Ex1. Phonetic shadowing with/without text support

Ex2. Listen to a sentence and translate it (with/without the preliminary reading of it)

1. Malaysia crackdown on ethnic Indians.The Malaysian government is getting tough with ethnic Indians who are complaining about racial discrimination. Indians make up around eight percent of Malaysia's population of 27 million people, but community leaders say they do not enjoy the same rights as Malays and Chinese. Police arrested five activists from the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) on Thursday. The five are being held under the controversial Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial. Hindraf member S. Jayathas told the Associated Free Press news agency that: "Regardless of the arrests, this struggle will move on. We have many leaders who are waiting to take over and we will not go backwards, but move ahead with the fight for the rights of Indians in Malaysia.” Malaysia has been rocked in recent weeks by ethnic tensions. Public protests and marches are taking place in the streets and police are reacting violently, using tear gas, water canons and baton charges. Hundreds of Indians have been injured. The demonstrations are the biggest in Malaysia in over a decade and the government fears ethnic unrest in this usually peaceful, multiracial country. Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharom told The Associated Press: "This action is necessary because they [the Indians] have been causing a lot of problems for the public." Hindraf is demanding equality and fair treatment for Indians. It says Malaysia gives unfair, preferential treatment to Muslim Malays, which means Indians are being held back in business, jobs and education.

2. Putin is ‘Time’ magazine’s person of 2007. The American weekly news magazine Time has named Russia’s president Vladimir Putin as its 2007 "Person of the Year." Putin won the award for bringing stability to Russia at a time when it was experiencing chaos. Time’s managing editor Richard Stengel said the magazine chose Putin because of his "extraordinary feat of leadership” in restoring Russia as a world power. However, he pointed out that the award is not an “honor or endorsement", but is given as "a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world - for better or for worse". Past winners of the award include Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. This year’s runners up were Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and Chinese President Hu Jintao.

President Putin is hugely popular in Russia and recently won a landslide election victory. He has reformed the economy and created great wealth. His critics, however, accuse him of being undemocratic and having too much control over the media. Mr Stengel noted that Putin was not a perfect leader, saying: "He's the new czar of Russia and he's dangerous in the sense that he doesn't care about civil liberties, he doesn't care about free speech." Not everyone agreed with the award. The American news network Fox believes the leader of US troops in Iraq General David Petraeus was more deserving. Meanwhile, in Moscow, the Kremlin was happier. It said: “We do hope this will create a better understanding that Russia is a democratic country and is standing for fair play and avoiding double standards.”

Pakistan in turmoil as Bhutto is buried. Violence has spread across Pakistan as assassinated Benazir Bhutto was buried on Friday. The former prime minister was laid to rest next to her father in the family mausoleum in her native Sindh province. Tens of thousands of mourners assembled to see their beloved leader’s coffin, draped in political party colours. They wailed and beat their heads in grief as the funeral procession passed by. Her husband Asif Ali Zardari wept as he sat in the car carrying his slain wife’s body. Pakistan’s government has declared three days of mourning for the assassinated opposition leader, while the party she headed, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), has called for 40 days. Her death on Thursday at the hands of a suicide bomber at an election rally in Rawalpindi has plunged Pakistan into crisis. Riots have broken out all over the country with rioters attacking police, burning tires and looting stores.

The death of 54-year-old Bhutto leaves Pakistan in a state of political vacuum, with the short-term future of the country cloaked in uncertainty. There are fears the elections scheduled for January the 8th could be put off. This would please those responsible for her death, who seem intent on derailing attempts to bring democracy to Pakistan. Many believe Al Qaeda, who opposed Bhutto’s liberal views, was behind the suicide attack. The international community are very keen to see the elections take place on time to avoid further chaos in the country. Representatives of Bhutto’s PPP party have yet to say if they will contest the election and who would represent it. Bhutto had hoped to restore democracy and stability to Pakistan and free it from extremism. In 1988, aged just 35, she became the Muslim world's first democratically elected female prime minister. She was trying to lead her country for a third time.

4. Kenya violence “spiraling out of control”. Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga has warned the world that his country is in danger of destroying itself. He pleaded for the violence that has broken out across the country since the presidential elections on December 27 to end. Odinga said: Unless we ourselves resolve to act quickly to save our nation, there might be no nation left to save….The national fabric has been broken….Violence is spiraling out of control.” President Mwai Kibaki also addressed his nation, saying in a televised speech: “I feel deeply saddened to know Kenyans are confronting one another violently.” Violence broke out along ethnic lines after Mr Kibaki claimed victory in an election that his opponents say was stolen from them. It has resulted in Kenya’s worst crisis since its independence in 1963.

The turmoil over the validity of the election results has caused once peaceful neighbours to turn on each other. Mr Odinga’s supporters claim that President Kibaki's victory was largely due to vote-rigging. What started as peaceful political protests for an election re-run soon gave way to tit-for-tat killings along ethnic lines. This developed into an orgy of massacres as long-running tribal feuds among rival communities turned into localized forms of ethnic cleansing, something Mr Odinga says is “tearing Kenya apart.” Over 900 people have been brutally slaughtered in the streets, often being hacked to death by their neighbours. Rape, looting and the torching of property has also become commonplace. Mediation by former UN General Secretary Kofi Annan has so far failed to quell the violence.

5. Australia to apologize to Aborigines. The Australian government has said it will take the long overdue step of apologizing to the "stolen generation" of Aborigines. The “stolen generation” means the 10,000 Aboriginal children who were forcibly removed from their parents and adopted by white families. Babies, toddlers and youngsters were often snatched from their mother’s arms or secretly kidnapped. The idea was to “breed out” the Aboriginal colour, which was based on the belief that Aborigines were a doomed race. This policy of integrating mixed-race children into white society started in 1910 and only ended in 1969. Forty years after it ended, newly-elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will make the formal apology in a parliament address on February 13. Indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin said it would be a “bridge to the future”. Aborigines were delighted with the historic news. Christine King from the Stolen Generations Alliance said February 13 would be an extremely significant and emotional day. She said: "Older people thought they would never live to see it, so it's very important." The wording of the apology has been agreed with indigenous leaders and is being kept under wraps. It is not known whether Mr Rudd will say the word "sorry", a subject of much controversy. All previous governments refused to make an apology for destroying the lives of so many Aborigine children and families. They believed it was impossible to say sorry for actions of the past. Australia’s opposition party leader, Brendan Nelson, echoed the policy of previous governments by saying rising petrol and food prices were more important than the apology.

6. Kosovo declares independence. A new country was born on February 17th as Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia. The streets of Pristina, Kosovo’s capital city, were full of fireworks and people partying, as Kosovans celebrated their status as the world’s newest nation. However, the scene in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, was very different. Serbia’s government called the declaration illegal and said it would never, ever recognize it. Serbians believe Kosovo is a sacred part of the Serbian homeland. Russia and China condemned Kosovo for declaring itself independent and said the move could spark a new conflict in the Balkans. Moscow now fears that Chechnya and other regions, those Vladimir Putin calls “frozen conflicts,” will try and push for independence from Russia. Putin called, unsuccessfully, for a special meeting of the United Nations Security Council. Republic of Kosovo prime minister Hashim Thaci said his new country would be a "democratic, multi-ethnic state." He said all of its citizens would enjoy the same rights – both the ethnic Albanians which form 90% of the population and the 10% Serb minority. Thaci told his parliament: "We never lost faith in the dream that one day we would stand among the free nations of the world, and today we do…Dreams are infinite, our challenges loom large, but nothing can deter us from moving forward to the greatness that history has reserved for us." In a warning to Serbia, he said: "Kosovo will never be ruled by Belgrade again.” The USA, Britain, France, Germany and Italy supported Kosovo’s move and will help the young country develop in its early years. The European Union, however, is split over whether or not to recognize Kosovo’s independence.

7. First ‘honest African leader’ prize given

A prize for good leadership in Africa has been given for the very first time. The winner of the $5 million plus award, set up by the Sudanese telecom tycoon Mo Ibrahim, is Mozambique’s former president Joaquim Chissano. Mr. Chissano will receive a cool half a million dollars every year for ten years and then $200,000 every year for life. Mr. Ibrahim said the prize is to encourage African leaders to be honest and stick to the rules when their time as leader ends. He said he wants to discourage presidents from illegally extending their term of office or turning to corruption. The criteria the judges used in deciding the winner includes being freely elected, leaving their post on time, and making economic and social progress. They seemed to ignore the fact that Mr. Chissano left office amid many allegations of corruption. Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan praised Mr. Chissano’s for ending Mozambique’s 16-year civil war and bringing good to his nation. Mr. Annan said: "President Chissano's achievements in bringing peace, reconciliation, stable democracy and economic progress to his country greatly impressed the committee. So too did his decision to step down without seeking the third term the constitution allowed." He added: "It is a measure of the remarkable change that has taken place that national and regional elections have been contested in a generally peaceful manner by both sides in the bitter civil war." Mr. Annan told reporters that he hopes the prize will encourage African leaders “to follow the highest standards by offering them financial security following retirement from active political life".