لغات مهم و کاربردی و مورد استفاده در اخبار

[negar92]

Are Indian train fares fair?

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  15 March 2012
  For the first time in almost a decade, India will increase train ticket prices, as part of a bid to modernise its ageing rail network. The government will invest billions of dollars to improve safety and update trains and tracks, which are in some cases decades old.
  
  Reporter
  Rajini Vaidyanathan
  
  
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  More than 22 million people use India's rail network every single day - it's been a central mode of transport for people here since trains first started running in India in the 1800s, but many passengers say the trains and tracks are in dire need of modernisation.
  
  In its annual railways budget the Indian government has pledged to build new tracks and carriages, and to modernise signalling, to improve safety and reduce the thousands of deaths which happen on the tracks every year.
  
  But all this costs money. As well as investing 147 billion dollars in the next five years, it's announced a modest increase in ticket prices. This could be an unpopular move - there hasn't been a fare hike in the country for almost a decade. Members of railways minister Dinesh Trivedi's own party have criticised the move, saying fare increases should not have been made as they will hit the poorest

[negar92]

Hands off Olympic athletes

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  19 March 2012
  British athletes have been advised to avoid shaking hands at this year's Olympics. The team's chief medical officer has warned it could lead to illness spreading through the camp and harm the country's bid for medals.
  Reporter
  Alex Capstick
  
  
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  Attention to detail has been a mantra of the British Olympic Association in its preparations for the London Games. Its determination to leave no stone unturned has now included advice on the friendly handshake.
  The team's head doctor Ian McCurdie said within reason it should be off-limits. He said hand hygiene presented one of the biggest risks ofinfection to the athletes.
  It's feared the spread of disease could scupper their chances of equalling their performance at the Beijing Olympics when they finished fourth in the medals table.
  If handshaking is unavoidable the team members have been asked to wash as soon as possible as it could be the difference between success and failure.
  Most of them will be living and mingling with thousands of other athletes in the Olympic village. The British authority on etiquette, Debrett's, said being asked not to shake hands with rivals and officials seemed a bit extreme, as it could look rude.
  And a spokesman for the US Olympic team said they would be encouraging their athletes to meet, greet and interact with as many athletes from other countries as possible.

[negar92]

Russian football racism row

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  23 March 2012
  A race row has broken out in Russian football after a banana was thrown at Congolese player Christopher Samba. It happened at the end of a game between Locomotive Moscow and Anzhi Makhachkala. Both clubs are now arguing over which set of fans were to blame.
  Reporter
  Alex Capstick
  
  
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  Christopher Samba signed for Anzhi Makhachkala last month from the English Premier side Blackburn Rovers. A banana landed at his feet after the match against Locomotive Moscow. The player tossed it back into the crowd, for which it's been suggested he could face disciplinary action.
  
  Meanwhile senior officials from the Moscow club have concluded that it was the visiting fans who were responsible for the incident. Anzhi responded by threatening legal action unless the allegations could be substantiated.
  
  Locomotive fans have been seen racially abusing a player before. In 2010, they unveiled a banner displaying a banana, saying: "Thanks West Brom", after the English side had signed the Nigerian striker Peter Odemwingie from the club.
  
  Domestic football in Russia has a reputation for racism. Shortly before the country won the right to stage the 2018 World Cup the Football Union said it was committed to tackling the issue

[negar92]

US healthcare on a knife edge

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27 March 2012
President Barack Obama's healthcare reforms reaches the Supreme Court this week, as the nine most senior judges in the land hear three days of argument over whether or not the reforms are constitutional. This is one of the biggest cases to come before the Supreme Court in recent times.
Reporter
Paul Adams


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Barack Obama's healthcare reforms, passed almost exactly two years ago, remain one of the most contentious aspects of his presidency. The bill was passedin the teeth of vociferous opposition from the Republican Party. Polls suggest that public opinion remains sharply divided.
A key provision that individual citizens should either buy health insurance or pay a penalty - the so-called individual mandate - has already been the subject ofnumerous legal challenges across the country. It was almost inevitable that the issue would ultimately reach the highest court in the land.
The nine justices who make up the Supreme Court, five of them regarded as conservatives, will spend a highly unusual three days hearing oral arguments. They'll issue their findings in the summer, just as this year's presidential election campaign swings into full gear. The impact on the campaign of a ruling on such an important political issue could be enormous

[negar92]

Are electric cars gaining ground?

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  26 March 2012
  Australia's first electric car charging station has opened in the city of Melbourne. It takes about five hours to charge each vehicle, but costs a fraction of the price of petrol. Those behind the project say it has huge potential to provide carbon neutral transport in Australia.
  Reporter
  Phil Mercer
  
  
  Report
  
  Australia, the world's largest exporter of coal, is addicted to fossil fuels, which generate most of its electricity and drives much of its transport system.
  In the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick, conservationists say a small but significant step has been taken towards a cleaner energy future.
  Australia's first solar power charging station for electric cars has been switched on. It takes up to 5 hours to fully replenish a battery that allows an average vehicle to travel about 150kms.
  As the technology improves, it's hoped that batteries could eventually be fully charged within half and hour.
  Environmentalists say that Australia has been slow to embrace electric cars compared to other countries because of what they describe as "serious cultural and political resistance" to change.
  Petrol prices recently hit US$1.60 a litre here. If those costs continue to rise then Australia's indifference to electric-powered vehicles could begin to change.

[negar92]

Living on another planet

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30 March 2012Scientists in Chile say a new study suggests there are billions of planets in our galaxy with conditions which could be capable of supporting life. Astronomers are working with technology known as High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher - or HARPS.
ReporterJason Palmer





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Thousands of years of astronomy spent wondering about potentially habitable planets in the universe and then 64 billion come along at once.
The discovery of new planets has in recent years become commonplace but most have been spotted by looking at changes in the light of their bright stars. Now we have a view into the smaller, darker red dwarfs that make up 80 percent of stars in our galaxy.
The HARPS team peered at a representative sample of stars estimating that 40% of the 160 billion red dwarfs in our galaxy has a super-Earth circling in theGoldilocks or habitable zone; that's where the temperature is just right for liquid water.
Astronomers are getting better at spotting smaller planets close to Earth's size and it seems that everywhere they look and in every way they look, planetsabound. There's still a long way to go to determine whether any of them has conditions suitable for life and a long way again to search for life itself.
But with billions of kitchens in which the ingredients of life might come together, it's ever more difficult to doubt that the recipe has been tried elsewhere

[negar92]

Swallowing the dictionary

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April Fools' Day 2012
A drug which could implant the entire vocabulary of a language into the taker's body is being trialled in the UK. If successful, it's predicted that mankind's centuries-long struggles with foreign language learning could be over in a gulp.
Reporter
James Hardbluster


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In the past, people who have used too many complicated words to get their messages across have been accused of swallowing the dictionary. Now, thanks to thepioneering work of scientists at the Linguistic Institute of Artificial Replication, it's become possible to eat - and then regurgitate - the whole of the English language.

The drug, called Verbumisol, triggers a chemical reaction in the brain which creates a stockpile of words. Electrical impulses are then fired directly at the larynx. The mucous membranes stretch causing the air modulation to realign according to the patterns of English pronunciation. Within an hour, a person with no knowledge of English, can produce the vocabulary of a native speaker.

Professor Leugenaar, who is in charge of the trial, demonstrates with a volunteer from Indonesia:

"Stephani here took this pill just 59 minutes ago, so she should be able to simply think in her own language yet produce perfect English when the clock hits 60 minutes. Please start Stephani."

L. I. A. R. claim this invention has the potential to change human history, end all wars, and put a stop to boring grammar lessons. However, critics of the drug say that it has some serious side effects, such as verbal diarrhoea, a tendency to talk endlessly about the weather and a habit of apologising for no reason.

[negar92]

Presidential plagiarism

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2 April 2012
The Hungarian President Pal Schmitt, has resigned after a university committee found that he had largely copied his 1992 doctoral thesis from the work of others. The report below was filed before resignation was announced.
Reporter
Nick Thorpe


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The allegations against President Schmitt began in January when a leading Hungarian weekly magazine, HVG, published what it said was clear proof that a large part of his 1992 doctoral thesis on the history of the Olympic games was a word-for-word translation of a work by a Bulgarian author.

President Schmitt is a well-respected former sportsman, who twice won Olympic medals in the Hungarian fencing team. He is also stalwart member of the governing Fidesz party, and was elected in 2010 for a 5-year term. An investigatory committee of the Budapest Semmelweis University confirmed that much of the thesis was copied, but criticised the former university authorities for failing to enforce sufficiently high standards.

Now the rector of the university has said he will begin proceedings tostrip the President of his honorary title of doctor. President Schmitt said that he had no intention of resigning. What happens next may depend on the degree of support he feels from his own party

[negar92]

Eurozone unemployment

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3 April 2012
Unemployment in countries which use the Euro – the Eurozone - has increased according to new official figures. Over 17 million people, or 10.8 per cent of the workforce were unemployed in February.
Reporter
Andrew Walker



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The new figures from the European Union's statistical agency show the Eurozone's persistent economic problems. Aggressive action by the European Central Bank - in the shape of a trillion Euro of three-year loans to the financial institutions - has certainly brought relative calm to the markets.

But parts of the wider economy are still struggling. The number of unemployed across the Eurozone is nearly one and a half million higher than a year ago.

There remains a striking divergence between the region's struggling countries and the more successful ones. Unemployment is below six per cent in Austria, the Netherlands and Germany, but over 20 per cent in Spain and Greece. In both the latter countries, the unemployment rate for young people is over 50 per cent.

A separate private-sector survey of managers in industry points to a continued decline in manufacturing production. That adds to evidence suggesting the Eurozone economy as a whole may have contracted in the first quarter of the year, as it did at the end of 2011. If that does turn out to be the case it would be arecession

[negar92]

Ageing populations

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  While Europe and Japan were among the first places to see their population ageing, the phenomenon is now occurring fastest in low and middle-income nations and WHO says the most dramatic changes are taking place in countries such as Cuba, Iran and Mongolia.
  This means that where in the past infections were considered the greatest challenge, now even in the poorest countries the biggest health burdensfor older people come from conditions such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, dementia and sight and hearing loss.
  WHO says present heath systems are poorly designed for the chronic care needs arising from this pattern of disease. The campaigning organisation HelpAge International welcomed the new focus on the impact of ageing but said the global community was still worryingly slow to act.
  HelpAge cited Ghana where it said nearly sixty per cent of older people suffer from high blood pressure often leading to strokes and heart attacks but only five per cent are able to control it through medication.