Special English 又叫“慢速英语”，是VOA 专为全世界非英语国家初学英语的听众安排的一种简易、规范的英语广播节目。该节目创始于50年代末期，是VOA 的专家们研究如何与世界各地的英语学习者进行交际的产物。它正式开播于1959年10月。当时只面向欧洲和中东，但由于这个节目适合许多国家英语学习者的需要，所以它的广播对象不久就扩大到世界其他地区，并很快在全世界范围内产生了广泛的影响。现在这个节目对欧洲、非洲和拉丁美洲每晚广播一次，对加勒比地区每晚广播一次（星期天除外），对东南亚广播次数最多，每天上午两次，晚上三次。
　　30多年来，VOA 为了办好Special English节目，进行了大量的调查研究工作，对播音速度、内容及用词范围都作了具体规定，基本上达到了既能为英语学习者提供信息，又不损害英语本身风格的目的，使之成为VOA 独具特色，拥有最大量听众的节目。
　

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2008.06.21

New Estimate Triples Number of War Deaths Over Past 50 Years

By / Broadcast date: Saturday, June 21, 2008

　　This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

　　A new study finds that wars killed three times more people in the past fifty years than other reports have estimated.

A napalm strike produces a fireball as
U.S. troops patrol in South Vietnam
in 1966 during Vietnam War　　Researchers studied wars in thirteen countries between nineteen fifty-five and two thousand two. They estimate that almost five and a half million people were killed, including almost four million in Vietnam.

　　Ziad Obermeyer is a doctor at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He and other researchers designed a new way to estimate deaths from wartime violence. Current methods used during conflicts have been criticized for a risk of underreporting or overreporting deaths.

　　The new method compares eyewitness and media reports to information gathered from families later, during peacetime. That information comes from United Nations World Health Surveys.

　　The study in the British Medical Journal does not support a common belief that war deaths are decreasing. Also, it deals only with deaths from violence. Disease can claim more lives during a conflict.

　　Wars also produce refugees. Friday was World Refugee Day. The United Nations says the number of people fleeing violence and repression has risen to almost eleven and a half million. Half are from Iraq and Afghanistan. The total does not include Palestinian refugees.

　　Also, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres says twenty-six million people are displaced within their own countries.

　　The conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Darfur area of Sudan get a lot of attention. But the high commissioner says other conflicts in Africa have created thousands of new refugees this year.

　　The U.N. refugee agency says refugee numbers worldwide fell for five years before rising again in the last two years. It says conflicts are largely to blame, but also climate change and poverty tied to rising energy and food prices.

　　The United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants says refugees face mistreatment and a lack of assistance in many countries. This group estimates there were more than fourteen million refugees worldwide last year.

　　More than two million Iraqis have become internally displaced since the Iraq war started in two thousand three. Another two million have fled to Jordan and Syria, including many professionals. Committee President Lavinia Limon says these doctors, lawyers and others cannot work legally in Jordan, Syria or the surrounding countries.

　　She spoke this week in Washington, joined by several lawmakers. Democratic Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland said the United States has relocated only around five thousand Iraqis since the war began. The State Department says it aims to relocate twelve thousand this year and is working as quickly as possible.

　　The report also criticizes much of Europe for making it difficult for refugees to gain entry. And it criticizes Kenya and other countries that keep large numbers of refugees in camps.

　　And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.