[ti:IN THE NEWS]
[ar:Voice of America]
[al:VOA Special English]
[by:WWW.51VOA.COM]
[00:00.00]51VOA.COM
[00:03.61]This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
[00:07.81]The Sri Lankan army has been leading
[00:10.89]what it called a "final push"
[00:13.43]against Tamil Tiger rebels.
[00:16.09]A military spokesman told VOA
[00:19.17]that the army hoped to free all civilians
[00:23.03]trapped in rebel territory by Sunday.
[00:26.60]The military said troops were moving in
[00:30.23]from the north and the south
[00:32.34]on the narrow area of coastline
[00:35.23]still held by the rebels.
[00:37.70]On Friday,
[00:39.29]the United Nations human rights office
[00:42.03]called for an investigation
[00:44.15]of possible war crimes in Sri Lanka.
[00:47.94]The office said
[00:49.76]the behavior of the military and the rebels
[00:53.35]could meet the legal meaning of war crimes
[00:57.02]and crimes against humanity.
[00:59.87]A U.N.spokesman expressed concern about reports
[01:04.37]that government shelling has killed civilians.
[01:08.52]He also expressed concern over
[01:11.90]reports of rebels shooting those
[01:14.81]trying to flee to safety.
[01:17.31]This week,U.N.Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
[01:22.29]sent his top aide to press for an end
[01:26.25]to the Sri Lankan conflict.
[01:28.64]Almost two hundred thousand Tamil civilians
[01:32.86]in the north have been displaced
[01:35.38]since fighting intensified in January.
[01:39.00]Some people have been able to escape
[01:42.22]across the waters of a lagoon
[01:44.61]to a government-controlled area.
[01:47.56]But thousands of civilians
[01:50.31]reportedly have been killed
[01:52.39]and many thousands more wounded.
[01:56.07]The International Red Cross has described
[01:59.94]the humanitarian situation as "unimaginable."
[02:04.52]The Red Cross has been unable
[02:07.34]to bring in food or remove the wounded
[02:10.78]and sick from the area of fighting.
[02:13.92]Sri Lanka has been seeking
[02:16.77]a two billion dollar loan
[02:19.03]from the International Monetary Fund
[02:21.95]to help its economy.
[02:24.22]American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
[02:28.14]said this week that this was,in her words,
[02:31.53]"not an appropriate time to consider" the loan.
[02:35.79]But I.M.F.chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn
[02:39.89]said Friday that Sri Lanka clearly needs help.
[02:44.13]Reuters news agency reported
[02:47.25]that he said the I.M.F.is working
[02:50.25]to find a solution in the next few weeks.
[02:54.53]Sri Lanka is an island
[02:57.79]of twenty-one million people
[03:00.29]in the Indian Ocean.
[03:02.18]Three-fourths are ethnic Sinhalese.
[03:06.08]The conflict began
[03:08.30]more than twenty-five years ago,
[03:11.10]when minority Tamils began fighting
[03:14.55]for an independent homeland.
[03:17.38]The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
[03:21.81]once controlled a large area of the north
[03:25.81]and east.
[03:27.13]But now,military officials say the area
[03:31.66]held by the Tamil Tigers has been reduced
[03:35.60]to just a few square kilometers of beachfront.
[03:39.93]The government says the military offensive
[03:44.64]is also a hostage rescue operation.
[03:48.60]It says the rebels are hiding among civilians.
[03:53.97]On Wednesday,
[03:56.41]President Obama deplored
[03:58.70]the rebels' use of civilians as human shields.
[04:03.50]But he also called on the Sri Lankan government
[04:07.99]to act responsibly.
[04:10.34]There have been reports in recent days
[04:15.46]that shelling killed hundreds of civilians.
[04:19.29]On Wednesday,artillery shells
[04:22.71]hit the only remaining hospital
[04:25.62]in the area of fighting.
[04:27.88]The government promised last month
[04:31.38]to end its use of heavy weapons.
[04:35.12]It says the rebels
[04:37.48]are the ones killing innocent people.
[04:40.20]The rebels blame the government.
[04:43.55]And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
[04:50.03]I'm Steve Ember.
[04:51.97]51VOA.COM
END OF TRACK. "END OF TRACK." The two men bowed. "Whoever was that person you were talking to?" she enquired, as soon as they stood together. The took of triumph faded from her eyes, she had grown worn and weary. The roses were wilting on the walls, the lights were mostly down now. Hetty, looking in to see if anything was wanted, found herself driven away almost fiercely. I only saw Master Jervie once when he called at tea time, The year 1747 was opened by measures of restriction. The House of Lords, offended at the publication of the proceedings of the trial of Lord Lovat, summoned the parties to their bar, committed them to prison, and refused to liberate them till they had pledged themselves not to repeat the offence, and had paid very heavy fees. The consequence of this was that the transactions of the Peers were almost entirely suppressed for nearly thirty years from this time, and we draw our knowledge of them chiefly from notes taken by Horace Walpole and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. What is still more remarkable, the reports of the House of Commons, being taken by stealth, and on the merest sufferance, are of the most meagre kind, sometimes altogether wanting, and the speeches are given uniformly under fictitious names; for to have attributed to Pitt or Pelham their[112] speeches by name would have brought down on the printers the summary vengeance of the House. Many of the members complained bitterly of this breach of the privileges of Parliament, and of "being put into print by low fellows"; but Pelham had the sense to tolerate them, saying, "Let them alone; they make better speeches for us than we can make for ourselves." Altogether, the House of Commons exhibited the most deplorable aspect that can be conceived. The Ministry had pursued Walpole's system of buying up opponents by place, or pension, or secret service money, till there was no life left in the House. Ministers passed their measures without troubling themselves to say much in their behalf; and the opposition dwindled to Sir John Hinde Cotton, now dismissed from office, and a feeble remnant of Jacobites raised but miserable resistance. In vain the Prince of Wales and the secret instigations of Bolingbroke and Doddington stimulated the spirit of discontent; both Houses had degenerated into most silent and insignificant arenas of very commonplace business. "It certainly will be. Miss Widgeon," answered Maria, with strictly "company manners." "One who has never had a brother exposed to the constant dangers of army life can hardly understand how glad we all feel to have Si snatched from the very jaws of death and brung back to us." "Just plug at 'em as you would at a crow, and then go on your way whistlin'?" persisted Harry. "Hurroo!" echoed Hennessey; "that's the ticket." "Come forward, keeper," continued the baron, "and state how these arrows came into your hands!" "Yes." HoMEJULIA¾©Ïã2018ÏÂÔØ
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