和谐英语

英语六级阅读 UN head Ban Ki-moon heads for Mideast

2009-01-17来源:和谐英语
  UN workers in Gaza want the UN Secretary General to tell both sides to stop fighting now.
  Israeli attacks killed 19 more children overnight in Gaza, Palestinian health officials said. Fred Katayama reports from New York.
  SCRIPT:
  As the United Nations chief heads for the Middle East, his 10,000 workers in war torn Gaza want Ban Ki-moon to deliver this message to the warring parties: just stop now.
  (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, saying:
  "Our message will be, please, we have to get an end of the fighting. Nowhere in Gaza is safe. The situation is horrific for everybody."
  And it's getting worse, warned UN relief agency's Gaza director John Ging. Gaza health officials say Israeli attacks killed 19 more children overnight in Gaza. And even though more than 40 Palestinians were killed near a UN school in Gaza last week, 5,000 more sought shelter Monday in UN school buildings, joining 35,000 others. With much of the infrastructure reduced to rubble, their options are limited.www.hxen.net
   The water system is broken, too. Ging says the daily three-hour lulls that Israel observes doesn't allow enough time to fix it. And so, half a million people have no access to clean water in their homes. That, combined with the millions of tons of untreated sewage, medical officials fear, could spark an outbreak of disease.
  At Al Shifa Hospital Hospital in Gaza city, seen here in this ICRC video, the Red Cross reports that most of the patients treated are civilians.
  Over at the UN, Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour expressed confidence in the Secretary General's mission.
  (SOUNDBITE)(English) Riyad Mansour, Palestinian U.N. envoy, saying:
  "I think that the Secretary General with the moral authority of his position would add to the pressure alongside the Security Council and Israel to stop this fighting."
  Ban will not go to Gaza itself. HIs visit comes one week after Israel and Hamas rejected the UN's call for an immediate ceasefire.