April 30

The president announced he had appointed Defence Secretary Elliott L Richardson as the new Attorney General and had charged him with full responsibility for revealing the truth behind the Watergate affair.

He said: "America, in its political campaigns, must not again fall into the trap of letting the end, however great that end is, justify the means."

The Democrats immediately demanded the whole Watergate investigation be handed over to an impartial prosecutor and that a special committee of the House be set up to investigate the possibility of presidential involvement in the scandal.

The Watergate Affair began in June 1972, after five men were arrested in the early hours of the morning breaking into the Democratic Party's Watergate headquarters in Washington.

They had with them photographic equipment and bugging devices.

In the ensuing months connections between several of the suspects and one part or another of the Republican power structure were revealed.

In January of this year seven men were convicted of conspiracy, burglary and bugging the Democratic Party's headquarters, two-and-half months after Richard Nixon was re-elected as president of the United States.

But despite continued denials by leading officials in the Nixon administration that Watergate had no connection with the White House, the affair has rumbled on and it seems it still has some way to go before it reaches its conclusion.

The
The world number one women's tennis player, Monica Seles, has been stabbed in the back during a quarter-final match in Hamburg.

The 19-year-old star was rushed to hospital with a wound half an inch (1.5cm) deep in her upper back. Doctors said her injuries were serious, but not life-threatening.

"She was very lucky," said the tournament doctor, Peter Wind. "Neither the lungs nor the shoulder blades were affected. Monica is still suffering from shock, and will stay overnight for observation."

There was immediate speculation that the attack was politically motivated because of Monica Seles's Serbian roots. She is known to have received death threats in connection with the Yugoslav conflict.

But Hamburg police were quick to rule this out. They described her attacker as a 38-year-old man from East Germany, and said he appeared confused and may be mentally disturbed. Later reports suggested he may have been a fan of tennis rival Steffi Graf.

In full view of crowd

The attack happened during the rest break in the match, against Bulgarian player Maggie Maleeva. Miss Seles was leading 6-4, 4-3 when she took a rest on her courtside seat during the changeover.

A man described as stocky and balding leaned over the three-feet-high (91 cm) barrier and stabbed her from behind. Miss Seles let out a scream, clutched her back and stumbled on to the court.

The attack took place in full view of the 6,000-strong crowd watching the match.

"He held the knife with both hands as he stabbed her in the back," said one eyewitness.

The umpire, Stefan Voss, ran from his chair for ice and a towel.

"Nobody saw him coming," he said. He described the 10-inch (25cm) long knife, which fell on the floor following the attack, as "a kitchen knife, like the sort you cut meat with. It was very sharp."

Monica Seles is expected to be out of action for about four weeks, missing the Italian Open, which begins on Monday, and the French Open on 24 May, in which she was to have been the defending champion. Her participation in Wimbledon in June is also in question. 

Vocabulary:  

hereditary: passing down from inheritance(世袭的，遗传的)

diffraction: change in the directions and intensities of a group of waves after passing by an obstacle or through an aperture（衍射）

rendezvous: a prearranged meeting place, especially an assembly point for troops or ships （指定集合地点）