A study on the structural features of English news story

as only two parts: content summary and content development. In addition, every news story in English in general has an identical structure consisting of a headline, a topic sentence and a content development. According to Nguyen Hoa, “the main tendency in English news story is the using the mixed sentences including compound and complex sentences” E.g.2.1.3.a: LONDON: The European Commission said Tuesday that legitimate European worries about human rights and Tibet should not be “walled off” from a trading relationship with China but that it did not support the idea of boy-coots. (IHT. April 16, 2008) This using would trouble the reader in understanding sentences and create long sentences. However, every event will be put in its correct relation due to mixed sentences rather than the simple ones. Moreover, the length of a sentence also relates to the difficulty or the easiness of the story to read. It is a common advice to the journalists and the correspondents that “Press needs to easy for readers to understand and they can read fast. One of the ways to gain this target is to use shot sentences.” According to Bush, “the reasonable length of a sentence is 20 words.” The readers who have average educational level and rarely read newspaper could remember immediately 8 words; and 16, at maximum, to high-educational level readers. Another study shows that average educational level readers have capable of remembering 12 words. It is okay if there are 12 words in a sentence. But when reading a 17-word sentence, readers remember only 12 words, which means that out of every two words, only one is remembered. Similarly, if a sentence is 40-word long, the reader can remember only 12 words, of which 10 in the first half and 2 in the second one. Such a sentence can exist only when each half of it is an independent unit of information. Under that circumstance, the reader needs not to read this half to understand the other one. It means that the sentence can be divided into separate parts or sentences. In brief, each unit of information must not be more than 17-word long. E.g.2.1.3.b: Each required three million rivets, and shortage peaked during Titanic’s construction. (IHT. April 16, 2008) Thus, the sub-clause should not be abused. If not, each sentence consists of no more than 12 words. Imagining that we insert a clause or phrase that has more than 12 words between the subject and the object of a sentence, the reader might understand the whole sentence by reading the second time. Therefore, each unit of information contains at most 17 words is an effective way to form. Reading is a psychological process. The reader can normally remember and understand ideas one by one. If there is too much information packed into a sentence, it will cause difficulties to the reader. As a result of this, such sentences should be avoided. E.g.2.1.3.c: On Thursday night, the Obama campaign, in an effort to shift the spotlight to the Clintons, provide The New York Times with a picture of Wright and President Bill Clinton at the White House in 1998, at a breakfast meeting with religious leaders just hours before the report on Monica Lewinsky scandal by the independent counsel Kenneth Starr was made public. (IHT, March 22-23, 2008) A 50-word long sentence with three information units is more readable than a 20-word long one with a single information unit. Moreover, another feature in the development part of the news story is passages. It is very different from other kinds of news, as the purpose the story in news story is to report the events or the news, not to develop the ideas. The majority of passages in news story are one sentence. Thus, if we regard the news story as a “big” paragraph, the passages are really supporting sentences. According to some experts, “one of the reasons to make the paragraphs consisting one sentence is due to the work of ordering the lay-out of a newspaper. Otherwise, the one-sentence paragraphs are usually easier to read than the others” E.g.2.1.3.d: Lee, who first joined the Legislature in 1985, said he would step down as a lawmaker at the end of his current term in July but would remain a member of Democratic Party. (IHT, March 29-30, 2008) In conclusion, a little bit long sentence with proper structure and punctuation is acceptable. Therefore, the length of the sentences in the news story’s body is not as important as its structure. To write the most effective sentences, journalists should apply these strategies: - A sentence should be divided into the information units, each of which is not more than 17-word long. - Sub-clause should not be abused. - Sub-clause should not consist of more than 12 words. - The main information should always be ordered from the beginning of the sentence. 2.1.4 Sub-title in English news story There is a separated part from the body part of the news story discourse, the sub-title. It is recognized easily by the italic letters and be printed smaller than the headline. The sub-title is widely used in English newspaper. E.g.2.1.4.a1: The headline: North Korea hit hard as food crisis worsens The sub-title: But angry Pyongyang won’t seek South’s aid (IHT. April 4, 2008) E.g.2.1.4.a2: The headline: High rice prices fall to trickle down The sub-title: Rising costs and small harvests leave farmers struggling (IHT. April 7, 2008) E.g.2.1.4.a3: Te headline: A rare opportunity to make Beijing sweat The sub-title: Pushing Darfur into the Olympics (IHT, March 29-30, 2008) Many people misunderstand that the sub-title is or is a part of the topic sentence. To know deeply about this problem, let us consider the two terms of its form and content features. - In term of form feature, we cannot unify the sub-title and the topic sentence for the following reasons: Although this part has the some grammatical features of the topic sentence, it develops the content feature of the headline in using the ellipsis of article, particle. E.g.2.1.4.b1: As club owners feud, supporters remember deadly crush (IHT. April 16, 2008) E.g.2.1.4.b2: U.S. Treasury official pushing a news plan (IHT. April 16, 2008) From the above examples, at the first, there is an absence of the determiner such as “the, his, her…” before the word “supporters”. Or at another one, the verb is bare-infinitive, which just exists in the headlines. The headline is written briefly, so it is difficult to express the whole content needed shown. The writers clarify the content by the sub-title. Most of them are the simple narrative sentences, as nearly long as the headline, and use the vigorous, conservational idiomatic language. According to the statistics, 100% the sub-title are the narrative sentences. E.g.2.1.4.c1: Congress wants answers from Fed chief (IHT. April 3, 2008) E.g.2.1.4.c2: Treasury acting with long term in mind (IHT. April 1, 2008) E.g.2.1.4.c3: News Corp. could team with Microsoft (IHT. April 11, 2008) - In term of the content feature, the sub-title is closer to the headline. They are developed in the body part or even right in the topic sentence. E.g.2.1.4.d1: The headline: Accommodating Muslim becomes issue at Harvard The sub-title: Special requests challenge secular tradition The topic sentence: CAMBRIGE, Massachusetts: A small controversy over how Harvard practices tolerance has been sparked by two issues relating to Muslim belief – whether to call to prayer should ring out across Harvard Yard and whether women should be granted separate gym hours. (IHT. April 22-23, 2008) E.g.2.1.4.d2: The headline: Fight for Basra a struggle for Iraq The sub-title: Shiite cleric tells followers to stop battling government forces The topic sentence: NAJAF, Iraq: The Iraqi Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr called on his followers on Sunday to stop battling government forces, seeking to stamp down violence in tows and cities that has threatened to spiral out of control. (IHT, March 31, 2008) In the following example, the sub-title is repeated at the seventh paragraph: E.g.2.1.4.e: The sub-title: An escapee from U.S. military prison emerges as a possible heir to bin Laden. The seventh paragraph: “And he is very charismatic, young, brash rising star within AQ and I think he has become the heir apparent to Osama bin Laden in terms of taking over the entire, global jihadist movement.” (IHT. April 5-6, 2008) The headline and the sub-title have their own roles. The headline is developed in one part of the body part and the sub-title is done in the others. E.g.2.1.4.f: The headline: Wall St. tests Fed’s lending facility The sub-title: Financial companies average $13.4 billion in daily borrowing The developing part: Big Wall Street investment companies are taking advantage of the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented offer to secure emergency loans that are part of a major effort by the central bank to help a financial system in danger of freezing… The companies averaged $13.4 billion of daily borrowing over the past week from the new landing facility, the central bank said Thursday… (IHT. April 22-23, 2008) The content of the headline part is described at the former paragraph about the Wall Street. And the sub-title part is at the upper one to re-inform that the financial companies have on average $13.4 billion in daily borrowing. For the above reasons, sub-title is very a separated part from the body part of the news story discourse. The sub-title summarizes the content, which will be developed in the body part, especially in the news plentiful of content and the content expresses the reaction to the news. Like the headline, it attracts the reader’s attentions to the main content of the news story. CHARPTER III: SOME DIFFICULTIES AND REQUIRED SUGGESTIONS IN TRANSLATING NEWS STORY 3.1 Some difficulties in translating news story While Vietnam has gone through ‘renovation” to being a market economy, the people of Vietnam have also gone through various stages, rushing and elbowing their way through to learn an international language as a mean of relating meaningfully to the wider world. This has created what could be could ‘English fever’. The government plans to popularize English until 2010 at schools. Thus, Vietnamese learners of English tend to encounter a lot of difficulties in their acquisition of the target language especially in press. In this paper, I would like to mention about the barriers of culture and language for Vietnamese to understand English news stories. 3.1.1 Cultural difficulty Our culture provides the lens through which we view the world. It refers to a group or community with which we share common experiences that shape the way we understand the milieu in which we live. Culture is a kind of meta-preference, in the sense it tells us what we should want to want. The term ‘culture’, is a complex concept which has been defined in numerous ways often reflecting the writer’s academic orientation. Common to all definitions of culture, however, is that culture is something shared by members of a social group. The system of language is a part of shared cultural knowledge of social groups, and ways of communicating are an important part of the observable behavior of people in social groups. It is clear that there is climate close relationship between language and culture. For example, thinking of the richness if vocabulary to take about relations in languages spoken by people whose culture places a strong emphasis on family ties, such as Pitjantjatjara, Burmeae or Vietnamese, to mention only a few. In fact, most linguists today would agree that it is impossible to prove that language determines or only reflects the way we think. Some questions relating to language are raised that if there are any concepts which can’t be translated or expressed in some other languages, especially in press. Answering it briefly, it is clear that there are some concepts which need many words to express into another language. For example, the English word ‘baby-sister’ is central to western cultures in which it is assumed that a baby or a child will from time to time be left in the care of an individual who is not a member of the family, and who undertakes to care for the baby or child usually in return for remuneration. And it may be translated into Vietnamese as ‘cô trông trẻ’, ‘cô nuôi dạy trẻ’ or ‘vú em’… It would be strange to Vietnamese if someone says [22]: “… these which survive may live for twenty years and reach the size of a dinner plate”. Traditionally, Vietnamese might not know what a dinner palate is. We always have meals with bowls and chopsticks and hardly know the size of a dinner plate. Therefore, this group of words is a barrier preventing Vietnamese reader from understanding the text. In conclusion, language consists of a complex system of communication, which enables people to construct the meanings needed to communicate with each other. Culture is the whole complex of ways of acting, believing, valuing and thinking which are shred by group of people and passed on one generation to others. In addition, the cultural differences between Vietnamese and the English speaker are a lot, which causes plenty of difficulties to the Vietnamese learner as well as the translator. Therefore, just by obtaining the knowledge of all aspect, can the reader understand, since translate the news stories well. 3.1.2 Linguistic difficulty Newspapers impart news by the language. And it is newspaper that is the most typical mean of indicating language as well as indicating any change of language and life. Because language is a mean of human interaction and people are social beings in a society with specific values, norm and cultural traditions, the language people use will be intricately linked to and shaped by their social and cultural practices. In a particular society and culture, the socialization process will include leaning to use language appropriately according to the norms of that society. If not then one needs to learn how to behave linguistically in ways appropriate to society. It is obvious that languages are not the static. They change over time not only in lexicon but also with regard to grammar, pronunciation, spelling or signing. The uses of language also change which will affect meaning. All this makes language learning a complex task. Therefore, the differences between languages: between Vietnamese and English in particular, as well as our use of language is also a factor in preventing us from understanding English newspaper. English preposition is a truly difficult aspect for Vietnamese learners to use preciously. The Vietnamese often says ‘dưới nền nhà’ (under the floor) when the English says ‘on the floor’, we say ‘bơi dưới sông’ (under the river) while the English says ‘in the river’, we say ‘trên trời’ (on the sky), meanwhile the English says ‘in the sky’. In addition, in Vietnamese there are phrases or clauses that need no preposition. But its equivalent clauses in English need one. The Vietnamese says ‘buổi sáng’ (the morning), ‘buổi tối’ (the evening), but the English says ‘in the morning’ and ‘in the evening’. Here, the preposition ‘in’ is placed before a noun phrase ‘the morning’ and ‘the evening’. In Vietnamese, we say ‘lúc đi học’ (without preposition) but in English, it is ‘on the way to shool’ (with preposition ‘on’). Eg: In Vietnamese: đường tới vinh quang (without preposition) In English : on the road to the glory (with preposition ‘on’) Moreover, in Vietnamese-English translation, the word ‘President’ can be translated as ‘tổng thống’ if the article refers to the position in USA or Russia ( eg: President George Bush= Tổng thống George Bush). On the contrary, the word must be translated as ‘Chủ tịch nước’ if the position taken by a Vietnamese or Cuban official (President Trần Đức Lương = Chủ tịch nước Trần Đức Lương, or President Fidel Castro = Chủ tịch Fidel Castro) In Vietnamese – English translate, the world ‘Thủ tướng’ can be translate as ‘Prime Minister’ or ‘Premier’ if the position holders are Vietnamese, Thailand official. However, it must be translated as ‘Chancellor’ if the position belongs to the German official (Chancellor Helmut Kohl). Sometimes, paraphrases can make the readers or translators embarrassed. For example, the word ‘alcohol’ in English includes all alcoholic beverages in its meaning. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese word for this generally understood as ‘rượu’ and it does not include beer in its definition. As a result, the Vietnamese translators should add the word ‘beer’ in its definition to convey the full meaning of the English word. Otherwise, using an idiom of fixed expression of similar meaning but different form is also one difficult for Vietnamese readers of translators to find its equivalents in Vietnamese. Eg - To toil and moil : Bán mặt cho đất, bán lưng cho trời - Sell like hot cakes : Đắt như tôm tươi - To pick and choose : Kén cá chọn canh Since idiomatic expressions are culture-bound, they can not be understood and translated exactly. In search for idiomatic equivalence when reading or translating, we should concentrate on expression and transfer from one culture to another. In summary, the society in which we live and the culture of that society can influence how we use language in these major functions. Knowing how to use language in a culturally appropriate way is something we acquire as part of the socialization process for our first language. When learning a second or subsequent language or receiving a language, this process is not only more conscious but also more difficult because the learners are often not familiar with the cultural practices associated with the language they learn. 3.2. Some required suggestions for translation It is very necessary to point out of some requirements that translators should possess in translating news story. Unfortunately, some persons fail to recognize the need for basic processes in translating news story. They think that some knowledge of a source language and a good bilingual dictionary is all that is required. In fact, there are four basic procedures in translating news story which must be taken into consideration analysis, transferring, restructuring and testing. Analysis consists of essentially of determining the meaning of the whole story. In other words, all the content of the story must be considered in analysis. Transfer consists of a shift from the source language story to the target language. It is the task of translators to restructure the form of the news story so as to make it appropriate for the presumed readers. Translation is a process of reproducing in the target language, the closed natural equivalence of source language story, firstly in terms of meaning and secondly lies in terms of style. The process of reproducing equivalence includes all the elements which constitute the interaction between the two languages; i.e, the two cultures. The skills of the translators, therefore, extent far beyond the linguistic skills and include the capacity to be a journalist. 3.2.1 Language skills Language is certainly the main components of the core skills of a translator. When doing news story translation, the translator is required to master at least two languages in terms of their structure usage and expressive potential. Language competence for a translator originates from the above described competence and then proceeds to other elements such as the transfer competence. That is the ability to produce a variety of synonymous or analogous expressions in both languages, the ability to capture and reproduce register variations, and the ability to recognize and reproduce domain-specific expressions in a form which will be regarded as “natural” by the respective users. 3.2.2. Cultural competence The second element of required skills in translations is a group of components defined as cultural competence. It relates to extra-linguistic knowledge about the world of the respective writers and it requires through relevant elements of the cultures. Culturally, the translator is required to have trough knowledge on both cultures and an ability to transfer at least to introduce one culture to the other. 3.2.3 Journalism When dealing with the news stories, the translator is always expected to have a certain understanding of journalism. He is not necessary journalism, but his knowledge on journalism must be large enough to analyze the story both in their forms and contents. While translating the news story of news, the translator plays a role as a journalist. He has to understand the techniques of a writer to draw attention of readership linguistically and non-linguistically. These show that the translator must have a large background, knowledge not only in language, culture and journalism but also in other fields, such as politics, economics, electronics etc, since the stories of news are not always on private lives of film stars or famous politicians. That is why translation appears to be an always new field with own challenges and rewards. The translator must improve himself in the challenging subjects. PART C: CONCLUSION Since the English language became the key foreign language in Vietnam, the bilingual press is an obvious phenomenon. And the more developed the society is, the more important the press is. However, it is not easy for the Vietnamese leaner to read and understand the newspaper in general and news story in particular. Therefore, I decided to choose the subject on structural features of English news story. From that background, I studied the problems of the headline, the topic sentence (with its form features and content features), the structures of news story’s body, the sub-title and then mentioned some difficulties, some required suggestions in translating news story. I wish to give out some basic knowledge on the field of the news story to the reader since better their insight to the changing-world. Due to the limitation of time, I can not delve into other aspects of news story. If having enough condition, I would study all of the linguistic features of English news story and Vietnamese news story and point out their similarities and differences. This is the first time I have done such a scientific research work, so all remarks, comment and suggestions are well-received and highly appreciated. APPENDIX SOME QUOTED ARTICLES USED AS THE EXAMPLES IN THE STUDY E.g.1.2.1.b: North Korea threatens South with destruction By Choe Sang-Hun Published: March 31, 2008 After several days of escalating oratory against South Korea, Pyong-yang issued one of its toughest warnings in many years, threatening to turn its neighbor into “ashes” with a “pre-emptive” military strike. In one of its harshest warnings in years, amid rapidly chilling relations on the divided Korean Peninsula, North Korea warned Sunday that it may make a “pre-emptive” military strike that would reduce South Korea to “ashes” The statement, made by an unnamed military affairs commentator at Pyongyang’s state-run Korean Central News Agency, also reiterated the North’s threat to end all inter-Korean government contacts unless Seoul apologized for what Pyongyang called a “warmongering” remark by the new head of the South’s Joint Chief of Staff. “Everything will be in ashes, not just a sea of fire, if our advanced pre-emptive strike once begins” the commentator was quoted as saying, in an allusion to the North’s unconfirmed nuclear-weapons capabilities. At the height of a 1993-94 crisis over the North’s efforts to build nuclear weapons, North Korea threatened to turn Seoul into “a sea of fire”, triggering a panic in the South that prompted householders to rush to stock up on food. North Korea, one of the world’s most militarized states, typically makes provocative statements toward the United States and South Korea when … E.g.1.2.2.b Confused over the credit crisis? You are not the only one By David Leonhardt Published: March 19, 2008 Raise your hand if you don’t quite understand this whole financial crisis. It has been going on for seven months now, and many people probably feel as if they should understand it. But they don’t, not really. The part about the U.S. housing crash seems simple enough. With banks whispering sweet encouragement, people bought homes they couldn’t afford, and now they are falling behind on their mortgages. But the overwhelming majority of homeowners are still doing just fine. So how is it that a mess concentrated in one part of the mortgage business - subprime loans - has frozen the credit markets, sent stock markets gyrating, caused the collapse of Bear Stearns, left the U.S. economy on the brink of the worst recession in a generation and forced the Federal Reserve to take its boldest action since the Depression? I'm here to urge you not to feel sheepish. This may not be entirely comforting, but any confusion you might have is shared by many people who are in the middle of the crisis. "We're exposing parts of the capital markets that most of us had never heard of" Ethan Harris, a top Lehman Brothers economist, said last week. Robert Rubin, the former Treasury Secretary and current Citigroup executive, has said that he hadn't heard of "liquidity puts" an obscure financial contract, until they started causing big problems for Citigroup. I spent a good part of the last few days calling people on Wall Street and in the government to ask one question: "Can you try to explain this to me?" When they finished, I often had a highly sophisticated follow-up question: "Can you try again?" … E.g.1.2.3.b: Moving on the low carbon road By Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Donald Tusk and Anders Fogh Rasmussen Published: March 31, 2008 A meeting of United Nations member states in Bangkok on Monday to discuss climate change is the first in a series this year at which the action plan adopted at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007, will be translated into concrete steps on the road to a new global climate change agreement. We, the president of Indonesia and the prime ministers of Poland and Denmark, have decided to join forces in a coordination group at the highest political level. Our goal is to facilitate an ambitious climate change agreement in Copenhagen in 2009. We intend to push for action, keep up momentum, maintain strategic guidance and provide a channel for the engagement of the top political level in support of the negotiations. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, adopted in 1992 enjoys almost universal member-ship. It stands as the only global negotiation framework. Now, the time has come to implement the ultimate objective of this treaty – the stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous climate change. It is the obvious case for a global solution agreed within the United Nations. No country can effectively address the problem by itself, yet no agreement will serve its purpose unless every country signs up. The negative impact of climate change affects all aspects of life and all parts of our societies… E.g.2.1.1.b: Fears of a black hole eating Earth lead to lawsuit By Dennis Overbye Published: March 31, 2008 More strife in Iraq. U.S. financial system in crisis. Rice prices soar. None of these headlines will matter a bit, though, if two men pursuing a law suit in a court in Hawaii turn out to be right. They think a giant particle accelerator that will begin smashing protons together outside Geneva this mummer might produce a black hole that will spell the end of the Earth – and maybe the universe. Scientists say that is very unlikely though they have done some checking just to make sure. The world’s physicists have spent 14 years and $8 billion building the Large Hadron Collider, in which the colliding protons will recreate energies and conditions last seen a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. Researchers will sift the debris from these primordial recreations for clues to the nature of mass and new forces and symmetries of nature. But Walter Wagner and Luis Sancho contend that scientists at the European Centre for Nuclear Research, of CERN, have played down the chances that the collider could produce, among other horrors, a tiny black hole, which, they say, could eat the Earth. Or it could spit out something called a “strangelet” that would convert our planet to a shrunken dense dead lump of something called “strange matter”. Their suit also says CERN has failed to provide an environmental impact statement as required under the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act. … E.g.2.1.1.d: Drug makers accused of stalling data By Alex Berenson Published: April 2, 2008 The lead outside investigator on a crucial trial of two widely used heart drugs said in an economic-mail message last July that Merk and Schering-Plough, the companies that make the drugs, were deliberately delaying the release of the trial results “to hide something.” The companies did not release the preliminary results of the trial, called Enhance, until January, almost two years after the trial was finished. When they were finally released, the trial’s results showed that the drugs, Vytorin and Zetia, did not work to reduce plaque in arteries. The result led a panel of cardiologists to recommend Sunday that the drugs be used only as a last resort. The new information was contained in e-mail messages to executives at Schering-Plough that were released Monday by Senator Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. The committee has been investigating the delay in the release of the Enhance trial results. It is likely to inflame the controversy over the way that Merck and Schering-Plough handled the Enhance trial, as well as their heavy promotion of Vytoin and Zetia. The drugs are used to lower cholesterol and are among the most widely prescribed medicines in the United States, with sales of $5 billion last year. Shares of Merck and Schering plunged Monday. The Enhance investigator, Dr. John Kastelein, also complained last July that Merck and Schering had not consulted him on the reasons for the delay and threatened to resign as the main study investigator. …… E.g.2.1.1.e1: China law could impede Microsolf deal for Yahoo By John Markoff Published: March 28, 2008 Microsoft's hostile-takeover attempt against Yahoo may encounter an unexpected hurdle in August after a Chinese antimonopoly law takes effect that will extend the nation's economic influence far beyond its borders. The law, which goes into effect on Aug. 1, is intended to strengthen an existing set of antitrust regulations the Chinese originally established in 1993. It will make China a third sphere of regulatory influence, matching the power of the European Union and the United States, according to legal specialists in this country and in China who have studied it. Formally enacted by the National People's Congress last year, the measure gives Chinese regulators authority to examine foreign mergers when they involve acquisitions of Chinese companies or foreign businesses investing in Chinese companies' operations… E.g.2.1.1.f: Trouble still plagues new terminal at Heathrow Reuters, The Associated Press Published: March 30, 2008 Travelers hoping to fly from the new Terminal 5 at London' Heathrow airport on Monday face more delays from troubles with the computerized baggage-handling system, and the British transport secretary offered Sunday to help resolve problems that have led to hundreds of flight cancellations, thousands of lost bags and much embarrassment. British Airways - the sole tenant of Terminal 5 - canceled 37 domestic and European flights Sunday, bringing the total number of cancellations since the terminal opened Thursday to 245… E.g.2.1.1.h2: Al Qaeda’s newest star An escapee from U.S. military prison emerges as a possible heir to bin Laden. By: Michael Moss and Souad Mekhennet Published: April 5-6, 2008 On the night of July 10, 2006, an obscure militant preacher named Abu Yahya al-Libi escaped from an U.S. prison in Afghanistan and rocketed to fame in the world of jihadists. The breakout from the Bagram Air Base by Libi and three cellmates – they picked a lock, dodged their guards and traverse the base’s vast acreage to freedom – embarrassed U.S. official as deeply as it delighted the jihadist movement. In the nearly three years since, Libi’s meteoric ascent within leadership of Al Qaeda has proved to be even more troublesome for authority than the breakout. Libi, a Libyan believed to be in his late 30s, is now considered to be a top strategist for Al Qaeda, as well as one of its most effective promoters of global jihad, having appeared in a dozen videos on Internet in the past year, cuonterrerrorism officials said… “He’s a warrior. He’s a poet. He’s a scholar. He’s a pundit. He’s a military commander,” Brachman said. And he is very charismatic, young, brash rising star within AQ and I think he has become the heir apparent to Osama bin Laden in terms of taking over the entire, global jihadist movement.” The secrecy that still envelops Al Qaeda’s leadership structure makes such estimates speculative, other analysts said… E.g.2.1.1.j1: Dollar is bludgeoned, and Asia feels its pain Businesses and workers are suffering By Donald Greenlees, Martin Foster and Tim Johnston Published March 27, 2008 Anthony del Rosario, who crews an oil tanker plying the route between the Middle East and South Korea, is sending home less money to his family in the Philippines. Takeshi Okada, a shoe manufacture in Japan, is concerned about the possibility of dec…ag export sales. And Brenton Fry, who heads the import-export operation of an old Australian winemaker, Yalumba, is fighting to hold town retail prices for wine sold in the United State by cutting profit margins. All three have a common worry: The sliding value of the U.S. dollar against most global currencies is putting them under increasing financial pressure… Eg.2.1.1k1: Olympic torch arrives in Beijing amid tight security The Associated Press Published: March 31, 2008 Chinese President Hu Jintao presided over the re-lighting of the Olympic torch Monday in the host city Beijing, signaling the start of a round-the-world torch relay that already has become a magnet for human rights protesters. Hu's participation in the elaborate ceremony in Tiananmen Square in the heart of the capital underlined the importance that China places on the Olympics and its hopes to display a confident, strong nation to the world when the Games open August 8.The ceremony 130 days before the start of the Olympics was broadcast on state television, and comes a week after the lighting ceremony for the Olympic torch in Greece was marred by protests… E.g.2.1.2.1.a Route 3, a highway to openness China-to-Bangkok road already changing isolated region By Thomas Fuller Published: March 31, 2008 The newly refurbished Route 3 that cuts through this remote town is an ordinary strip of pavement, the type of two-lane road you might find winding through the backwoods of Vermont of sunflower fields in the French provinces. On Leusa, 70, who lives near the road, calls it “deluxe”. As a young woman, she traded opium and tiger bones along the road, which was then nothing more than a horse trail. On Monday, the prime ministers of Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam will officially inaugurate the former opium smuggling route as the final link of what they call the “north-south economic corridor” a network of roads linking the southern Chinese city of Kunming to Bankok spanning 1,800 kilometers, or 1,100 miles. The network, several sections of which were still unpaved as late as December, is a major milestone for China and its southern neighbors. The low-lying mountains here, the foot hills of the Himalayas, severed for centuries as a natural defensive boundary between Southeast Asian civilizations and the giant empire to the north. The road rarely follows a straight line as it meanders through terraced rice fields and tea plantations. Today, those same Southeast Asian civilizations alternatively crave closer integration with that empire and fear its sway as an emerging economic giant. China , in turn, covets the land, market and natural resource of one of Asia’s least developed and most pristine regions. … E.g. 2.1.2.1.c Maoists nearing a majority in Nepalese election By The Associated Press Published April 16, 2008 Nepal’s former rebels moved closer Tuesday to winning half of the direct elected seats in the special assembly that will shape the nation’s political future. The former insurgents, now formally known as the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), won 114 of the 212 directly elected seats decided by Tuesday morning, the national Election Commission said. Vote counting continued on six constituencies, while revotes have been ordered in another 22, the commission said. New votes were held in six of the constituencies Tuesday and there were no reports of violence, the commission said. The new votes were ordered mainly because of clashes between rival groups and allegations of poll irregularities. Final results for the 601-seat Constituent Assembly, which and govern Nepal in the meantime, ate still a few weeks off. Nepal’s election last Thursday directly elected 240 members of the assembly. Another 335 were being selected through a system in which political parties are given seats in proportion to the percentage of votes they received. Another 26 seats were to be nominated by the government. The former rebels, widely called Maoist, are almost certain to capture more than half of the 240 directly elected seats, and they were doing well in the early count for the 335 proportional representation seats. In the tally, they have garnered about 394,000 of the 1.3 million votes counted so far. …  E.g.2.1.2.1.e1: Hong Kong recovers 2 bodies from capsized boat The Associated Press Published: March 27, 2008 Divers recovered two bodies Wednesday from a tugboat that capsized in Hong Kong waters and searched for 16 more Ukrainian sailors believed to be dead after being trapped in the overturned hull last weekend, the Hong Kong government said. The first body was found near the entrance of the vessel’s auxiliary engine room, said a government spokeswoman, Michelle Ip. It was not immediately clear where the second body was found, she said. The Ukrainian tugboat Neftegaz 67 sank rapidly after it collided Saturday with the Chinese cargo ship Yao Hai in water northwest of Hong Kong’s outlying Lantau Island. Six Ukrainians and a Chinese citizen were rescued. But 18 Ukrainian sailors were trapped in the capsized vessel’s hull. Ip said rescuers would continue their efforts until the vessel was retrieved and the bodies were recovered. The Neftegaz 67 has a history of safety problems, and port authorities detained the ship twice in 2003, once each in Hong Kong and San Francisco, according to the Internet shipping data base Equasis. Inspection have reported problems with the 80-meter-long, or 265-foot, vessel’s alarm signals, lifesaving appliances, stability, structure and related equipment, according to Equasis. Arthur Bowring, managing director of the Hong Kong Shipowners’ Association, said it was unclear whether the ship’s past safety problems were linked to the collision in Hong Kong. …  E.g.2.1.2.1.f1: Goalie saves Australia in China The Associated Press Published: March 27, 2008 Mark Schwarzer saved Shao Jiayi’s penalty two minutes from time as Australia held China, 0-0, Wednesday to collect a valuable away point in Asian qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. In a defensive match, Schwarzer was not forced into a save until the 86th minute, when forward Qu Bo, a substitute, drove a long-range half-volley on target. The Socceroos goalkeeper came out of his goal to make a save soon after and collided with Qu, earning a caution from the referee, Ahmad Nasser, who also awarded the penalty. China’s players were celebrating anticipation of the winning goal, but Shao hit shot low and down the middle, and Schwarzer blocked it with his leg. Schwarzer made a similar save against Uruguay to help Australia qualify for the 2006 World Cup and said he would probably never top that effort. “It definitely was important today” Schwarzer said. “It was bit harsh to give a penalty, I though”. “To lose a match in the last minute would have been a disaster. I think wr deserved to get appoint our of it” Australia has four points from two matches following its opening 3-0 win over Qatar. Australia lost winger Harry Kewell, the Liverpool star, just before the match with a groin strain and forward Archie Thompson in the sixth minute, cutting its attacking options and contributing to the defensive nature of the match…. E.g.2.1.2.2.a: U.S. memo authorized extreme methods Wartime powers made interrogators exempt, legal brief contended By Mark Mazzetti Published: April 3, 2008 The Justice Department gave military interrogators broad authority in 2003 to use extreme methods in questioning detainees and argued that wartime powers largely exempted interrogators from laws banning harsh treatment, according to a publicly disclosed memorandum. In a sweeping legal brief written in March 2003, when the Pentagon was struggling to determine limits for its interrogators, the Justice Department gave the Pentagon much of the same authority it had provided to the CIA in a memorandums were later rescinded by the Justice Department. The disclosure Tuesday of the 2003 document, a detailed 81-page opinion written by John Yoo, who at the time was the second-ranking official at the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department, is likely to fuel th debate about the rule of law in the United State. Yoo’s memorandum is the latest document to illuminate the foundation that Bush administration lawyers used after the attacks of Sept.11, 2001, to support broad White House powers to capture, detain and interrogate suspects around the globe. The thrust of Yoo’s brief has long been known, but its specific contents were disclosed Tuesday after government lawyers turned it over to the American Civil Liberties Union, which has sought hundreds of documents from the Bush administration under the Freedom of Information Act. Legal scholars said they were amazed at the scope of the memorandum. … E.g. 2.1.2.2.b: Dylan fans grapple with his Pulitzer Does prize lessen his rebel status? By Dave Itzkoff Published April 16, 2008 How did it feel? Perhaps you were thrilled last week when Bob Dylan earned a special award from Pulitzer board for his “profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.” Or perhaps you were ambivalent, or even uneasy, and fretted that the grizzled troubadour’s authenticity was being co-opted by a body known for recognizing journalists, authors and playwrights – an institution that would steal a shot of hipness from its association outsider? If you were apprehensive, you were in the good company of Dylan aficionados still grappling with the trickster mystique of the 66-year-old singer songwriter who see the Pulitzer as another chapter in his complicated history with the establishment, an ongoing dance of distancing and détentes. The novelist Jonathan Lethern said he worried about a kind of cultural self congratulation, meant to burnish the award-givens as much as the recipient. “There’s almost like this patchwork attempt” to pay Dylan his proper respect, Lethem said. “Well, we’ll give him the Pulitzer and the Oscar, and maybe all this stuff adds up to the impulse we have.” This particular honor, Lethem said, “may cast a slightly absurd light” on the award and its bestowers. “It doesn’t exactly fit.” The Pulitzer board would like to think otherwise. “We didn’t just look up one afternoon and say, ‘Why don’t we give this to Dylan?’”. Said Sig Gissler, administrator of the Pulizers at Columbia University. “There’s history there, and a lot of deliberation and effort to figure out who would be truly worthy”... E.g.2.1.2.2.c: R.E.M. wakes to old fans, but with something new By Alan Light Published April 3, 2008 On the ground floor of a nondescript building, a few blocks from University of Georgia campus here, sits a little room stuffed with instruments and decorated with Christmas lights, lava lamps, old concert posters and tacked-up 45s. R.E.M. started rehearsing in this space in 1985, and it looks as if nothing has changed. This is a place to work not hang out and work is what Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills were ding on this March afternoon, blasting through 13 songs over the course of a few hours. It was their first day of rehearsal for the shows that would introduce their hard-charging new album, “Accelerate” (Warner Brothers), and they weren’t exactly easing back onstage: later in the week they were headliners at the Langerado festival in Florida, followed by a performance at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. “We never do much rehearsal,” Buck, 51, the band’s guitarist, said over a ginger ale later at a dark, empty bar around the corner. “Sometimes having that little edge of not feeling comfortable with the songs gives it a little bit of energy. Terror will do that.” Despite spending 28 years together, at this moment a touch of fear is understandable for the trio. (The fourth member, the drummer, Bill Berry, left the band in 1997, after a brain aneurysm.) From its debut in 1981 until the mid 1992s R.E.M. was a definitive American rock band, but its sales and influence have steadily declined in the last decade. “Accelerate” is a very debate response to an internal crisis that Stipe, the group’s singer, described as major, and that they all agreed almost broke up the band….  E.g.2.1.2.2.e: 10 years old, bloated Citi struggles to find footing By Eric Dash Published April 4, 2008 Ten years ago this Sunday, on April 6, 1998, Sanford Weill rewrote the rules of Wall Street. That day, at 7:41 in the morning, Weill unveiled the megamerger that created Citigroup, the biggest financial services company the world had ever seen. The deal – as daring and brazen as the man himself – tore up a crucial chapter of the legal canon that had guided American banking since the Depression. The rest is history – but not the history that Citigroup hoped for. A decade later, Weill’s watershed deal is regarded by some as one of the worst mergers of all time. Today, the behemoth formed by the union of Citicorp and Travelers seems to lumber from one crisis to another. Bloated costs, outmoded technology and political infighting have hobbled the giant company, which employs 374,000 people in more than 100 countries. Even within Citigroup, many have rejected Weill’s grand vision of a globe-spanning financial supermarket, an agglomeration of investment and commercial banking, insurance and fund management that could prosper in both good time and bad. The company has even abandoned its Weill-era Travelers logo, the red umbrella, in favor of an emblematic red arc. The stock market has rendered the harshest judgment of all. Citigroup’s shares closed at $24.02 on Wednesday, nearly $10 lower than they were on that hopeful April day a decade ago. Citi, once the most valuable financial company in the United State, has fallen to third place, behind Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase… REFERENCES Bush, CD. 1965. News writing and reporting public affair. 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Ngon ngu bao chi. Hanoi: Hanoi National University Publisher SOURCE OF MATERIALS International Herald Tribune (in March and April, 2008) Thanh nien, 03-04-2008 Ha noi moi, 10-04-2008