The former US Vice President Dick Cheney has been accused of ordering the CIA to conceal an intelligence project from Congress. It’s not clear what the program was for, but it was set up 8 years ago after the September 11th attacks. The new CIA chief Leon Panetta had the project terminated when told of its existence last month.

It's been a weekend of deadly violence in the troubled Indonesian province of Papua with the shooting death of 2 mine employees. The latest victim was an American security guard who worked at the Grasberg gold and copper mine. It’s the same mine that employed 29-year-old Australian engineer Drew Grant who was killed on Saturday.

Roadside bombs have killed 2 US soldiers in southern Afghanistan where troops are engaged in a major assault against the Taliban, follows the death of 8 British soldiers killed within a 24-hour period. Britain now has lost more troops in the region than in Iraq.

The interim government of Honduras has lifted a curfew imposed after the president was ousted in a coup last month. Manuel Zelaya was forced to leave Honduras on June 28th. He attempted to return last month but his plane was diverted.

Bad weather and lightning storms have further delayed the launch of the space shuttle Endeavor. It was scheduled to lift off today, but NASA says they'll try again tomorrow.


  • New Words
  • Pronunciation
  • Simple Meaning
  • accuse
  •  
  • If you are accused of a crime, a witness or someone in authority states or claims that you did it, and you may be formally charged with it and put on trial.
  • conceal
  •  
  • If you conceal something, you cover it or hide it carefully
  • mine
  •  
  • a deep hole or holes under the ground where minerals such as coal, gold, etc. are dug
  • copper
  •  
  • Copper is reddish-brown metal that is used to make things such as coins and electrical wires.
  • assault
  • /əˈsɔːlt/
  • An assault by an army is a strong attack made on an area held by the enemy.
  • lift
  •  
  • to remove or end restrictions
  • curfew imposed
  •  
  • 宵禁
  • divert
  • [daiˈvəːt]
  • To divert vehicles or travellers means to make them follow a different route or go to a different destination than they originally intended.
  • space shuttle
  •  
  • A space shuttle or a shuttle is a spacecraft that is designed to travel into space and back to earth several times.
  • lift off
  •  
  • When an aircraft or rocket lifts off, it leaves the ground and rises into the air.
  • CIA
  •  
  • Central Intelligence Agency（美国）中央情报局
  • Indonesian
  • [ˌindəˈniːzjən]
  • 印度尼西亚人的
  • Afghanistan
  • [æfˈgænistæn]
  • 阿富汗
  • Taliban
  •  
  • 塔利班
  • NASA
  •  
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration（美国）国家航空和航天局