寄生草莓的英文俱樂部

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原文出處：Politics This Week

The long process to choose America’s presidential candidates got under way, in Iowa.

漫長的美國總統大選在愛荷華州展開。

Ted Cruz won the state’s Republican caucuses(預備會議), upending(翻倒) Donald Trump, who had led recent polling(民調).

泰德·克魯斯擊敗了最近在民調中引領風騷的唐納川普，贏得了愛荷華州的黨內初選。

Mr Trump came second, not far ahead of Marco Rubio, considered to be the viable(可行的) moderate alternative to the populist front-runners.

川普以些微差距退居第二，略為領先第三名的 Marco Rubio 這位被認為是取代民粹炒作者的中庸替代。

On the Democratic side Hillary Clinton eked out(竭力維持) a win over Bernie Sanders by 0.3 of a percentage point, the thinnest-ever margin of victory in the party’s Iowa caucuses. 

民主黨方面，希拉蕊克林頓竭力維持與對手 Bernie Sanders 的 0.3 百分點的差距，這大概是愛荷華州黨內初選中所見最微小的差距。

Ash Carter, America’s defence secretary, said the Pentagon(五角大廈) would ask for $583 billion in the White House’s forthcoming budget.

美國國防部長 Ash Carter 說道，五角大廈將要求 5830 億美金的預算。

Spending on fighting Islamic State is to double, to $7.5 billion, and support for central and east European countries in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will quadruple to $3.4 billion. 

其中與伊斯蘭國的戰事花費將翻倍至 75 億美金，支援中歐以及東歐應對俄羅斯入侵烏克蘭的戰事將翻四倍至 34 億美金。

Facebook moved to ban the private sale of guns through its network and Instagram, a photo-sharing site it owns.

臉書將要在他的相關網頁以及 Instagram 上禁止私人槍枝買賣。

Recognising a risk
The World Health Organisation declared that a rise in birth defects in Brazil, thought to be caused by the mosquito-borne Zika virus, is a global emergency.

世界衛生組織宣布在巴西升高的生育缺陷被認為是由蚊子傳播的茲卡病毒所引起的，將升高為全球的緊急情況。

The virus probably caused more than 4,000 cases of microcephaly(小頭畸形) among newborn children in Brazil and has been found in more than 20 countries in the Americas.

該病毒可能造成4000多例巴西新生兒小頭畸形，並在美洲 20多個國家已有病例。

The WHO thinks the virus is spreading “explosively”. It is thought that a case detected in Texas was probably transmitted through sex.

世衛組織認為，該病毒正在爆炸性的蔓延，在德克薩斯檢測到的病例極有可能是透過性行為傳染的。

Guatemala put on trial two former military officers charged with letting their soldiers kidnap and rape 11 Mayan women during the country’s 36-year civil war. This is the first time that anyone has been tried for wartime sex-slavery charges in the country where the crimes were allegedly committed(涉嫌).

瓜地馬拉有兩名前軍官被指控在長達 36 年的內戰中縱容士兵綁架並強姦十一名馬雅婦女，這次該國首次對戰時性奴役的嫌犯提出指控。

Argentina said it would repay(償還) Italian investors who had refused earlier offers of a debt restructuring(債務重組) after the country defaulted in 2001. If Congress approves the deal, the government will pay $1.35 billion, 150% of the face value(票面價值) of the bonds, to 50,000 investors. It hopes this will set a precedent(先例) for negotiations with holdout investors in bonds with a face value of $6 billion.

阿根廷表示將償還在 2001 拖欠的債務，如果國會批准這項交易，政府將支付$13.5 億美元，等同於債券票面價值的150％，給 50,000 名早期拒絕債務重組的意大利投資者。阿根廷希望此舉為一項債券面值高達 60 億美元的投資者的談判開創先例。

 The Cuban government is to allow residents of two districts in Havana, the capital, to have broadband connections to the internet. Cafés, restaurants and bars will also be permitted this huge privilege.

古巴政府允許哈瓦那(古巴首都)中兩個區的居民擁有寬頻網路，咖啡館，餐館和酒吧也將被允許擁有這個巨大的特權。

今日太晚了，待續。

不過看到最後一條新聞實在是有點崩潰，寬頻網路在我們的生活中已經是不可或缺且被視為理所當然的條件之一，

而在某些國家，擁有寬頻網路仍然是一種"巨大的特權"。