[ti:Gulf Oil Spill was Top Story in 2010 ]
[ar: Steve Ember]
[al:IN THE NEWS]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]This is IN THE NEWS
[00:05.63]in VOA Special English.
[00:08.86]At the end of each year,
[00:10.89]the Associated Press releases
[00:13.24]a list of the top ten
[00:15.67]news stories of the year.
[00:18.02]American editors and news directors
[00:21.50]are asked to vote for what they
[00:24.54]consider the top stories.
[00:26.08]This year, the story with
[00:28.81]the most votes was the huge
[00:30.86]oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
[00:33.59]An oil rig operated
[00:36.43]by BP exploded in April.
[00:39.62]The explosion killed eleven workers.
[00:42.94]Close to five million barrels
[00:46.03]of oil were released into the Gulf
[00:48.62]until the leak was contained
[00:50.77]in the middle of July.
[00:52.31]BP agreed to set aside twenty billion
[00:56.64]dollars to pay claims and damages
[00:59.53]to people working in the area's
[01:02.41]fishing and tourism industries.
[01:04.60]The AP says the second
[01:08.48]most important story was
[01:11.02]health care reform in the United States.
[01:14.06]President Obama won a major political
[01:17.68]victory with congressional passage
[01:20.17]of his health care reform plan.
[01:23.07]Among other things, it will extend
[01:26.00]health care insurance to thirty-two
[01:29.33]million Americans now without it.
[01:32.07]But many Republicans in Congress
[01:35.26]oppose the law and want
[01:37.69]to cancel parts of it.
[01:39.19]The congressional elections
[01:41.67]in November were another big story.
[01:44.32]The Republican Party gained a majority
[01:47.60]in the House of Representatives.
[01:49.60]But Democrats kept their majority
[01:52.87]in the Senate.
[01:54.27]The American economy
[01:56.42]was another major story.
[01:58.65]Economists reported in twenty-ten
[02:01.89]that the worst recession
[02:03.98]since the nineteen-thirties had ended.
[02:07.37]Americans began to spend more
[02:10.60]as the year ended.
[02:12.04]But the unemployment rate
[02:14.38]stayed above nine percent.
[02:16.97]In January, a powerful earthquake
[02:20.31]struck Haiti.
[02:21.54]It killed at least two hundred
[02:24.24]thirty thousand people and left
[02:26.91]millions of others homeless.
[02:28.81]Disease and other problems have
[02:32.45]slowed efforts to rebuild the country.
[02:35.48]Another important story
[02:38.36]was the Tea Party movement
[02:40.61]in the United States.
[02:42.15]The Tea Party supports limited government,
[02:45.74]less federal spending and lower taxes.
[02:50.01]The movement had a big influence
[02:53.01]on the Congressional elections.
[02:55.05]Another major story was the rescue
[02:58.93]of thirty-three mine workers in Chile.
[03:02.17]A partial mine collapse on August fifth
[03:06.85]trapped them more than
[03:08.74]half a kilometer underground.
[03:10.87]They remained trapped for sixty-nine days.
[03:15.05]Millions of people around the world
[03:18.34]watched on television as each miner
[03:21.62]was safely brought to the surface.
[03:24.46]In twenty-ten, United States forces
[03:28.68]officially ended combat operations in Iraq.
[03:33.42]The Iraq war began more than seven years ago.
[03:38.10]Another major story was
[03:41.58]the activities of the WikiLeaks website.
[03:44.41]First the website released thousands
[03:48.75]of United States military documents
[03:51.74]about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
[03:56.15]Then it published thousands
[03:58.64]of State Department diplomatic cables.
[04:02.29]They included comments by American diplomats
[04:05.91]about the lives of world leaders
[04:08.99]and criticisms of foreign governments.
[04:13.07]The tenth story on the AP's list
[04:17.25]was the war in Afghanistan.
[04:19.80]President Obama ordered an increase
[04:23.34]in troops fighting the nearly ten-year-old war.
[04:27.17]American troops are to begin leaving
[04:31.15]the country in July.
[04:32.88]Afghans are to control their own security
[04:36.83]by the end of twenty fourteen.
[04:39.57]And that's IN THE NEWS
[04:42.32]in VOA Special English.
[04:45.50]I'm Steve Ember.
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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