澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2010-04-13

State and territory leaders have held a telephone hook-up to discuss the Prime Minister's proposed health system overhaul¹. Kevin Rudd's offered the states and territories hundreds of millions of dollars extra for elective surgery, aged² care, and emergency departments. Some state leaders support the plan but others are still weighing their options. The group will meet again on Friday.

Nine people are dead and dozens have been injured in a train derailment in northern Italy. The train's carriages were hit with mud and heavy rocks when a burst irrigation pipe caused a landslide³. Seven people are in hospital with serious injuries.

Workers at the Reuters news agency have paid tribute to a colleague who was killed while covering the latest anti-government protests in Thailand. Hiro Muramoto is one of 21 people who died in street clashes on Saturday. Some of the last pictures from his camera have been released, showing the violence unfolding in Bangkok.

And a nuclear security summit has begun in Washington with an announcement that Ukraine has agreed to get rid of its highly enriched uranium. The White House has revealed that Ukraine's stocks of highly enriched uranium will be disposed of by 2012 while the former Soviet⁴ republic switching to low-grade enriched uranium to fuel its nuclear power industry.

1 overhaul   

v./n.大修，仔细检查

参考例句：

• Master Worker Wang is responsible for the overhaul of this grinder.王师傅主修这台磨床。
• It is generally appreciated that the rail network needs a complete overhaul.众所周知，铁路系统需要大检修。

2 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

3 landslide   

n.(竞选中)压倒多数的选票；一面倒的胜利

参考例句：

• Our candidate is predicated to win by a landslide.我们的候选人被预言将以绝对优势取胜。
• An electoral landslide put the Labour Party into power in 1945.1945年工党以压倒多数的胜利当选执政。

4 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。