2006年VOA标准英语-Lebanon in 3 Days of Mourning for Pierre Gemaya

By Jim Bertel
Washington, D.C.
23 November 2006
 
watch Lebanon update

Lebanon is in the midst of three days of mourning for slain¹ Lebanese politician Pierre Gemayel, whose assassination² Tuesday could threaten the country's fragile democracy. The prominent politician was buried on Thursday. As VOA's Jim Bertel reports Tuesday's killing³ could have implications beyond Lebanon's borders.

Demonstrators hold aloft a poster of slain Lebanese cabinet minister Pierre Gemayal

World leaders are condemning⁴ the assassination of anti-Syrian Cabinet Minister Pierre Gemayal, who was gunned down Tuesday in a Beirut suburb. Amr Moussa, the Secretary of the Arab League, expressed his sorrow at the killing and joined other world leaders in appealing to the Lebanese people for calm. Anti-Syrian Lebanese leaders are blaming Syria for the attack. Syria has denied any involvement.

The United States called the killing an act of terrorism and intimidation⁵ against Lebanon's elected government.  On Wednesday President Bush phoned Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora  and pledged to support Lebanese independence from, what the White House called, the encroachments of Iran and Syria. But the president stopped short of blaming either government for the killing.

Gemayal's death only deepens the political crisis surrounding Lebanon's government, which was severely⁶ weakened after the month-long war between Hezbollah and Israel in southern Lebanon earlier this year.

Fawaz Gerges, a Middle East scholar at Sarah Lawrence College in the eastern state of New York believes Tuesday's attack was an attempt to further destabilize Lebanon's fragile democracy.  "The killing of Pierre Gemayal pours gasoline on an already raging fire. And it puts Lebanon that much closer to a major civil war."

But Michael O'Hanlon, a foreign policy expert at The Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, says rather than being a decisive turning point, it is just one more sign of how troubled Lebanon is.

"That means we obviously have to work to help it recover economically from the summer war. It also means we have to keep pressuring Syria to keep its hands off [Lebanon]. I'm not sure we have any ability to stop that but we should certainly be supporting intelligence efforts to try to figure out Syria's role and then hold them accountable if they are in fact guilty. Those are the sorts of policy tools we have,” said O’Hanlon. “But they are really the same ones we would have been thinking of using, or should have been thinking of using, even last week before this assassination."

Gemayel's killing comes amid a power struggle between Prime Minister Siniora's government and pro-Syrian factions⁷ led by Hezbollah over a U.N.-backed tribunal to investigate the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The Bush administration says it will seek to add Gemayel's murder to the list of cases to be prosecuted⁸ by the tribunal. 

1 slain   

杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词)

参考例句：

• The soldiers slain in the battle were burried that night. 在那天夜晚埋葬了在战斗中牺牲了的战士。
• His boy was dead, slain by the hand of the false Amulius. 他的儿子被奸诈的阿缪利乌斯杀死了。

2 assassination   

n.暗杀；暗杀事件

参考例句：

• The assassination of the president brought matters to a head.总统遭暗杀使事态到了严重关头。
• Lincoln's assassination in 1865 shocked the whole nation.1865年，林肯遇刺事件震惊全美国。

3 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

4 condemning   

v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的现在分词 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地

参考例句：

• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。
• I concur with the speaker in condemning what has been done. 我同意发言者对所做的事加以谴责。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

5 intimidation   

n.恐吓，威胁

参考例句：

• The Opposition alleged voter intimidation by the army.反对党声称投票者受到军方的恐吓。
• The gang silenced witnesses by intimidation.恶帮用恐吓的手段使得证人不敢说话。

6 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。

7 factions   

组织中的小派别，派系( faction的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gens also lives on in the "factions." 氏族此外还继续存在于“factions〔“帮”〕中。 来自英汉非文学 - 家庭、私有制和国家的起源
• rival factions within the administration 政府中的对立派别

8 prosecuted   

a.被起诉的

参考例句：

• The editors are being prosecuted for obscenity. 编辑因刊载污秽文字而被起诉。
• The company was prosecuted for breaching the Health and Safety Act. 这家公司被控违反《卫生安全条例》。