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路透社:美国,伊朗和欧盟在维也纳开始核对话
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U.S., Iran and EU begin nuclear talks in Vienna
美国,伊朗和欧盟在维也纳开始核对话
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrives in Vienna to meet with his Iranian and EU counterparts in a push to reach a final agreement on Iran's controversial nuclear program by a November 24 deadline. A senior U.S. official said a deal is still possible by late next month and there were no talks now about extending the deadline. The negotiations are centered on curbing Iran's atomic activity, which Tehran says is peaceful but the West fears may be aimed at developing a nuclear weapons capability. With the clock ticking, Western officials say there are still important differences between the sides, especially over the future scope of Iran's production of enriched uranium, which has both civilian and military applications.
美国国务卿约翰·克里抵达维也纳，与伊朗和欧盟同僚会晤，试图在11月24日的最后期限之前就伊朗有争议的核项目达成最终协议。美国一名高级官员表示，在下月之前达成协议仍然是有可能的，目前还未就延长最后期限进行对话。谈判主要集中在抑制伊朗的核行动，德黑兰称其核项目完全是和平的，但是西方担忧他们意图发展核武器。随着倒计时的到来，西方官员表示，各方之间仍然存在重要的分歧，尤其是关于伊朗生产浓缩铀的范围方面。浓缩铀既可用于民事项目，也可用于军事项目。
Nigerians demand release of 200 kidnapped schoolgirls
尼日利亚要求释放200名被绑女孩
It's been six months since more than 200 schoolgirls were abducted by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in Nigeria. And these protesters are still outraged.
自200多名学校女生被尼日利亚伊斯兰激进组织博科圣地绑架以来已经六个月。这些抗议者仍然愤怒难当。
(SOUNDBITE) (English) BRING BACK OUR GIRLS CAMPAIGNER, VERONICA CAAMBA, SAYING: "We are here to demand an immediate and urgent return of our girls. We are angry Nigerians, it has taken too long, it is 183 days today."
“带回我们的女孩”运动参加者VERONICA CAAMBA：“我们来到这里要求立即释放我们的女孩。我们是愤怒的尼日利亚人。现在已经太久了，已经183天了。”
Armed police officers are on-hand as dozens demonstrate near the home of President Goodluck Jonathan -- who's been criticized at home and abroad for responding too slowly to the kidnapping. His administration says the military is overstretched -- and that a botched rescue would seriously endanger the girls' lives. Nigeria's minister for water resources, Sarah Ochekpe, tries to calm the crowd.
数十人在总统乔纳森住宅附近示威时，武装警察到场。由于对绑架事件反应太慢，乔纳森受到国内外的批评。他的政府表示，军方的战线太长了，弄巧成拙的军事行动会严重威胁女孩们的生命。尼日利亚水资源部长Sarah Ochekpe试图安抚人群。
(SOUNDBITE) (English) NIGERIA'S MINISTER FOR WATER RESOURCES, SARAH OCHEKPE, SAYING: "Everybody has expressed themselves and we want to assure you that your messages would be relayed back to the president and we will also relay to other levels of authorities that have one responsibility or the other in this matter, because we know it is a matter that is dear to the heart of all Nigerians."
尼日利亚水资源部长SARAH OCHEKPE：“每个人都表达了自己的情绪和看法，我们向大家保证，你们的消息稍后会转达给总统，也会转移到相关负责部门，因为我们知道这件事牵动着所有尼日利亚人的心。”
Despite the reassurances, these protesters say they will not rest until the girls are returned home.
尽管得到保证，这些抗议者们表示，他们不会停止，直到他们的女儿回家。
Pistorius sentencing enters second day
皮斯托瑞斯宣判进入第二天
Paralympic and Olympic track star Oscar Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide last month for the shooting of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day. Now he faces up to 15 years in jail. On the second day of his sentencing hearing, Pistorius's agent Peet Van Zyl was grilled over the athlete's charity work, which the defence hopes will mitigate his sentence. But lead prosecutor Gerrie Nel suggested that the charity work was not entirely selfless -- but a useful marketing tool for self-promotion.
残奥会和奥运会田径运动员奥斯卡·皮斯托瑞斯上月被判在情人节当天杀害女友瑞瓦·斯蒂坎普罪名成立。现在，他面临最高15年的监禁。在宣判听证会的第二天，皮斯托瑞斯的代理人皮特·范·齐尔反复讲述这位运动员的慈善工作，被告希望可以为其减刑。但是首席检察官奈尔表示，慈善工作并不完全是无私的，而是自我宣传的有用的市场工具。
(SOUNDBITE) (English) LEAD PROSECUTION LAWYER, GERRIE NEL SAYING: "So the fact is that it is merely an advancement of your career to become involved (in charity work). "
首席检察官奈尔：“事实证明，参与慈善工作只是为了推动你的事业发展。”
(SOUNDBITE) (English) OSCAR PISTORIUS AGENT, PEET VAN ZYL SAYING: "I think that a lot of sportsmen actually really want to make a difference and contribute."
皮斯托瑞斯的代理人皮特·范·齐尔：“我认为许多体育工作者真的想做一些事，做一些贡献。”
(SOUNDBITE) (English) LEAD PROSECUTION LAWYER, GERRIE NEL SAYING: "But as a bonus, as a flip side - it really enhances their career and marketability."
首席检察官奈尔：“但是作为回报，作为另一方面的好处，确实对他们的事业和市场能力有所帮助。”
(SOUNDBITE) (English) OSCAR PISTORIUS AGENT, PEET VAN ZYL SAYING: "Again one can look at it like that."
皮斯托瑞斯的代理人皮特·范·齐尔：“人们可以从这样的角度来看。”
On Monday, a correctional services social worker suggested Pistorius should be sentenced to three years of "correctional supervision", meaning he would spend a portion of his sentence at home -- a recommendation Nel called "shockingly inappropriate". But more witnesses are expected to appear before Pistorius learns his fate.
周一，惩教署一位社工表示，皮斯托瑞斯应该被判处三年的惩教监督——这意味着一部分刑期可以在家中进行——奈尔表示，该提议完全不恰当。但是皮斯托瑞斯获悉自己的命运之前，更多目击者将出庭作证。
路透社科技:伦敦电话亭成为太阳能充电站
London phone box goes green as solar charging station
伦敦电话亭成为太阳能充电站
London's iconic red telephone boxes... are going green. Called the Solarbox, this pilot model was launched recently in the city's bustling shopping district to give passers-by a free and easy way to charge their phone. Panels on the roof harvest solar radiation and convert it into electricity which is stored in an in-built battery. Members of the public are then free to plug in their phone for a quick fix of energy when they're low on charge. Harold Craston, graduate of the London School of Economics (LSE), came up with the idea while passing one of the city's many disused phone boxes. (SOUNDBITE) (English) HAROLD CRASTON, CO-FOUNDER OF SOLARBOX, SAYING: "I thought there's eight-thousand of these, why not turn something commercially unviable into something productive and something that connects people via public space." Co-founder, fellow LSE graduate Kirsty Kenney, hopes the Solarbox will give London's green credentials a boost. (SOUNDBITE) (English) KIRSTY KENNEY, CO-FOUNDER OF SOLARBOX, SAYING: "London is still very much a city built for cars and I think, on the everyday level, we're not actually that green. And it's not the fault of the public, the infrastructure isn't there yet." The pilot Solarbox was part-funded by a 5,000 pound prize the pair received from London mayor, Boris Johnson, at his recent Low Carbon competition. The team then set to work converting one of the many derelict boxes into the Solarbox. Craston says current energy-sapping phone models mean their kiosk is sure to be in high demand. (SOUNDBITE) (English) HAROLD CRASTON, CO-FOUNDER OF SOLARBOX, SAYING: "Phones are getting more powerful, apps are getting more complex, phones in the last few years are actually getting larger again; but the batteries aren't improving. So, until that happens there will be a reason to use Solarbox and celebrate solar power." In London's famous Tottenham Court Road, the eye-catching Solarbox drew curious looks, and praise for its ingenuity. (SOUNDBITE) (English) TOM, PASSER-BY, SAYING: "Oh yeah, definitely - I'm constantly running out of battery. So, yeah, I think it's great. The fact they're re-using current phone boxes - maintaining heritage - I think is good too." (SOUNDBITE) (English) RON, TOURIST FROM KENTUCKY, USA, SAYING: "I do investments, so I need to stay connected to my office. They call me a lot, even on vacation. And so, something like this is very beneficial to me." The first generation of Solarbox will be funded by advertising, with the makers hoping companies will be enticed by the increased time users will have to interact with the on-screen adverts while they're charging their device. The team are also working with developers on supercapacitors which can fully charge a phone in just 30 seconds. And with photovoltaic efficiency constantly improving, these green boxes could become a familiar sight on London's streets, providing free energy... whatever the weather.
白宫发言:奥巴马:美国公共教育有所进步
Look, let’s face it: Some of these changes are hard. Sometimes they cause controversy. And we have a long way to go. But public education in America is actually improving. Last year, our elementary and middle school students had the highest math and reading scores on record. The dropout rates for Latinos and African Americans are down. (Applause.) The high school graduation rate -- the high school graduation rate is up. It’s now above 80 percent for the first time in history. We’ve invested in more than 700 community colleges --which are so often gateways to the middle class -- and we’re connecting them with employers to train high school graduates for good jobs in fast-growing fields like high-tech manufacturing and energy and IT and cybersecurity.
Here in Chicago, Rahm just announced that the city will pay community college tuition for more striving high school graduates. We’ve helped more students afford college with grants and tax credits and loans. And today, more young people are graduating than ever before. We’ve sent more veterans to college on the Post-9/11 GI Bill -- including several veterans here at Northwesten -- and a few of them are in this hall today, and we thank them for their service. (Applause.)
So we’ve made progress on manufacturing and creating good jobs. We’ve made progress on education. Of course, even if you have the right education, for decades, one of the things that made it harder for families to make ends meet and businesses to grow was the high cost of health care. And so the third cornerstone had to be health care reform.
In the decade before the Affordable Care Act, aka, Obamacare -- (laughter and applause) -- in the decade before the Affordable Care Act, double-digit premium increases were common. CEOs called them one of the biggest challenges to their competitiveness. And if your employer didn’t drop your coverage to avoid these costs, they might pass them on to you and take them out of your wages.
Today, we have seen a dramatic slowdown in the rising cost of health care. When we passed the Affordable Care Act, the critics were saying,what are you doing about cost. Well, let me tell you what we’ve done about cost. If your family gets your health care through your employer, premiums are rising at a rate tied for the lowest on record. And what this means for the economy is staggering. If we hadn’t taken this on, and premiums had kept growing at the rate they did in the last decade, the average premium for family coverage today would be $1,800 higher than they are. Now, most people don't notice it, but that’s $1,800 you don’t have to pay out of your pocket or see vanish from your paycheck. That’s like a $1,800 tax cut. That's not for folks who signed up for Obamacare. That's the consequences of some of the reforms that we’ve made.
And because the insurance marketplaces we created encourage insurers to compete for your business, in many of cities they’ve announced that next year’s premiums -- well, something important is happening here -- next year’s premiums are actually falling in some of these markets.
One expert said this is “defying the law of physics.” But we’re getting it done. And it is progress we can be proud of.
So we’re slowing the cost of health care, and we’re covering more people at the same time. In just the last year, we reduced the share of uninsured Americans by 26 percent. That means one in four uninsured Americans -- about 10 million people -- have gained the financial security of health insurance in less than one year. And for young entrepreneurs, like many of you here today, the fact that you can compare and buy affordable plans in the marketplace frees you up to strike out on your own, chase that new idea -- something I hope will unleash new services and products and enterprises all across the country. So the job lock that used to exist because you needed health insurance,you’re free from that now. You can go out and do something on your own and get affordable health care.
And meanwhile, partly because health care prices have been growing at the slowest rate in nearly 50 years, the growth in what health care costs the government is down, also. I want everybody to listen carefully here, because when we were debating the Affordable Care Act there was a lot of complaining about how we couldn’t afford this. The independent, nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently reported that in 2020, Medicare and Medicaid will cost us $188 billion less than projected just four years ago. And here’s what that means in layman’s terms: Health care has long been the single biggest driver of America’s future deficits. It’s been the single biggest driver of our debt.
Health care is now the single biggest factor driving down those deficits.
And this is a game-changer for the fourth cornerstone of this new foundation -- getting our fiscal house in order for the long run, so we can afford to make investments that grow the middle class.
Between a growing economy, some prudent spending cuts, health care reform, and asking the wealthiest Americans to pay a little bit more on their taxes, over the past five years we’ve cut our deficits by more than half. When I took office, the deficit was nearly 10 percent of our economy. Today, it’s approaching 3 percent. (Applause.) In other words, we can shore up America’s long-term finances without falling back into the mindless austerity or manufactured crises or trying to find excuses to slash benefits to seniors that dominated Washington budget debates for so long.
And finally, we’ve put in place financial reform to protect consumers and prevent a crisis on Wall Street from hammering Main Street ever again. We have new tools to prevent “too big to fail,” to stop taxpayer-funded bailouts. We made it illegal for big banks to gamble with your money. We established the first-ever consumer watchdog to protect consumers from irresponsible lending or credit card practices. We secured billions of dollars in relief for consumers who get taken advantage of. And working with states attorneys general like Lisa Madigan, we’ve seen industry practices changing.
Now, an argument you’ll hear oftentimes from critics is that the way to grow the economy is to just get rid of regulations; free folks up from the oppressive hand of the government. And you know, it turns out, truth be told, there are still some kind of dopey regulations on the books. (Laughter.) There are regulations that are outdated or are no longer serving a useful purpose. And we have scrubbed the laws out there and identified hundreds that are outdated, that don’t help our economy, that don’t make sense, and we’re saving businesses billions of dollars by gradually eliminating those unnecessary regulations. But you have to contrast that with rules that discourage a casino-style mentality on Wall Street, or rules that protect the basic safety of workers on the job, or rules that safeguard the air our children breathe and keep mercury or arsenic out of our water supply. These don’t just have economic benefits, these are rules that save lives and protect families. And I’ll always stand up for those -- and they’re good for our economy.
So here’s the bottom line: For all the work that remains, for all the citizens that we still need to reach, what I want people to know is that there are some really good things happening in America. Unemployment down. Jobs up. Manufacturing growing. Deficits cut by more than half. High school graduation is up. College enrollment up. Energy production up. Clean energy production up. Financial system more stable. Health care costs rising at a slower rate. Across the board, the trend lines have moved in the right direction.
