Unit 2 World News: International Relations
Part I Warming up
1. What is the summit's statement expected to call on UN members?
To make commitments to eradicate poverty, promote democracy and education, and reverse the spread of AIDS
How many heads-of-state attended the summit? More than 150
2. What has the former American Defense Secretary William Perry recommended?
A radical change of policy towards North Korea, from undermining to co-existing
3. Which three countries are admitted by ASEAN on Saturday?
Burma, Cambodia, and the Laos
4. What is the purpose of "Million Mom March"?
To push for tougher gun control laws
5. What happened inside the Macedonian border with Kosovo?
There's been further fighting between Macedonian forces and Ethnic Albanian guerrillas.
6. What happened on Friday about ten miles south of Pearl Harbor?
A U. S. nuclear submarine tore through a Japanese fishing vessel, sinking it within minutes.
How many people were on the vessel? And how many were missing? 35/9
7. How many casualties were there in the U.S. navy's bombing in Kuwait?
Killed: 5 Americans + 1 from New Zealand
Injured: 5 Americans
8. What happened in the West Bank and Gaza?
Gun battles between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen have been raiding overnight.
9. What is NATO trying to do?
To allay growing disquiet about the possible health risks from ammunitions containing depleted uranium
How many former peacekeeping soldiers are reported to have died from cancer?
About 20
10. What are the problems with the nuclear facilities and nuclear plants in Japan?
Nuclear facilities. Some have breached many health and safety laws.
Nuclear plants: More than half failed some basic tests, such as checking radiation measurements.
Tapescript:
1. With the final declaration on its role in the 21st century, the summit's statement is expected to call on UN members to make commitments to eradicate poverty, promote democracy and education, and reverse the spread of AIDS. More than 150 heads of state and government attended the summit, the largest gathering of world leaders in history.
2. The former American Defense Secretary William Perry has recommended a radical change of policy towards North Korea. In the State Department policy review he said the United States and its allies should try to co-exist with North Korea rather than undermine it.
3. The Association of South-East Asian Nations has decided to invite Burma to join its ranks, shrugging off western denunciations of the military regime in Rangoon. ASEAN foreign ministers voted on Saturday to admit Burma, Cambodia, and the Laos.
4. Hundreds of thousands of mothers from across the United States gathered here in Washington Sunday to push for tougher gun control laws. Organizers of the so-called "Million Mom March" are hoping to harness growing outrage at the number of children killed by handguns in the United States.
5. There's been further fighting between Macedonian forces and Ethnic Albanian guerrillas inside the Macedonian border with Kosovo. The fighting followed an earlier clash in which guerrillas ambushed a police patrol in Macedonia killing one policeman.
6. The missing, four of them teenagers, were among 35 people aboard a high school fishing vessel from Japan. On Friday, a U.S. nuclear submarine tore through the ship, sinking it within minutes. The USS Greenville, which was not seriously damaged, was performing an emergency surfacing drill when the collision occurred about ten miles south of Pearl Harbor. Coast Guard rescue teams plucked all but nine of the victims from the rough seas.
7. A bomb dropped by the United State's navy aircraft during training in Kuwait has hit a group of military observers, killing six of them. Five of the dead were American, the sixth was a special force's major from New Zealand. The 500pound bomb landed near an observation post during a live-firing training exercise in the desert. It was dark at the time. Five other American military personnel were injured.
8. Gun battles between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunman have been raiding overnight in the West Bank and Gaza. The upsurge in violence comes after Israeli attack helicopters targeted and killed a member of an elite Palestinian security force.
9. NATO is taking a number of steps to allay growing disquiet about the possible health risks from ammunitions containing depleted uranium, which it used in Kosovo and Bosnia. A special committee will be set up to handle the issue. About 20 former peacekeeping soldiers are reported to have died from cancer after serving in Kosovo or Bosnia.
10. Some nuclear facilities in Japan have breached many health and safety laws. Government inspectors checked 17 nuclear plants. More than half of them failed some basic tests, such as checking radiation measurements. Japanese nuclear regulators have been ordered to crack down following the country's worst nuclear accident in September. Sixty-nine people were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation in the accident.
Part II News reports
Summary:
This news report tells us that the United Nations General Assembly has elected Columbia, Ireland, Mauritius, Norway and Singapore as its new non-permanent members of the Security Council.
Statements:
1. Columbia, Ireland, and Singapore won their seats as nonpermanent members of the Security Council on the first round of balloting while Mauritius and Norway won their seats on the fourth ballot.
2. Sudan and Mauritius are two candidates of the Organization of African Unity.
3. There were three countries contending for the two seats allotted to the western industrialized group of nations.
4. The Security Council is made up of 15 members, including five permanent members -- China, France, Great Britain, Russia, and the United States--and 10 non-permanent members.
Tapescript:
The United Nations General Assembly has elected' Columbia, Ireland, Mauritius, Norway and Singapore as the new non-permanent members of the Security Council. The vote follows several weeks of haggling and maneuvering.
Columbia, Ireland, and Singapore won the required two thirds majority on the first round of balloting. But it took another three rounds of voting to decide on the remaining two regional seats.
Contention marked the voting for the second seat for the African and Asian group. The United States lobbied intensely against Sudan, the candidate of the Organization of African Unity. Mauritius, the candidate supported by Washington, won on the fourth round of voting.
Ireland easily captured one of the two seats allotted to the western industrialized group of nations on the first ballot. But Norway and Italy campaigned vigorously for the second spot. King Harald of Norway came to New York last week to press the case for his nation's representation on the Security Council for the first time since 1982. Norway also won on the fourth ballot. The new members begin their two-year terms in January. The Security Council is made up of a total of 15 members, including five permanent members -- China, France, Great Britain, Russia, and the United States -- and 10 non-permanent members. Five non-permanent members are elected to two-year terms each year.
Summary
This news report is about Mr. Annan's view on the change of the nature of UN peacekeeping missions.
A New Peacekeeping Unit
Name: High Readiness Brigade
Countries involved. Austria, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland
Purpose: To provide credible and effective peacekeeping troops
Reasons for the setting up of this unit: Some critics of UN peacekeeping missions have said the troops Often take too long to arrive and are often of insufficient number to do the job.
Tapescript:
Mr. Annan says the nature of UN peacekeeping missions has changed in recent years from trying to end fighting between nations to attempts to end more complicated armed conflicts within nations.
"We are rarely faced with inter-state violence any more. But, in truth, we are rarely dealing with Irately internal conflicts either. Rather, conflicts today are often a complex mix of the two. Their roots may be essentially internal, but they are complicated by cross-border involvement, either by state or non-state factors.'
Mr. Annan spoke to a meeting of representatives of 20 nations that have committed a portion of their armed forces to be available for immediate deployment in UN peacekeeping operations anywhere in the world. Defense ministers from five of the nations that are participating in the so-called "High Readiness Brigade," including Austria, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and Poland, were present at the meeting.
Some critics of UN peacekeeping missions have said the troops often take too long to arrive and that when they do, are often of insufficient number to do the job. The UN Secretary General says the High Readiness Brigade is essential in providing credible and effective peacekeeping troops.
"If we show up looking small and weak, we are inviting trouble and I think we have learned that. If, on the other hand, if we arrive quickly with strength and obvious determination, we will invite and earn respect."
Mr. Annan says the nations that are participating in the standby brigade are making a major contribution to the military capacity of future UN peacekeeping missions.
C
Summary:
This news report tells us that the United Nations Human Rights Commission was going to hold an emergency meeting to deal with the crisis situation between Israelis and Palestinians.
Answers to the questions:
1. 53
2. 48
3.3
4. The United States
5. Canada
6. October 18th
7. No more than three days
8. To get the Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table
9. 4 / Bosnian war / genocide in Rwanda / violence in East Timor
Tapescript:
Forty-eight of the ( United Nations Human Rights Commission's) 53 member nations voted to hold the emergency meeting. The United States cast the sole dissenting vote and Canada abstained. Three other countries did not vote.
The special meeting will begin October 18th and will last for no more than three days.
UN spokeswoman Marie Heuze says one purpose of the meeting is to try to learn how the cycle of violence between Israelis and Palestinians can be stopped.
"When you have such a high-profile for a crisis which is so dangerous, not only for the people in Palestine and in Israel, but in the region, there is a fear -- and this is probably why there was a large consensus on this meeting to discuss the issue -- because the situation in this part of the world is so volatile, so dangerous, so important to control that everybody thinks that they have something to contribute."
Ms Heuze says she thinks the United Nations and the international community as a whole can play a constructive role in the present situation and in trying to get the Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table. Officials from the UN Human Rights Commission will discuss the agenda toward the meeting on Wednesday.
This is only the fifth time the commission has gone into emergency meeting to deal with a crisis situation. Previous sessions dealt with the Bosnian war, the genocide in Rwanda, and the violence in East Timor.
Questions:
1. How many members are there in the UN Human Rights Commission?
2. How many of them voted to hold the emergency meeting?
3. How many of them didn't vote?
4. Which country cast the dissenting vote?
5. Which country abstained?
6. When will the meeting begin?
7. How long will it last?
8. What's the purpose of this meeting?
9. How many emergency meetings have been held before this one?
What were the three crisis situations that they dealt with?
Part III Speeches
Extract 1 (expressing an opinion): I believe that... I believe we should...
Extract 2 (paying a tribute): He said to those he touched and who sought to touch him ...
Extract 3 (expressing an opinion) -- I have a dream...
Extract 4 (expressing an opinion). America needs a full-time President and a full-time Congress.
Extract 5 (informing): Today... I am meeting with ... to talk about...
Extract 6 (accepting a post): I am profoundly grateful ... for giving me the chance to serve you.
(making a promise) = I will do everything I can to be worthy of ... I promise you ... that I will ...
Tapescript:
1. I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult, or expensive to accomplish... But, in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon. If we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation ... I believe we should go to the moon. (John F. Kennedy 25/05/1961)
2. As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: "Some men see things as they are and say 'Why?' I dream things that never were and say 'Why not?'" (Edward M. Kennedy 08/06/1968)
3. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day, even the State of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. (Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. 28/08/1963)
4. America needs a full-time President and a full-time Congress. Particularly at this time, with problems we face at home and abroad. To continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the President and the Congress in a period when our entire focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and prosperity without inflation at home. (Richard M. Nixon 08/08/1974)
5. Today in Beijing I am meeting with China's leaders to talk about the future of our two countries and a relationship between us that is essential to a peaceful, stable, and prosperous world in the next century. We talked about the United States and China's mutual interests --promoting peace in Korea; preventing a nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan; restoring economic stability in Asia; stopping the spread of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them; combating international crime and drug trafficking; preserving the environment; and opening trade. (Bill Clinton 27/06/1998)
6. Thank you for opening up your minds and your hearts, for seeing the possibility of what we could do together for our children and for our future here in this state and in our nation. I am profoundly grateful to all of you for giving me the chance to serve you. I will... I will do everything I can to be worthy of your faith and trust and to honor the powerful example of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan ... I promise you tonight that I will reach across party lines to bring progress for all of New York's families. Today we voted as Democrats and Republicans. Tomorrow we begin again as New Yorkers .... (Hillary Clinton 07/11/2000)