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　　The United States has confirmed that it’s holding talks with Turkey about stepping up theirjoint military campaign against Islamic State group in northern Syria. A State Departmentspokesman Mark Toner gave more details.

　　It’s an effort to defeat, destroy, degrade ISIL in northern Syria, create an area there that isISIL-free, if I could put it that way. But it’ll also really bring the fight against ISIL forces that arestill active in northern Syria, and to support the efforts of the anti-ISIL fighters who are veryactive in northern Syria, and frankly making gains against ISIL in northern Syria.

　　Earlier, the US rejected the suggestion that the US had sanctioned Turkey’s airstrikes onKurdish forces in northern Iraq. The Kurdish separatist PKK has said that Turkey’s assault onIS is just a cover for its renewed fight against them. They believe the attacks are response toKurdish political success in Turkey’s recent general election. The Deputy leader of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party x says the country needs to find a way to live with theKurds.

　　Problems with Kurds cannot be resolved as they’re resolved with the IS. You just slam the doorto IS but you cannot slam the door to your 25 million Kurdish society. And it’s problems and itdemands for a south government.

　　Forensic experts in Colombia have begun a search for hundreds of bodies at a landfill sitebelieved to be one of the largest urban mass graves in the world. Relatives of possible victimsheld a ceremony at the site on the outskirts of the city of Medellin before excavation workstarted. x reports from Bogota.

　　The operation is expected to last 5 months. Around a hundred thousand cubic meters of rubblewill be removed to try to find the bodies of people killed in a joint operation between the armyand paramilitary groups that took place in 2002. It is estimated at around 90 bodies weredumped in the landfill site at the time. But victims’ organizations suggest that could be up to300.

　　The Nigerian government says it’s received an offer of peace talks from a group which claims tobe a faction of the militant Islamist group Boko Haram. A spokesman for PresidentMuhammadu Buhari said efforts are now underway to verify whether the group is genuine andhas a mandate to negotiate. Mr. Buhari has previously indicated that he is not opposed inprinciple to talking to Boko Haram.

　　A Somali MP has been telling the BBC about how he survived the bombing of a hotel in thecapital Mogadishu on Sunday, 2 years after he escaped from the Westgate shopping centerattack in Kenya. Ali Khalif Galaydh who is a former Prime Minister said he was about to leave hishotel bedroom when in his words all hell broke loose.

　　President Obama has strongly criticized attacks on him by Republican presidential candidatesover the recent nuclear agreement with Iran. Speaking in Ethiopia, Mr. Obama condemned aremark by one Republican Mike Huckabee, who said the deal with Tehran was marching Israelisto the door of the oven, a reference to Nazi death camps. Mr. Obama said such languagewould be considered ridiculous, ridiculous if it was not so sad.

　　The US Geological Survey says a powerful earthquake has struck the Indonesian province ofPapua. It said the quake took place inland about 250 kilometers from the provincial capital ata depth of about 52 kilometers. There’s no word yet on damage or casualties. Various scientificmonitors said there was no threat of a tsunami.

　　An American billionaire philanthropist believes he’s found a solution to the internationalrefugee crisis by creating a new country for them all to live in. Jason Buzi says there are largesparsely populated areas of land around the world which could be set aside. He believesrefugees would happily volunteer to live there.

　　These people have miserable lives: a lot of times they can’t work, they don’t have citizenshiprights, they can’t own land. So to have a new country of their own, I think most would preferthat. Now many of them do want to come to the west, but as you know, there’s a lot of anti-immigrant backlash so that’s not a politically feasible solution. The beauty of it is that whenyou create an infrastructure for a new country just like when you build a new city, you areactually creating thousands of thousands of jobs in the process.

　　The Russian President Vladmir Putin has said the head of FIFA Sepp Blatter deserves a NobelPrize for his leadership of world football’s governing body. Several FIFA officials are underinvestigation in the United States accused of corruption. Mr. Putin who shared a stage withMr. Blatter at the draw for the 2018 World Cup in Russia made his comments on Swiss TV.

　　1.degrade vt. 贬低;使……丢脸;使……降级;使……降解 vi. 降级，降低;退化

　　He was degraded from director to assistantdirector.

　　他由局长降为助理局长。

　　2.sanction n. 制裁，处罚;认可;支持 vt. 制裁，处罚;批准;鼓励

　　He may now be ready to sanction the use of force.

　　他或许现在正准备批准使用武力。

　　3.landfill n. 垃圾填埋地;垃圾堆

　　The rubbish in modern landfills does not rot.

　　现代垃圾填埋场里的垃圾不会腐烂。

　　4.excavation n. 挖掘，发掘

　　Our new habitation was an excavation made in the earth.

　　我们的新居是在地里挖出的一个洞。

　　5.tsunami n. 海啸

　　Tsunami warnings forced workers to retreat to higher ground.

　　海啸警报迫使工作人员撤离至更高的地方。

　　6.philanthropist n. 慈善家，博爱主义者;乐善好施的人

　　His father was a philanthropist.

　　他的父亲是一个慈善家。

　　7.sparsely adv. 稀疏地;贫乏地

　　Rural areas are sparsely populated.

　　乡村地区人烟稀少。

　　8.backlash n. 反冲;强烈抵制 vt. 强烈反对;发生后冲

　　He also warned of a possible anti-Western backlash.

　　他还警告有可能会出现对西方的强烈抵制。

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