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.
EU draft says Iraq inspections can't go on forever
A draft statement prepared for a European Union summit says UN weapons inspections in Iraq can not continue indefinitely without Baghdad's cooperation, but that military force should only be used as a last resort.
The draft, as the 15 leaders met in Brussels, says the U.S.-led military buildup around Iraq had forced Baghdad to readmit inspectors and this pressure would remain essential to achieve full cooperation in the inspections.
Meanwhile United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called on Iraq to choose compliance over conflict in the continuing crisis over UN weapons inspections.
Annan made the comment after addressing the opening of an emergency EU summit in Brussels.
***
Urgent: Chirac says war on Iraq worst solution
French President Jacque Chirac says a war on Iraq would be the worst solution to Iraq and his government would oppose a second UN Security Council resolution on disarming Baghdad.
Chirac's statement strongly reaffirmed Franco-German efforts to prevent a war, resisting pressure from the United States and its strongest European ally, Britain, who say time is running out.
Earlier, the Bush administration said the White House might push a new UN plan to force a showdown with Saddam Hussein.
***
Iraq Reports U.S. Spy Plane Flight
Iraq reports that the first flight by an American U-2 surveillance plane took place on Monday in support of the UN inspection mission.
The reconnaissance operation lasted four hours and 20 minutes.
Last week, the Iraqis agreed to allow the surveillance flights, fulfilling a major demand by UN inspectors seeking to determine if Iraq harbors weapons of mass destruction.
***
North Korea says `victory is ours' in nuclear dispute as South warns of arms race
Pointing to a possible nuclear arms race in Northeast Asia, South Korea's outgoing president, Kim Dae Jung, says that production of atomic weapons by North Korea could force South Korea and Japan to build nuclear weapons.
Kim Dae Jung further stressed it is intolerable for North Korea to have or produce nuclear weapons.
North Korea, meanwhile, has announced that it is confident it would triumph in its nuclear confrontation with the United States.
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency has referred the nuclear dispute on the Korean Peninsula to the UN Security Council.
***
China highlights clean government
The second plenum of the 16th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China has called for tougher measures against corruption inside the Party.
Officials say substantial efforts need to be made to strengthen anti-corruption efforts in order to ensure that the Chinese people reap the full benefits of the country's spectacular economic reforms.
The Central Commission is advocating zero tolerance for violations of the party's standards of integrity.
***
About 7,000 Chinese-funded firms established overseas
China's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, or MOFTEC, says it will simplify approval procedures for the overseas establishment of Chinese-funded firms.
Figures from MOFTEC show that in 2002 over 160 countries and regions received investment from China, involving contracted funds of 9.3 billion US dollars.
By the end of 2002, over 6,900 Chinese- funded firms had been officially established outside China.
***
No less sandstorms expected this spring
Earlier reports say there will be less sand storms this year, however some environmental protection experts are predicting that Beijing will be plagued by sandstorms again this spring, no less than last year.
According to a study conducted by the China Meteorological Administration, China has been suffering frequent sand and dust storms as a result of continuous droughts since 1999. The capital has been one of the worst affected areas.
Experts believe a bit more rain last winter in Russia, Mongolia and northwest China, three major sources of the sandstorms, is not expected to ease the grave situation.
The Chinese government says it will continue to work on solutions to the sandstorms.
The administration has suggested the establishment of four ecotypic barriers from Beijing municipality to Inner Mongolia.
Private education in China has developed rapidly in recent years, with the number of private institutions reaching nearly 60 thousand.
These include kindergartens, primary and middle schools, vocational schools and senior middle schools. Privately run kindergartens make up 40 percent of the total number across China.
This information shows that China is expanding its educational resources, and improving the standard of education in the country.
*****
China has been training 14 fighter pilots to be astronauts and this autumn will become the world's third nation to blast people into space.
The pilots, training in a northern Beijing suburb, are all under 30 years old, around 5 feet 7 inches tall, weigh about 143 pounds on average and have completed more than 1,000 flying hours.
Officials will choose one or two candidates for the mission on the Shenzhou V spacecraft, expected to take off in fall.
The mission will be another feather in China's cap after the successful flight of the unmanned Shenzhou IV craft, which landed safely in early January after orbiting Earth for about a week.
*****
Shanghai aims at reaching a per capita gross domestic product of 7,500 US dollars in 2007.
Shanghai officials report a per capita GDP of 4,900 US dollars in 2002 and say the average annual growth of GDP has reached 10.4 percent in the past five years.
The city's officials also have announced they are busy preparing for the 2010 World Expo and welcome the involvment of professionals and companies from home and abroad.
Shanghai's mayor, has promised full cooperation with participants from around the world to facilitate the construction of the exposition sites.
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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