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| Words in the News
Monday 09 September 2002
Vocabulary from the news. Listen to and read the report then find explanations of difficult words below.
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Palestinian MPs meet
Summary: Members of the Palestinian legislative council have begun an important meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah, but not all Palestinian MPs can attend because Israel has forbidden twelve of them from the Gaza Strip from travelling to the West Bank. This report from Peter Biles.
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| | The News | |
| | | Palestinian MPs, as well as foreign diplomats and other international observers, began arriving in Ramallah in mid-morning. The meeting had been moved from the offices of the Palestinian legislative council, to Yasser Arafat's battered compound where he's been under virtual siege for much of this year.
In his speech today, Mr Arafat is expected to renew his call for an end to suicide bomb attacks, because they're seen by many Palestinians as counter-productive to the Palestinian cause.
This was to have been the first time that all the members of the Palestinian parliament had met in person since the start of the Intifada nearly two years ago. But last week, Israel warned that anyone involved in terrorism would not be allowed to travel to the meeting in Ramallah, a town that is still under Israeli occupation and regular curfews.
On Sunday, the Israelis announced that twelve Palestinian MPs from Gaza would be barred. The majority of their colleagues in the Gaza Strip are staying away too in protest over the Israeli ban. They'll all be participating in the Parliamentary session by means of a video link between Ramallah and Gaza, as they have done in the past.
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| | The Words
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| | | international observers
people from other countries who watch an activity or event to see what happens, but they do not take part
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| | | battered
damaged by hitting, or after an attack
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| | | under...siege
if a town or group of people is under siege, it is surrounded by an army so that people cannot enter or leave
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| | | to renew his call
in a speech or formal statement, to ask for something again
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| | | counter-productive
something that leads to the opposite result from the one that you want to achieve
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| | | in person
if you meet, see or talk to someone in person, they are actually with you in the same place, not on the telephone or television
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| | | curfews
a law which says that people must stay inside their houses after a particular time at night
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| | | barred
stopped officially from doing something or going somewhere
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| | | ban
an official statement that something must not be done
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| | | a video link
a connection between two or more places so that the people in those places can communicate with each other by video
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| | Other Words in the News archives | |
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