2016年6月英语四级听力改革短篇新闻练习(13)

　　听力材料：

　　BBC News with Nick Kelly

　　After a day of speculation about an imminentceasefire, sporadic violence has continued on theGaza Strip into the night. Earlier several Palestiniansources said a truce between Hamas and Israelwould be announced tonight, but Israel said it hasn't finalized a deal and some Palestinian andEgyptian officials indicated that while an agreement was close it wasn't yet fully agreed. Israeligovernment spokesman Mark Regev has told the BBC that until a diplomatic solution isachieved its military operation in Gaza will continue. At least 20 Palestinians are reported tohave been killed today in Gaza as Israeli rocket strikes intensified. Jon Donnison is in Gaza.

　　Despite the growing clamour of voices saying a ceasefire is imminent. The noise in Gaza todaycontinues to be that of war. There have been scores more Israeli air strikes and the death toll isrising fast among those killed today, two brothers, aged two and four, as well as their parents,also two journalists from a Hamas-linked television channel. And Hamas continues to firerockets. This one, it says, was aimed again at Jerusalem. It fell short, nobody was hurt.

　　The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has meanwhile arrived in Israel for talks on the wayforward.

　　Rebels in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo have seized the regional capital Goma.Fighters from the M23 rebel group entered the city with little resistance from the Congolesearmy or United Nations peacekeepers. Gabriel Gatehouse is in Goma.

　　For nearly two decades, the Democratic Republic of Congo has been in a state of almostpermanent conflict. The United Nations' mission here is the largest peacekeeping forceanywhere in the world, and yet, Goma fell today to just few hundred men. The UN and theCongolese government have accused Rwanda of supporting the rebels. Rwanda denies theaccusation. But this mineral-rich part of eastern Congo now once again threatens to pullneighbouring countries into a wider African war.

　　Efforts to allow women to become bishops in the church of England have been defeated. Theproposal failed by a few votes to get the required two thirds' backing among lay members ofthe general synod that church's governing body. Bishops and clergy backed the plan by a clearmargin. Supporters have called the vote disastrous and damaging. The Reverend RoseHudson Wilkin says she's disappointed by the result.

　　I believe passionately that women should be in leadership within the House of Bishops, and so Ithink it is a sadness today for the church. When I came out and felt the rain, I thought showersof blessing, but actually no, tears from God, tears at the decision we've just made.

　　Opponents say there is no scriptural backing for women bishops although many otherProtestant churches already consecrate them.

　　World News from the BBC

　　The United Nations says there has a dramatic fall in the rates of HIV infections in manycountries, where more people are receiving treatment than ever before. The UNAIDS programcalled it as a historic slowing down of the epidemic. The most marked changes have been in theworst affected African countries. In Malawi and Botswana, infection rates fall by more than70%.

　　Four men have been charged in California with plotting to kill Africans and destroy overseas UStargets. One of four is a former member of the United States air force. David Willis reports.

　　The FBI says a former US air force man serving in Afghanistan help to introduce the other threemen to the doctrine of a former al-Qaeda leader. Sohiel Omar Kabir, a US citizen who was bornin Afghanistan is alleged to offered accommodation and meetings with terrorists in Skypeconversations with the others. One of whom was born in Mexico, another in the Philippines, andthe third is a US citizen. Together the FIB says the group was planning to to engage in what itcalls a violent Jihad which was included bombing military bases and government facilities inboth Yemen and Afghanistan.

　　A strike called by two of Argentinas biggest unions has paralysed much of Buenos Aires andother cities. Most trains and subway lines were close, flights were cancelled, and the streets inBuenos Aires remained empty as roadblocks were set up to access routes to the capital.

　　And a Greek man has been arrested on suspicion of stealing nine million personal data files in amass breach of private information. Police said the 45-year-old was found have taken data filescontaining Greek tax numbers, vehicle license plate numbers and home addresses. Some ofthe files may have been duplicated. The police now trying to work out how the data found afterthey raided the man's home, came to be in his procession and whether he intended to sell it.

　　BBC News