about the tuberculosis control program in October. The Indian government started the program in nineteen-ninety-three. Since that time, about three-and-one-half million patients have been examined for tuberculosis. Almost eight-hundred-thousand patients have received medical treatment.
Also, more than forty percent of India's population can now get tuberculosis services. And more than two-hundred-thousand health workers have been trained to examine and treat people with the disease. This makes India's tuberculosis control program one of the world's largest public health programs.
Thomas Frieden of the United States was one of the people who wrote the study. He says that India's tuberculosis control program has strengthened the country's general health care system. For example, he says the quality of work done in laboratories has improved.
However, Doctor Frieden says the program includes only half of India. He says the goal is to continue the program while extending it to the rest of the country. Doctor Frieden believes this will be difficult because of health threats from the virus that causes AIDS and because some forms of tuberculosis are resistant to drugs.
Currently, the World Health Organization estimates that about one-third of the world's population are infected with the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. Tuberculosis becomes active in only about ten percent of all cases. However, it can remain in a victim's lungs for years or even a lifetime.
Infected people spread tuberculosis by releasing particles from their mouths when they cough, sneeze, spit or talk. Signs of the disease include high body temperature and coughing.
A person with active T-B must take medicine each day for six to nine months to halt progression of the disease.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss.
Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji has called for the effective management of religious affairs, saying this will better serve China’s reforms and development.
During an inspection visit to the State Administration of Religious Affairs, Zhu says the management of religious affairs has always been an important part of the overall work of both the Communist Party of China and the government.
He stresses that the Party's policy allowing people to enjoy the freedom of religious belief should be well implemented. And religious affairs should be handled according to the law.
***
China will soon launch a nationwide geological environment survey of its agricultural areas, the first such survey in the world.
The survey, to be extended to 2010, will cover a total 1.55 million square kilometers of agricultural land.
It will help to determine soil conditions for improving the distribution of agricultural production.
During the survey, the distribution and quantity of some 60 chemical elements and compounds in the soil will be analyzed, and evaluations of the geological environment and pollution will be made.
***
Microsoft has reached a 1.1 billion dollar settlement with consumers in California who accused it of violating the state's antitrust and unfair competition laws.
Under the agreement, proceeds from the settlement will be distributed in the form of vouchers redeemable for computers and software products.
The settlement stems from a lawsuit filed in 1999 on behalf of California consumers and businesses. It covers those who bought Microsoft's operating system, productivity suite, spreadsheet or word processing software between February 1995 and December 2001.
***
More than 4,200 sales people from China's Ping'an Insurance Company have gained the International Quality Award (IQA).
This is the first time the international Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association (LIMRA) has awarded IQAs on the Chinese mainland.
The IQA, created by LIMRA in 1961, is an authoritative recognition and certification for excellent quality and good reputation in sales.
China's insurance market is seen as having huge potential, resulting in a great demand for sales people.
***
Air China will add nearly 2,300 international and domestic unscheduled and charter flights during the upcoming Spring Festival.
These include 92 international and regional unscheduled flights, 56 charter flights and 1900 unscheduled domestic flights.
Air China will operate 390 domestic and international unscheduled and charter flights from Beijing.
Most of the unscheduled international flights will go to southeast Asia and Australia.
Unscheduled domestic flights will fly to Xiamen, Guangzhou, Changsha and Wuhan, while charter flights will fly to Haikou, Kunming, Sanya and Shenzhen.
***
Hong Kong-based Phoenix Satellite Television says the company aims to quadruple the number of InfoNews viewers to more than 20 million households in the next 12 months.
Phoenix chief executive officer Liu Changle says he expects any threats posed to its Putonghua-language channel by Bloomberg Television and Star TV’s legal broadcasts to be minimal as they target different groups of viewers in the mainland.
Phoenix InfoNews Channel was recently granted mainland broadcasting rights.
***
China’s biggest luxury bus manufacturing base is now up and running in Hefei, capital of east China’s Anhui Province.
The first batch of buses to roll off the production line at the Anhui Ankai-Setra Automotive Plant include three luxury models under the Ankai-Setra brand.
The buses are equipped with engines produced by German-US auto giant DaimlerChrysler.
The buses sell at prices ranging from 180 thousand US dollars to 317 thousand dollars each.
The new plant has the capacity to produce 1,000 buses annually, about half of China’s overall production.
China has issued a regulation saying laid-off workers will be able to apply for small loans to start their own businesses.
Laid-off workers under the age of 60 can now apply to commercial banks for loans of up to 20,000 Yuan, to help them set up their own businesses.
Interest rates will be the same as those announced by the People's Bank of China.
*****
A national project aimed at protecting grasslands from grazing has been launched to improve China’s grassland ecosystem.
The Minister in Charge of the State Development Planning Commission says under the project, grazing will be prohibited on about 67 million hectares of seriously damaged grassland in north China's Inner Mongolia, northwest Xinjiang Uygur and Southwest Tibet Autonomous Regions in the next five years.
This means 40 percent of endangered grasslands in western regions will receive better protection.
*****
The last section of the double-track line of the Beijing-Kowloon Railway, one of the major north-south trunk lines in China, has been put into operation.
Construction on the Longchuan-Dongguan section of the double-track line, with a length of 220 kilometers, began in March 2001.
The project cost 325 million US dollars.
The Beijing-Kowloon Railway connects China's capital to Kowloon in Hong Kong.
*****
Bloomberg Television has become the second foreign broadcaster in as many days to announce it has won limited landing rights in the Chinese mainland.
Under the agreement, Bloomberg can begin broadcasting its 24-hour Asia Pacific feed to hotels rated three stars or above, foreign housing compounds and government offices from this month.
1--Do you want black or white coffee?
2--White, please.
1--Look! There's a folk concert tomorrow evening.
Do you want to go?
2--I don't like folk music very much.
1--What kind of music do you like?
2--I like classical music. Do you?
1--Not very much. Classical music sends me to sleep.
2--I don't believe you.
1--It's true.
2--You are funny!
1--So are you! How about another coffee?
===================================
注解：
1）black or white coffee：加糖或加牛奶的称作white
coffee.什么也不加的称作black coffee.
2）folk concert：民间音乐会。folk作“民间的”、
“具有民族传说的”解。如folk dance，folk music,
folk songs, folk tale等。
3）classical：经典的。如classical music, classical
literature等。
4）How about...?（你以为）...怎么样？征询对方的意见时
常用的句型。如，征询关于时间安排的意见时，可以说How
about tomorrow？征询活动内容时可以说How about playing
tennis now?征询人选意见可以说How about Jane?等
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