澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2010-06-26

The G8 meeting has got underway in Canada with Britain and the US pushing other nations to live up to their aid promises. Leaders of the group of eight nations, the world's eight largest economies, have gathered in Toronto for the meeting. The G8 nations are currently short by an estimated 20 billion dollars on their 2005 pledge to raise combined aid significantly by this year.

The former chairman of Sundance Resources says the company may resume trade as early as next week. George Jones was brought in to advise the company after its entire six-person board was killed in a plane crash in the Congo last weekend. The company’s shares have been suspended from trading since the news of the crash.

US stocks have had mixed results on the back of news that a financial reform bill passed by Congress won’t slash¹ Wall Street's profits as severely² as expected. The Dow Jones closed down slightly. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ have both seen a bump in overnight trade.

The European markets have all closed down, the FTSE by just over a percent. The Australian dollar is up slightly against the greenback and the euro, and it's steady against the pound. And gold is up over 10 dollars an ounce and oil is steady.

And that's ABC Business News.

1 slash   

vi.大幅度削减；vt.猛砍，尖锐抨击，大幅减少；n.猛砍，斜线，长切口，衣衩

参考例句：

• The shop plans to slash fur prices after Spring Festival.该店计划在春节之后把皮货降价。
• Don't slash your horse in that cruel way.不要那样残忍地鞭打你的马。

2 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。