美联社新闻一分钟 2006-02-28

（单词翻译）

1. The deadline has passed, and still no word about the fate of kidnapped American journalist Jill Carroll. Her captors are demanding a release of all female prisoners in Iraq. Carroll was kidnapped January 7th in Baghdad.

2. Also in Iraq, mortar¹ shells struck a residential² area in southwestern Baghdad. Sixteen people were killed, more than fifty wounded. Officials in Baghdad lifted a three-day curfew on Monday--a curfew that quieted sectarian violence.

3. Dan Brown, the author of the best selling novel, the Da Vinci Code, was in a London court on Monday. Two men claimed Brown stole their ideas for his novel. The Da Vinci Code has sold more than thirty million copies worldwide.

4. In New Orleans, people are preparing for Fat Tuesday. It's been six months since Hurricane Katrina struck the Big Easy. Half of the city’s businesses are still closed, and Mardi Gras celebrations are scaled back from years past, but that didn’t keep people away from the traditional celebration.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. quiet :verb [I or T]
to (cause to) become calmer or less noisy:
e.g. Javed Miandad appealed for calm, but he failed to quiet the protesters.

2. the Big Easy :noun
a name for New Orleans

3. scale sth back :verb [M]
to make something smaller than it was or smaller than it was planned to be:
e.g. A shortage³ of money has forced them to scale down the project.