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Leaders of Libya's uprising were in Paris Thursday with delegates from 60 countries and world bodies to discuss a roadmap for Libya's humanitarian, political and economic future, even as ex-leader Moammar Gadhafi, in hiding, vowed to fight on. Thursday marked 42 years since Moammar Gadhafi took power in Libya. But with the longtime ruler now on the run - in an audio message aired Thursday he promised no surrender - world backers of the uprising against him met to plan rebuilding the country along new lines. The meeting on Libya is hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. They were joined by dignitaries from around the world, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Speaking in Paris before the conference, Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said it shows that the world is coming together to support Libya's future. "The other thing of course that it provides today - that the conference provides - is an opportunity for the National Transitional Council to set out their plans for the stabilization of Libya and then what they do politically to create a democratic and inclusive Libya," noted Hague. The "Friends of Libya" conference gives the National Transitional Council (NTC) an international platform. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told reporters that it is important to have confidence in the NTC leadership. Juppe said that the international community didn't intervene in Libya for it to fall into another regime that wouldn't respect the fundamental rights of the Libyan people. The NTC is set to push for access to billions of dollars in foreign-held Libyan assets, which were frozen while Gadhafi held power. The United States, Britain, and France have already been granted permission by the U.N. sanctions committee to unfreeze billions of dollars. The NTC was also set to lay out plans for a new constitution and elections. Nicola Pratt, an expert on the international politics of the Middle East at Warwick University in Britain, says the platform that Thursday's conference provides for the NTC is important. "The council needs financial support desperately in order to start providing basic services, to pay civil servants, to start generally rebuilding the economy," noted Pratt. "So this is a crucial period. If the NTC doesn't manage to do these things quickly then it definitely will suffer from a lack of legitimacy." But she says the importance of the conference is largely symbolic. She says much of the wrangling will take place in the corridors as countries jostle for post-war contracts over infrastructure, utilities, and oil. "There is going to be some competition between those countries that have played a role in helping to get rid of Gadhafi feeling some sort of entitlement now that Gadhafi is gone and this reconstruction process is going to begin," added Pratt. On Thursday, just ahead of the conference, Russia recognized the National Transitional Council as Libya's acting leadership. But a number of countries around the world, including some in the African Union, have not recognized the NTC as Libya's legitimate government. 共有0人向本资料提供了听力原文，其中被采用了0篇，当前有0篇待审批，有0篇未被采用！ 查看明细>> 如果您有更好的听力原文，欢迎提供给大耳朵，如果被采用，您将获得20到100 3 Spain's Labor Ministry says the number of people filing claims for unemployment benefits rose in August, bringing the total to 4.13 million. European governments, like many around the world, are struggling to bolster economic growth while containing major public deficits. 录音内容：The number claiming unemployment benefits in Spain went up by more than 50,000 last month. Spain's Labor Ministry says the hike is typical of the month of August but, nonetheless, discouraging. "Spain has the largest unemployment rate in the euro area and one of the largest unemployment rates in the world," noted Javier Diaz-Gimenez, professor of economics at the IESE Business School in Madrid. "In fact, our employment rate currently is about twice the euro area average and about three times the unemployment rate in Germany." Spain's unemployment rate is more than 20 percent. For those under the age of 25, it is more than 45 percent. But economic growth does not appear to be on the horizon. Spain, like a number of European nations, is struggling with a major public deficit. Greece, Portugal and Ireland have already had to borrow money from their euro neighbors in order to avoid defaulting on their debts. It has not yet come to that in Spain, and its lawmakers want to keep it that way. On Friday, the lower house of parliament approved an amendment to the constitution that will force the government to keep its deficit low in the future. The legislation is now set to go to parliament's upper house. The controversial move is aimed at calming investor fears over Spain's public finances. Diaz-Gimenez says controlling sovereign debt means hikes in taxes and cuts in public spending, policies that do little to stimulate economic growth. "Policymakers in Spain face this hard choice between growth and budget stability, and they are choosing budget stability because it is the lesser of the two evils," added Diaz-Gimenez. Governments across Europe and beyond are facing a similar conundrum. In Italy, economic experts from around the world gathered for the annual Ambrosetti Economy Forum on Friday. Worries about recession and slow growth opened the talks, with New York University economist Nouriel Roubini warning of a "significant probability" of a double-dip recession. Speaking from the conference, Harvard University Economics Professor Martin Feldstein says the outlook in the United States and across much of Europe is grim, not to mention Spain. "The numbers that we've seen recently for the U.S. on manufacturing, on construction, on consumers' sentiment tell me that the odds have gotten much greater, that the U.S. is going to continue to decline, and that we are going to be in a formal recession before the end of the year," Feldstein noted. "In Europe, again I don't think you can talk about a single outlook for Europe. Germany is strong, Greece is in terrible shape, Spain has 20-plus percent unemployment. So some of the countries are already in economic downturn here in Europe." The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday that nonfarm payroll employment was unchanged in August, keeping the unemployment rate at 9.1 percent. 14 million Americans are out of work. 共有1人向本资料提供了听力原文，其中被采用了0篇，当前有0篇待审批，有1篇未被采用！ 查看明细>> 如果您有更好的听力原文，欢迎提供给大耳朵，如果被采用，您将获得20到100金币的奖励！ • • 5 U.S. job growth ground to a halt in August as government layoffs erased meager gains in the private sector. The Labor Department says American businesses added only 17,000 jobs last month, far short of the 100,000 jobs analysts were expecting. To make matters worse, cuts in state and federal employment offset those gains. The net result - zero jobs added in August. 录音原文：The outlook for unemployed Americans remains dim following the weakest employment report in nearly one year. Analysts say a two-week strike by a major wireless phone company may have skewed the numbers. But even with the national unemployment rate holding steady at 9.1 percent, James Bianco at Bianco Research said there is little good news in the latest government report. "Even if you account for the Verizon strike, which was 48,000 workers, and sort of added that back in, it's still not a good number. It paints an economy that is decelerating and it paints a job market that continues to slow dramatically over the summer," said Bianco. U.S. stocks fell on the weak jobs report - as did nervous markets from Asia to Europe. In Italy, where top economic experts gathered Friday to talk about the prospects of a global recovery, the assessments were predictably grim. Nouriel Roubini, an economics professor at New York University, said, "I do not expect a global recession, I do not expect a recession in fast-growing emerging markets, but the economic data from the United States, from most of the eurozone, from the United Kingdom, suggests that we may have an economic contraction." Economists say slow growth in the U.S. and the debt crisis in Europe has dramatically increased the chances of another painful downturn. That puts even greater pressure on Washington, where President Barack Obama will announce a major jobs initiative on Thursday, September 8 before a joint session of Congress. Gene Sperling, director of the White House National Economic Council, said the president's proposals are significant and deserve bipartisan support. "People will see that in the areas he discusses, on tax cuts for workers and small businesses, strategies for the unemployed, jobs to rebuilding America, that these are the types of things that have been historically deserving of bipartisan support," said Sperling. "And we're going to hope very much, and he's going to urge Congress very much, to put partisanship and politics to the side, and put the economy and workers to the front." With a general election just 15 months away, investors are not feeling very optimistic. 共有0人向本资料提供了听力原文，其中被采用了0篇，当前有0篇待审批，有0篇未被采用！ 查看明细>> 如果您有更好的听力原文，欢迎提供给大耳朵，如果 7 Fighters for Libya's provisional authorities say they have surrounded key areas still held by forces loyal to ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi. At a checkpoint north of Bani Walid, there appears to be a lull before any storm. Forces loyal to the National Transitional Council are poised at this Gadhafi-held town south of the capital. There is confusion about what lies ahead: local commanders speak of deadlines both short and long, some passing without notice. NTC fighter Renai Moqtar Renai, manning a checkpoint north of the town, says he's following the orders of his political leaders. He said the council has given the town more time - until next Saturday. In the meantime, there have been on and off negotiations with tribal leaders in Bani Walid. Hopes are high there will be a peaceful resolution. 6 Mohamed Abdel Khadr lives outside Tarhouna, north of the flashpoint. He said there's been enough bloodshed, with a huge number of Libya's youth killed, both civilian and military. The fighters at the checkpoints north of the town appear happy for this lull. After months of fighting, they're finally finding time to rest and pray. Some gather wood for a fire; they've bought a sheep, which will become a hearty meal. But their appetite for battle is waning. An adviser to the forces, who didn't want to give his name, explained the fighters have a personal stake in a peaceful outcome. He said most of the fighters are from Bani Walid, returning here to make sure they enter peacefully. He added they will only point guns at those who want to kill, and prays that as many lives as possible will be saved. For fighters like Renai, as much as he'd like to see a surrender, he's ready if there's not one. He said they are waiting until Saturday. If nothing happens, they are ready to go in and fight. 共有0人向本资料提供了听力原文，其中被采用了0篇，当前有0篇待审批，有0篇未被采用！ 查看明细>> 如果您有更好的听力原文，欢迎提供给大耳朵，如 Humanitarian agencies say the condition of newly-arrived Somali refugees at camps in Ethiopia is deteriorating as famine spreads inside Somalia. At the Hilaweyn camp along the Somalia-Ethiopia border, more than half the newly-arrived children are suffering from malnutrition. Thirty children cling to life at the emergency ward of the Doctors Without Borders clinic at Hilaweyn Camp. Eight died of severe malnutrition last week, and 80 more new cases show up at the door each morning. Hilaweyn was just opened a month ago to handle the overflow from three other camps at Dollo Ado, a sprawling complex holding more than 120,000 refugees from Somalia’s famine zone. Hilaweyn’s emergency coordinator Voitek Asztabski says these recent arrivals are in worse shape than those who came earlier. "They are chronically malnourished. The journey itself lasts for days or weeks. It’s a tremendous effort for them to cross and come to this place here. And they are not getting stronger during the walk, they are getting weaker, so that’s why what we observe is over 50 percent of malnourished kids below five years old that cross the border are malnourished," he said. Asztabski says 1,800 children, or nearly half those under the age of five, are in the camp’s nutritional assistance program. The United Nations refugee agency says the flow of refugees into Dollo Ado was more than 2,000 a day at its peak. Now the flow has dried to a trickle. But agency spokeswoman Laura Padoan says the latest group of refugees is showing symptoms of a variety of malnutrition-related diseases. "You can hear a lot of coughing, there’s a lot of children here that have upper respirtory infections, many of them been staying outside while traveling to Ethiopia, haven’t had shelter, so some arrive with pneumonia, but the main issue is malnutrition because they’ve been forced to flee because of the drought and the famine," she said. The United Nations announced Monday that famine has spread to a sixth region in Somalia, and warned that 750,000 people could die unless relief operations are scaled up. Doctors Without Borders’ Voitek Asztabski says the hardship of working in the windswept desert of Hilaweyn Camp is offset by the knowledge that lives are being saved here. But humanitarian workers say much more is urgently needed to head off a looming catastrophe over the next six to 12 months, and maybe longer if the rains in Somalia fail again. 共有0人向本资料提供了听力原文，其中被采用了0篇，当前有0篇待审批，有0篇未被采用！ 查看明细>> 如果您有更好的听力原文，欢迎提供给大耳朵，如果被采用，您将获得 8 One of America's oldest institutions, the U.S. Postal Service, is teetering on the edge of default and must be radically restructured. That, according to the postmaster general, who spoke on Capitol Hill Tuesday. The mail service Americans have known for generations is losing billions of dollars a year, as handwritten communication has all but disappeared - replaced by emails, text messages, and social-media - and billing and other commercial transactions are increasingly conducted over the Internet. The changing technological landscape has left the regular mail service, what many Americans now refer to as "snail mail," in dire financial straits. U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. "The Postal Service is at the brink of default," said Donahoe. "Without the enactment of comprehensive legislation by September 30, the Postal Service will default on a mandated $5.5 billion payment to the Treasury to pre-fund retirement retiree health benefits. Our situation is urgent." The Postal Service is seeking congressional authorization to cut costs and curtail services, including eliminating hundreds of thousands of postal jobs, changing health care and retirement programs for postal workers, consolidating post offices, and ending Saturday mail delivery across the country. "The Postal Service requires radical changes to its business model if it to remain viable into the future," added Donahoe. "The Postal Service is in a crisis today because it operates with a restricted business model. As a self-financing entity that depends on the sale of postage for its revenues, the Postal Service requires the ability to operate more as a business does." Fighting the proposed changes is the American Postal Workers Union, whose president, Cliff Guffey, has blasted proposed changes as a "reckless assault on the Postal Service and its employees." He has also said that "crushing postal workers and slashing service will not solve the Postal Service's financial crisis." But change is needed, according to the committee's chairman, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. "We must act quickly to prevent a Postal Service collapse, and enact a bold plan to secure its future," said Lieberman. "The U.S. Postal Service is not an 18th Century relic. It is a great 21st Century national asset. But times are changing rapidly now, and so too must the Postal Service if it is to survive." The U.S. Postal Service is a semi-autonomous federal entity, mandated by law to be revenue neutral. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have put forth proposals to reform it and ensure its solvency. Americans learn of the Postal Service from an early age. Every year before Christmas, it receives an avalanche of letters from youngsters addressed to Santa Claus. It remains the preferred means to send greeting cards, wedding invitations, and other personalized or formal communication, as well as magazines and other periodicals and printed advertisements. Despite reduced mail flow, the Postal Service continues to deliver more than half a billion pieces of mail a day. 共有0人向本资料提供了听力原文，其中被采用了0篇，当前有0篇待审批，有0篇未被采用！ 查看明细>> 如果您有更好的听力原文，欢迎提供给大耳朵， 9 Agricultural experts from the G20 countries will meet next week to find ways to match the latest research and technology to the growing demand for more food. It’s estimated the world’s population will grow to nine billion by 2050. The meeting in Montpellier, France, stems from last November’s G20 summit in Seoul, South Korea. During that conference, France, Japan, Canada and Brazil were asked to focus more on food security. For guidance, they called on U.N. agencies, the World Bank, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, known as CGIAR, and the Global Forum on Agricultural Research, or GFAR. “It’s increasing the cooperation and coordination amongst the G20 and their agricultural research systems and how those are mobilized better into working directly in support of developing country needs,” said Mark Holderness, executive secretary of GFAR. That coordination and cooperation includes looking at long-term solutions and not just immediate crises, like the drought in the Horn of Africa. “In two days we’re not going to change the world,” he said, “But I think what we can do is start to look at some innovative ways to work together to really recognize the new architecture that’s out there and the relationships between countries, the capabilities of countries. Start to tap Brazil, China, India. They all have huge capabilities in their own right and they’re just beginning to reach out and mobilize those for other countries.” Fresh look Holderness said the goal is to turn the current food production and security system on its head – and take a fresh look at the role of research. “Fundamentally, who are its clients' Its clients are the farmers. The products of research should be serving the needs, in particular, of the poor farmers. Helping to lift them from poverty, to sustain their productive environments, to enable food security needs to be met, while also ensuring rural development,” he said. Too often, he said, advances in research take priority over actually using those advances to help farmers. “We’re trying to bring back that connectedness between society and research, to put it crudely.” BRIC Brazil, Russia, India and China make up what are called the BRIC countries – an acronym made of the first letters of their names. Their strong, emerging economies are expected to play a major role in meeting food security needs. Holderness said China’s agricultural production underpins its industrial revolution. “China has put a massive increase in investment in their research and development in agriculture. And at the same time, their farming population has changed radically as young men, in particular, go to the cities to work in the factories and the industrial advance. The countryside is increasingly becoming an area where the farmers are now the women, the older people. And that in itself carries implications for ability to take up new opportunities or to make incomes from that,” he said. In sub-Saharan Africa, women are also the backbone of the agricultural sector. BRIC countries are also expected to become major providers of fundamental agricultural research, joining the U.S., Europe and Japan. Holderness says that knowledge becomes crucial with the world population expected to reach nine billion in less than 40 years. That in itself carries huge implications for increased food production in particular from developing countries. Research doesn’t happen overnight. New knowledge doesn’t just happen. It’s an iterative process of learning, building on previous knowledge and so on. And if we don’t start asking the questions now about what kind of agriculture we’re going to need then to feed that population, to ensure that farmers have a viable livelihood, to ensure that environments are still able to produce that much, then frankly we’re letting not just ourselves down as researchers, but we’re letting the world down,” he said. Time to act In recent years, G8 and G20 nations have called for greater investment in smallholder farmers and herders in Africa and Asia. Both groups were hit hard by recent food crises triggered in part by higher fuel and commodity prices, biofuel production and climate change. The executive secretary of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research says the G20 meeting must produce action and not more words about what needs to be done. “Let’s start putting something on the table,” Holderness said, “What are we going to commit to make happen' Even if it’s small-scale to start with, what can we see that we need to do and that we need to build these processes towards'” G20 agricultural experts will meet September 12 and 13. 共有0人向本资料提供了听力原文，其中被采用了0篇，当前有0篇待审批，有0篇未被采用！ 查看明细>> 如果您有更好的听力原文，欢迎提供给大耳朵， 14 In Libya, forces opposed to former leader Moammar Gadhafi, backed by NATO air strikes, continued their attacks Tuesday on the Gadhafi strongholds of Sirte and Bani Walid. The fighting came as the leader of the National Transitional Council pledged to build a moderate Islamic state and urged his countrymen to seek reconciliation. Libya's National Transitional Council on Tuesday reaffirmed its commitment to human rights and pledged to investigate abuses by its fighters against supporters of ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi. In a statement issued in Tripoli, the council said it is committed to upholding the rule of law and is trying to bring under its authority the varied armed groups that are fighting Mr. Gadhafi. The statement was in response to a report issued Monday by the human rights group, Amnesty International. The report said pro-Gadhafi forces had committed widespread war crimes during the six months of fighting. But it also said it had uncovered evidence of abuses by anti-Gadhafi forces, including mass killings of prisoners, torture, disappearances and arbitrary arrests. Amnesty added that many of these attacks had been carried out against foreigners from sub-Saharan African countries whom it said made up more than one-third of those held in detention centers in Tripoli and nearby Zawiya. It said many were accused of being mercenaries but it suspected that most were migrant workers. The head of Libya's National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, called on Libyans to build a state that respected the rule of law. Jalil says the nation must work for the abolishment of hatred and of jealousy and he urged Libyans to avoid revenge and oppression. Jalil was speaking to the nation on Monday night for the first time since arriving in Tripoli Saturday. It was his first visit since anti-Gadhafi forces took control of the capital nearly three weeks ago. He said Libya is a Muslim nation that follows a moderate Islam and he intends to maintain this. Libya's new leaders came to power pledging to form a modern, democratic state. But they reportedly have come under pressure from Islamist militants as well as from regional political leaders and commanders of the various fighting forces that helped remove Gadhafi from power. 共有0人向本资料提供了听力原文，其中被采用了0篇，当前有0篇待审批，有0篇未被采用！ 查看明细>> 如果您有更好的听力原文，欢迎提供给大耳朵，如果被 15 For the third time in a week, President Barack Obama is campaigning for his jobs plan in a state that could be crucial to his re-election effort. Meanwhile, a new poll shows that more than half of Americans do not think the plan will help reduce unemployment. President Obama took his economic message to the southern state of North Carolina. At North Carolina State University in Raleigh, the president again urged his audience to contact their lawmakers and express their support for his jobs initiative. "We have got to kick off our bedroom slippers and put on our marching shoes," said Obama. "We have got to get to work." Obama's $447-billion program is intended to boost growth in the sluggish U.S. economy and to reduce the 9.1-percent unemployment rate. The president faces opposition from Republicans and some Democrats in Congress to his plan to raise taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations to pay for some of the initiatives. In Raleigh, Obama called for citizens to back the plan. "Do you want to keep tax loopholes for oil companies or do you want to renovate more schools and rebuild more roads and bridges so construction workers have jobs again'" he asked. Republicans on Capitol Hill have said they may support some parts of the American Jobs Act, but not all of it. White House officials say the president will sign whatever parts are passed, but will continue campaigning for passage of the entire package. North Carolina has been identified as one of the states where next year's presidential election could be decided. Obama's previous jobs speeches were in two other battleground states, Ohio and Virginia. Unemployment in North Carolina is 10.1 percent, one point above the national average. New public-opinion polls indicate the president faces more trouble nationwide. A recent Bloomberg poll shows that more than half of Americans (51%) doubt Obama's jobs plan will ease unemployment. According to the survey, 62 percent of Americans disapprove of the president's handling of the economy, and his overall job approval rating is at an all-time low of 45 percent. But a new CNN poll shows that more people approve of Obama's jobs plan than disapprove (43% vs 35%). And it says that on economic matters, more Americans trust the president than Congress. But the CNN survey says the president's overall disapproval rating has reached a new high with more than 70 percent surveyed saying the country is heading in the wrong direction. Only 36 percent like his handling of the economy. Congress' approval rating is even worse, moving down to 15 percent. 共有0人向本资料提供了听力原文，其中被采用了0篇，当前有0篇待审批，有0篇未被采用！ 查看明细>> 如果您有更好的听力原文，欢迎提供给大耳 16 Top Indian officials say they need to prepare for terrorism threats that may arise both within and outside the country. Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday described recent terror attacks on Indian soil as a "blot" on the government, and said more needs to be done to prevent them in the future. "The challenge of terrorism is a formidable challenge, and requires a comprehensive strategy of counterterrorism," he said. Fourteen people were killed in last week's bomb explosion outside a Delhi high court. In July, three back-to-back bomb blasts in busy sections of the financial capital, Mumbai, killed 20. Chidambaram told a conference of senior law enforcers and security personnel that Pakistan and Afghanistan remain "the epicenter of terror," but that India must also take seriously threats from within. "There are Indian modules too," he said. "They seem to have the capacity attract radicalized youths to their folds... many of these modules have acquired the capacity to make bombs." Chidambaram defended the record of Indian police, saying there were only 11 unsolved terror cases out of 48 since 2000. However, he said more must be done to charge and convict terrorists. Experts say India's police force is understaffed and underequipped, and that hundreds of thousands more police personnel need to hired and trained. Ajit Dhoval, former director of the Intelligence Bureau, India's domestic intelligence agency, describes terrorists inside India as an "invisible enemy." "Today it is more of a surreptitious, secret actions like planting some improvised explosive devices somewhere," Dhoval said. "And for that, if you have got more precise ground intelligence and operational intelligence... it is not as much a game of numbers, as better intelligence, which is the most important thing." Dhoval also said it is critical for India's counterterrorist forces to have people operating as closely as possible to the groups they are tracking. "For human intelligence to be effective, the people who tell you should be more knowledgeable, and if possible, they should be very close to them," Dhoval said. India established its National Investigative Agency, or NIA, after the Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008, during which gunmen killed 164 people. It is working towards integrating more than a dozen databases into a single consolidated system called the National Intelligence Grid in order to track the movements of suspected terrorists more effectively.