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voice one:

the making of a nation -- a program in special english by the voice of america. (theme) i'm kay gallant. Today, harry monroe and i tell about the spanish-american war, which took place in the late eighteen-hundreds during the administration of president william mckinley.

voice two:

unlike other presidents of the late eighteen-hundreds, william mckinley spent much of his presidency dealing with foreign policy. The most serious problem involved spain.

spain ruled cuba at that time. Cuban rebels had started a fight for independence. The spanish government promised the cuban people equal rights and self-rule...but in the future. The rebels did not want to wait.

president mckinley felt spain should be left alone to honor its promises. He also felt responsible for protecting the lives and property of americans in cuba. When riots broke out in havana, he ordered the battleship "maine" to sail there.

one night in early eighteen-ninety-eight, a powerful explosion sank the maine. More than two-hundred-fifty american sailors died. There was some evidence the explosion was caused by an accident in the ship's fuel tanks. But many americans blamed spain. They demanded war to free cuba and make it independent.

voice one:

president mckinley had a difficult decision to make. He did not want war. As he told a friend: "i fought in our civil war. I saw the dead piled up. I do not want to see that again." but mckinley also knew many americans wanted war. If he refused to fight spain, his republican party could lose popular support.

so, he did not ask congress for a declaration of war right away. He sent a message to the spanish government, instead. Mckinley demanded an immediate ceasefire in cuba. He also offered his help in ending the revolt.

by the time spain agreed to the demands, mckinley had made his decision. He asked congress for permission to use military force to bring peace to cuba. Congress agreed. It also demanded that spain withdraw from cuba and give up all claims to the island.

the president signed the congressional resolution. The spanish government immediately broke relations. On april twenty-fifth, eighteen-ninety-eight, the united states declared war on spain.

voice two:

the american navy was ready to fight. It was three times bigger than the spanish navy. It also was better trained. A ship-building program begun fifteen years earlier had made the american navy one of the strongest in the world. Its ships were made of steel and carried powerful guns.

part of the american navy at that time was based in hong kong. The rest was based on the atlantic coast of the united states.

admiral george dewey commanded the pacific fleet. Dewey had received a message from the assistant secretary of the navy, theodore roosevelt. If war broke out, it said, he was to attack the spanish naval force in the philippines. The spanish force was commanded by admiral patricio montojo.

voice one:

the american fleet arrived in manila bay on may first. It sailed toward the line of spanish ships. The spanish fired first. The shells missed. When the two naval forces were five-thousand meters apart, admiral dewey ordered the americans to fire. After three hours, admiral montojo surrendered. Most of his ships were sunk. Four-hundred of his men were dead or wounded.

american land forces arrived several weeks later. They captured manila, giving the united states control of the philippines.

voice two:

dewey was suddenly a hero. Songs and poems were written about him. Congress gave him special honors. A spirit of victory spread across the nation. People called for an immediate invasion of cuba.

unlike the navy, america's army was not ready to fight. When war was declared, the army had only about twenty-five-thousand men. Within a few months, however, it had more than two-hundred-thousand. The soldiers trained at camps in the southern united states. One of the largest camps was in florida. Cuba is just one-hundred-fifty kilometers off the coast of florida.

voice one:

two weeks after the spanish-american war began, the army sent a small force to cuba. The force was ordered to inspect the north coast of cuba and to take supplies to cuban rebels. That invasion failed. But the second one succeeded. Four-hundred american soldiers landed with guns, bullets, and supplies for the rebels.

next, the army planned to send twenty-five-thousand men to cuba. Their goal was the port of santiago on the south coast. American ships had trapped a spanish naval force there earlier.

one of the commanders of the big american invasion force was theodore roosevelt.

roosevelt had resigned as assistant secretary of the navy when the war started. He organized a group of horse soldiers. Most of the men were cowboys from america's southwest. They could ride and shoot well. Some were rich young men from new york who simply shared roosevelt's love of excitement. The group became known as roosevelt's "rough riders."

voice two:

as the americans landed near santiago, spanish forces withdrew to positions outside the city. The strongest force was at san juan hill.

the spanish soldiers used smokeless gunpowder. This made their artillery hard to find. The americans did not have the smokeless powder. But they had gatling machine guns which poured a stream of bullets at the enemy.

when the machine guns opened fire, american soldiers began moving up san juan hill. Several american reporters watched. Later, one of them wrote this report:

"i have seen many pictures of the charge on san juan hill. But none seem to show it as i remember it. In the pictures, the men are running up the hill quickly in straight lines. There seem to be so many men that no enemy could stand against them.

"in fact," said the reporter, "there were not many men. And they moved up the hill slowly, in a close group, not in a straight line. It seemed as if someone had made a terrible mistake. One wanted to call to these few soldiers to come back."

voice one:

the american soldiers were not called back. They reached the top of san juan hill. The spanish soldiers fled. "all we have to do," an american officer said, "is hold on to the hill...and santiago will be ours."

american commander general william shafter sent a message to spanish commander general jose toral. Shafter demanded toral's surrender. While he waited for an answer, the spanish naval force tried to break out of santiago harbor. The attempt failed, and the americans took control of the port.

the loss destroyed any hope that spain could win the war. There was now no way it could send more soldiers and supplies to cuba.

general toral agreed to a short ceasefire so women and children could leave santiago. But he rejected general shafter's demand of unconditional surrender. American artillery then attacked santiago. General toral defended the city as best he could. Finally, on july seventeenth, he surrendered. The united states promised to send all his soldiers back to spain.

voice two:

in the next few weeks, american forces occupied puerto rico and the philippine capital of manila. America's war with spain was over. It had lasted just ten weeks. The next step was to negotiate terms of a peace treaty. The negotiations would be held in paris.

the victorious united states demanded independence for cuba. It demanded control over puerto rico and guam. And it demanded the right to occupy manila. The two sides agreed quickly on the terms concerning cuba, puerto rico, and guam. But they could not agree on what to do about the philippines.

spain rejected the american demand for control. It did not want to give up this important colony. Negotiations on this point of the peace treaty lasted for days.

that will be our story next week.

(theme)

voice one:

you have been listening to the making of a nation -- a program in special english by the voice of america. Your narrators were kay gallant and harry monroe. Our program was written by frank beardsley.

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voice one:

the making of a nation -- a program in special english.

(theme)

on december tenth, eighteen-ninety-eight, the united states and spain signed a treaty in paris officially ending the war between them. The fighting had stopped much earlier.

spain had made the first move toward peace after its forces surrendered at santiago, on the cuban coast. A few weeks before, the united states navy had destroyed spain's atlantic naval fleet. The american naval victory ended any chance that spain could win the war.

voice two:

late in july, the french ambassador in washington gave president william mckinley a message from the spanish government. Spain asked what terms the united states would demand for peace. President mckinley sent an immediate answer.

spain, he said, must give up cuba. It must also give to the united states the islands of puerto rico and guam. And he said spain must recognize the right of the united states to occupy manila in the philippines. The future of the philippines, he said, would be decided during negotiations on a peace treaty.

voice one:

mckinley's terms seemed severe to spain. But spain had no choice. It could not continue the war. So, ten weeks after war broke out, spain agreed to stop the fighting and accept the american terms. It signed a peace agreement in washington on august twelfth.

a spanish note protested sadly that the agreement took away the last memory of a glorious past. "it expels us from the western hemisphere, which became peopled and civilized through the proud efforts of our fathers."

voice two:

the two countries agreed to meet in paris to negotiate details of a peace treaty. The talks opened october first.

the two sides agreed quickly on the issue of cuban independence, and an american take-over of puerto rico and guam. But they could not agree on what to do about the philippines.

at the beginning of the talks, the united states was not sure if it wanted all or only part of the philippines. At first, president mckinley wanted spain to give up only luzon, the main island. Then he decided that the united states should demand all of the philippines. Mckinley explained later how he made this decision.

voice one:

"i thought first we would take only manila. Then luzon. Then other islands, perhaps. I walked the floor of the white house many nights. More than once, i went down on my knees and asked god to help me decide.

"and one night," said mckinley, "it came to me this way:

"that we could not give the philippines back to spain. That would be cowardly and dishonorable. We could not turn them over to france or germany, our trading competitors in asia. That would be bad business. We could not leave them to themselves. They were not ready for self-government. So, there was nothing for us to do but to take them all. And to educate the filipinos, to civilize them, and make christians of them.

"with that decision," said mckinley, "i went to bed and slept well."

voice two:

spain, however, did not want to give up the philippines. It protested that the united states had no right to demand the islands. True, americans occupied manila. But they did not control any other part of the philippines.

the two sides negotiated for days. Finally, they reached an agreement. Spain would give all of the philippines to the united states. In return, the united states would pay spain twenty-million dollars.

with this dispute ended, the peace treaty was quickly completed and signed. But trouble developed when president mckinley sent the treaty to the united states senate for approval.

voice one:

many americans opposed the treaty. They thought mckinley was wrong to take the philippines. Opponents of the treaty included former president cleveland, industrialist andrew carnegie, labor leader samuel gompers, writer mark twain, and others.

they organized anti-imperialist groups in many cities to oppose the treaty. They made speeches and published newspapers explaining their opposition. Imperialism, they said, had ruined ancient rome. And it would ruin the american republic.

they said colonies halfway around the world would be costly to protect. A large army and navy would be needed. They said colonial policies violated important democratic ideas upon which the united states had been built. We went to war with spain, they said, to free cuba from its colonial masters...not to make ourselves masters of the philippines.

voice two:

republican henry cabot lodge of massachusetts led the senate fight for the treaty. The opposition was led by the other massachusetts senator, george hoar, also a republican.

senator lodge appealed to national pride. He urged the senate not to pull down the american flag. Rejection of the treaty, he said, would dishonor the president and the country. It would show that we are not ready as a nation to enter into great questions of foreign policy.

senator albert beveridge of ohio also spoke in support of the treaty. Senator beveridge said the pacific would be of great importance in coming years. Therefore, he said, the power that rules the pacific will be the power that rules the world. And, with the philippines, that power is -- and forever will be – the unitedstates.

voice one:

senator hoar spoke strongly against the treaty. He said that taking over the philippines would be a dangerous break with america's past.

he said the greatest thing the united states had was its tradition of freedom. To take the philippines, he said, would deny that tradition. It would violate the constitution and the ideas contained in the declaration of independence: The idea that all men are created equal...and that government exists only with the permission of the governed.

voice two:

the senate vote on the treaty was set for february sixth. It seemed that the opposition had enough votes to reject it. But several things happened before the vote.

william jennings bryan, the leader of the democratic party, opposed the take-over of the philippines. But he urged democratic senators to vote for the treaty. Bryan was looking ahead to the presidential election in nineteen-hundred. He believed that the philippines' take-over would cause the united states nothing but trouble. He could put the blame for all the trouble on the republicans. Then -- if he was elected president -- the democrats could give the philippines their independence.

bryan succeeded in getting seventeen democrats and populists in the senate to vote for the treaty.

voice one:

two days before the vote was taken, violence broke out in the philippines. President mckinley, without waiting for the senate to act, ordered the american military government in manila to extend its control throughout the philippines.

the leader of the philippine rebels, emilio aquinaldo, opposed the order. Rebel forces prepared to fight. On the night of february fourth, thirty-thousand rebels attacked american forces around manila. Sixty americans were killed, and more than two-hundred-seventy were wounded. Rebel losses were much higher.

voice two:

news of the rebel attack caused some senators to change their minds about the philippines. Some who had opposed the treaty now agreed with the "washington star" newspaper that: "the filipinos must be taught to obey."

eighty-four senators were present for the vote on the treaty. To pass, the treaty needed a two-thirds majority -- fifty-six votes. One by one, the senators voted. Then the count was announced.

fifty-seven of the lawmakers had voted yes. Only twenty-seven had voted no. The treaty was approved. The philippines belonged to the united states.

(theme)

voice one:

you have been listening to the special english program, the making of a nation. Your narrators were steve ember and doug johnson. Our program was written by frank beardsley.

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This is the VOA Special English Science Report.

Many Special English Science Reports discuss medical studies that test the effect of a new drug. Usually, a large number of people is divided into two groups. One group takes the medicine being tested. The other takes an inactive substance called a “placebo.” The word “placebo” is Latin for “I shall please.” Placebo pills are usually made of sugar. No one knows which group is taking which substance. In such testing, the drug must perform better than the placebo to prove that it is effective.

However, the people who take the placebos often report improvements in their health. This is known as “the placebo effect” — pain that is eased or stopped by an inactive substance. Doctors have reported that the placebo effect can be used in treatment. For example, a doctor tells a patient that a new drug will stop her pain. The pill is only sugar. But the patient does not know that. She takes the pill and says the pain is gone.

Belief in this placebo effect began with a medical study published in Nineteen-Fifty-Five. It said treatment with a placebo made patients feel better thirty-five percent of the time. Experts think this is because the patients believed they were getting an effective treatment. A new study, however, questions the placebo effect.

Danish researchers at the University of Copenhagen and the Nordic Cochrane Center did the new study. They reported the results in The New England Journal of Medicine. They examined more than one-hundred studies from around the world involving placebos. More than eight-thousand people were involved in the studies. They suffered from among forty different medical disorders.

The researchers found little evidence of healing as the result of placebo use. They found no effect at all on measurements such as blood pressure or cholesterol levels. They found evidence of a placebo effect only when patients reported feeling better. The researchers said this improvement may have had nothing to do with the placebo at all. Or the patients may have been trying to please their doctors. The researchers said placebos should be used only for research purposes and not for treatment.

Experts say more studies are needed to show whether or not the placebo effect exists.

This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach.

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This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT.

Great apes are the animals most like humans. Experts say that great apes in the forests of Africa and Asia will disappear within ten years if nothing is done to save them. The United Nations Environment Program has begun a campaign called the Great Ape Survival Project.

Its members are working with wildlife groups and non-governmental organizations. Their goal to prevent the disappearance of gorillas, bonobos, chimpanzees and orangutans. The project targets areas in Africa and southeast Asia where apes are threatened by war, environmental destruction and hunting.

Ten years ago, there were more than six-hundred mountain gorillas in eastern and central Africa. Today, there are only about three-hundred. They are disappearing from forests in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. Many of them are being killed for food as part of the growing illegal bush-meat trade.

Congo was once a safe area for gorillas. But years of war and forest destruction have made the gorillas easier targets for hunters. Miners searching for minerals also hunt the great apes. The gorillas that are left have to be protected by armed soldiers in national parks.

Bonobos are small apes found only in the forests of Congo. Twenty years ago, there were about one-hundred-thousand bonobos. There are only about three-thousand today. Some bonobos have fled to nearby countries. Most of them are being hunted for food.

Many chimpanzees have died out in countries where they once lived. Fifty years ago, there were millions of chimpanzees across western and central Africa. Today, only about one-hundred-fifty-thousand chimpanzees remain.

The orangutan is endangered in Indonesia’s rainforests. The rainforests are shrinking because of farming, cutting down trees and gold mining in protected areas.

Environmental experts say apes need more protection in national parks. They say local people need to be educated about the value of apes and their importance to the environmental system. Experts say the apes are important for scientific study because they are so closely related to humans.

United Nations officials say they need one-million dollars to support the Great Ape Survival Project. They want private companies to assist in the campaign.

This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk.

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This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program IN THE NEWS.

Earlier this week, the European Union and China agreed on some important trade issues. China reached a similar agreement with the United States last week. These agreements have cleared the way for China to join the World Trade Organization. The process of admitting China is expected to begin at a W-T-O meeting Thursday in Geneva.

One-hundred-forty-one nations are W-T-O members now. These countries are responsible for more than ninety percent of the world’s trade. The main goal of the W-T-O is to keep world trade flowing as smoothly and freely as possible.

The World Trade Organization was established in Nineteen-Ninety-Five. It developed out of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade or GATT. GATT was created in Nineteen-Forty-Eight after the end of World War Two. It led to a series of international trade negotiations which established a world trading system. The W-T-O supervises and makes improvements to that system.

The W-T-O organizes trade negotiations and settles trade disputes. It supervises trade agreements reached by member nations. It also provides developing countries with technical assistance and training programs in trade issues. And, it cooperates with other international organizations.

The top decision-making group of the W-T-O is the Ministerial Conference. It meets at least once every two years in different cities around the world. W-T-O members reach agreements by debate and compromise. W-T-O agreements then go to the governments of each country for approval or rejection.

At first the trade agreements among the countries dealt mainly with goods. GATT was designed to lower import taxes and remove other barriers to trade in goods. However, W-T-O members later agreed on trade rules for the service industry. This industry includes banks, communications companies, hotels and transport businesses.

The W-T-O also supervises an agreement on what is called intellectual property. That agreement provides rules to protect trade and investment in ideas and creative activities.

The W-T-O says its agreements permit buyers and producers more choices in the materials and services that they use. The organization also says exporters can feel secure about the openness of foreign markets. The W-T-O says the result is a world economy that is stronger and more cooperative.

However, not everyone approves of the work of World Trade Organization. In the last few years, there have been major demonstrations at meetings of the W-T-O, World Bank and other similar organizations. Some of the protests have been violent.

The protestors oppose opening world markets to increased trade. They say the W-T-O and its allies are making industrial nations rich by keeping developing nations poor.

This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember.

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This is with the VOA Special English Development Report.

An international committee of doctors says that the number of cases of brain diseases in developing countries is rising.

The doctors were reporting the information for the United States National Academy of Sciences. They say that brain diseases affect at least two-hundred-fifty-million people in the developing world.

These diseases include strokes, epilepsy and mental sicknesses such as schizophrenia and depression. They also include abnormal development of the nervous system, which causes mental slowness and cerebral palsy.

Richard Johnson of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, was one of the leaders of the committee. He says poor countries usually do not have the resources to deal with brain diseases. This is because most developing countries are already struggling with food problems, the spread of infectious diseases and child health issues.

Srinivasa Murthy also served on the committee. She works for the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in India. She criticized the lack of international interest in brain diseases. For example, Doctor Murthy says fifty percent of all countries have no policies about brain diseases. In addition, she says health care centers in forty percent of the world’s countries do not offer common drugs to treat brain diseases.

Doctor Murthy says there are two reasons for this. One is a lack of money. The other is a lack of human resources. For example, a recent study shows most developing countries do not have enough doctors who treat mental sicknesses. Another barrier to action against brain diseases is the unfair way in which the public acts toward victims. Many victims of brain diseases are treated poorly.

The committee says there are effective and low cost medical treatments for these diseases. Yet these treatments are not often provided in developing countries. The committee says more treatments should be offered to poor countries. It says health care systems in developing countries should provide mental health services for their people.

The committee says efforts should be made to increase public understanding of brain diseases. Finally, the committee says national research programs should be established to study brain diseases.

This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss.

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This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT.

Desert locusts are a threat to agriculture in many developing countries. Large numbers of locusts can destroy crops in a few hours. Locusts can eat as much food in one day as two-thousand-five-hundred people. The insects also move quickly. They can travel more than one-hundred kilometers in a day.

The U-N Food and Agriculture Organization says desert locusts are found in twenty-five countries. The countries cover an area of sixteen-million square kilometers, from west Africa to India.

The local Ministry of Agriculture generally is responsible for locust control. In some areas, international organizations offer assistance. Chemicals to control locusts can reduce the number of insects. However, some locusts have developed a resistance to the chemicals. Also, chemicals can be costly and harm the environment.

Desert locusts caused major crop damage between Nineteen-Eighty-Seven and Nineteen-Eighty-Nine. Locust experts are preparing for the next major attack.

Presently, teams investigate and collect information about the location of locusts. They send their reports to a national office. From there, the reports are sent to F-A-O headquarters.

Recently, United Nations officials described a method to ease the work of people studying the insects. The method involves satellites in earth orbit and computers. F-A-O officials say teams now can use satellites in a global positioning system, or G-P-S. It provides position information to both military and civilian users all over the world. Researchers studying locusts can identify their position to within ten meters.

The team connects the G-P-S to a small hand-held computer. The computer has a program for collecting information about locusts. At the end of the day, the team connects the computer to a special radio in a vehicle. The radio sends the information to the national office through a special device.

F-A-O locust expert Keith Cressman says desert locust attacks can begin suddenly. So it is important to be able to act quickly. He says this technology will help send information quickly and correctly. The new system should help experts warn countries threatened by desert locusts. It also should reduce the amount of chemicals needed to kill the insects.

This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow.

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This is the VOA Special English Science Report.

Last week, we explained that the planet Mars has passed “opposition.” It passed a point opposite the Sun. This week, we tell about the planet’s surprising motion among the stars.

Our English word “planet” comes from the Greek word meaning “traveler.” For thousands of years, people have recognized that planets travel among the stars. The planets generally follow the path taken by the Sun through the sky. The Sun’s path is called the ecliptic. The groups of stars, or constellations, along the ecliptic are called the Zodiac.

The motion of the planets can be confusing at times. Everyone knows the Sun rises in the east and sets in the west. But this is caused by the turning motion of the Earth. Planets generally move from west to east.

However, Mars will appear to move backwards for about two months this year. This happens because the Earth is overtaking Mars on its way around the Sun. Mars began its backward, or westward, motion on May eleventh. It will start moving eastward again on July nineteenth.

Mars’ apparent motion has been a mystery to astronomers for hundreds of years. Most early theories of the solar system argued that the Sun and planets turned, or revolved, around the Earth. But the sudden westward motion of Mars presented a problem. Why would Mars move west for two months when it nears opposition?

In Fifteen-Forty-Three, a Polish church worker named Nicolas Copernicus published a different theory. His theory said the Earth and planets moved around the Sun in perfectly circular orbits. Copernicus’ theory was simpler. But his Sun-centered system still did not explain the observed motion of Mars very well.

Finally, a German mathematician named Johannes Kepler published a complete theory of the motion of the planets in Sixteen-Nineteen. He had carefully studied the motion of Mars for many years.

Johannes Kepler discovered that the planets do not move in circular orbits around the sun. Instead, they travel in flattened orbits called ellipses. Mars’ elliptical orbit is the cause of its unusual brightening this year and its apparent large size.

During the next several weeks, you can see for yourself why the mysterious motion of Mars has caused so many people to wonder.

This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Mario Ritter.

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[christian 235]

This is the VOA Special English Science Report.

American researchers report limited success using gene therapy to treat the genetic blood disease hemophilia.

Hemophilia results when a gene fails to produce the protein needed for the blood to clot, or change from a liquid to a solid. The defective gene is passed from parents to children. People with hemophilia suffer uncontrolled bleeding. This can result in pain, tissue swelling and permanent damage to joints and muscles.

One in every ten-thousand males has the most common kind of hemophilia. It is extremely rare for females to have it. Patients can be treated with the missing clotting substance. They generally can lead normal lives.

Scientists say gene therapy may be a possible way to cure hemophilia in the future. Most gene therapies use a virus to place a good copy of a gene into a cell that needs it. The new gene helps the body operate normally. For people with hemophilia, this means that clotting genes placed in the body would result in blood cells that clot normally.

Researchers consider hemophilia the best disease for gene therapy because it is caused by a single defective gene. Also, only a small increase in the missing clotting substance could provide good results. Scientists at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts carried out the experiment. They reported the results in the New England Journal of Medicine. They tested gene therapy in six patients with severe hemophilia.

First, they removed skin cells from the patients’ arms. The researchers grew the cells in the laboratory. They added copies of the needed gene taken from healthy people. Then they created hundreds of millions of genetically changed cells. They placed these cells into the patients’ stomachs.

After four months, the amount of blood clotting substance in the blood increased in four of the six patients. Some of the patients reported a decrease in bleeding problems. However, ten months later, the clotting substance was no longer in the patients’ blood. It is not clear if the implanted cells died or the added genes stopped working.

The researchers say the study showed that gene therapy is safe for people with the most common kind of hemophilia. But others expressed concern about the treatment because the effects were only temporary.

This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach.

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This is the VOA Special English Environment Report.

The Environmental Protection Agency has set limits for the radiation permitted to leak from a proposed nuclear waste burial center in the state of Nevada. The action will help decide whether the federal government can build the nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain.

The dump would be used to bury about seventy-thousand tons of nuclear waste. The waste includes used nuclear fuel from power centers and waste from the production of nuclear weapons. The waste is now stored at power centers around the country.

Yucca Mountain is owned by the federal government. No one lives there. It is in an extremely dry area more than one-hundred-forty-five kilometers northwest of Las Vegas.

The administration of President Bush believes a nuclear waste dump should be developed there. It says this dump is needed to permit an increase in nuclear power centers. Federal officials support more use of nuclear power because of the nation's energy problems. But Nevada state officials strongly oppose the plan. The dispute about Yucca Mountain has continued for almost twenty years.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently established radiation limits for groundwater, air and soil near Yucca Mountain. Both sides claimed that the agency ruling helped their cause. Department of Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham says his agency can meet the new requirements. Mister Abraham says the government may continue with the project by the end of the year.

But the two United States senators from Nevada oppose the project. They say the new restrictions will help efforts to block it. And the new Senate majority leader says the Senate will not pass legislation to build the nuclear waste dump.

The federal government says Yucca Mountain is a good place for a nuclear waste dump because of its lack of population and low rainfall.

But opponents say Yucca Mountain is near inactive volcanoes. They say earthquakes also have taken place in the area. And they say the nuclear waste would have to be transported through forty states to reach the proposed dump. They fear accidents could happen during this travel.

This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Jerilyn Watson.

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This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS.

Earlier this week, the United States Federal Reserve Board announced another cut in the amount banks pay to borrow money for a short term. The Federal Reserve Board is a part of America’s central bank.

The United States Congress established the Federal Reserve System in Nineteen-Thirteen when it approved the Federal Reserve Act. The legislation created Federal Reserve banks in twelve areas of the country. They are supervised by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. All national banks must be members of the system. State banks can be members if they meet federal requirements.

Seven people serve on the Board of Governors. The group is usually known as the Federal Reserve Board. Each member is appointed by the President of the United States to a fourteen year term. The Senate must approve the appointments of the board members.

The President names one member to serve as chairman for four years. The current chairman of the Federal Reserve Board is Alan Greenspan. He took office for a fourth term as Federal Reserve Chairman on June twentieth of the year Two-Thousand. Mister Greenspan has been named chairman by presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton.

The main responsibility of the Federal Reserve Board is to influence the economy of the United States to avoid inflation and support continuing growth. It does this by controlling the nation’s banking system and money supply. The Federal Reserve also sets important interest rates. Interest is the money people or businesses pay to banks for borrowing money.

The Federal Reserve establishes interest rates for loans that banks in the federal banking system make to each other. This is the federal funds rate. This rate influences interest rates for all other kinds of loans in the country.

About two-thirds of the economic activity in the United States depends on personal spending. Lower interest rates set by the Federal Reserve Board are supposed to increase personal spending by reducing the cost of borrowing.

The Federal Reserve Board has been reducing the federal funds interest rate all year. It started with a half-point cut on the second business day in January. It continued to cut a half-point at each of the three Board meetings since then. The Board even cut another half-point between meetings on April eighteenth. This reduced the rate from six and one-half percent in January to four percent. Then on Wednesday, the Board cut the interest rate by one quarter percent. So the federal funds rate is now three and three quarters percent. Experts say the series of interest rate cuts this year is the most aggressive action taken by the American central bank in nineteen years.

This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember.

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

The head of the World Health Organization says important efforts are being made to fight the world’s serious health problems. But she says gains could be lost if countries around the world do not support new health programs.

Gro Harlem Brundtland made her comments to the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland recently. She described a number of health programs expected in the coming years. However, Doctor Brundtland said the W-H-O’s one-hundred-ninety-one member countries must support the programs and put them into action. With this support, she said the W-H-O could reduce the number of deaths caused by malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. She also said the death rate for pregnant women and babies could be reduced.

Doctor Brundtland told W-H-O members that good health is linked to economic and social development. For example, she described how smoking tobacco threatens to reduce the resources of all countries, especially developing countries. The World Health Organization estimates that four-million people die each year from diseases linked to smoking. The organization expects that number to rise to ten-million a year in the next thirty years. Most of these deaths are expected in developing countries.

Doctor Brundtland said some progress is being made to improve the health of people around the world. She said there are new medicines to treat malaria and sleeping sickness. Also, the cost of medicines is decreasing for people who have the virus that causes AIDS. And she said reforms in the world’s health care systems are progressing. The head of the World Health Organization also believes progress has been made toward educating people about the world’s health dangers. She said that decision-makers in both rich and poor countries are starting to understand the cost of deadly diseases.

Finally, Doctor Brundtland said there are increasing numbers of medicines and programs to improve people’s health. She told health ministers they have a rare chance to improve the health of people around the world. However, she said countries must act immediately to seize that chance.

This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss.

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This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT.

Diseases, insects and animals all can threaten agriculture. Often the threat of attack comes from foreign organisms. The United States Department of Agriculture has many ways to protect American agriculture. One such method is the Beagle Brigade.

The Beagle Brigade is a group of non-aggressive dogs and their human partners. The dogs work with U-S-D-A inspectors and X-ray equipment to prevent the entry of banned agricultural products into the United States. They search travelers’ belongings for banned fruits, plants and meat that could carry harmful organisms.

All dogs have noses that are well built for smelling. Their noses are designed to receive and trap smells.

 

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service chose beagles for use at airports for several reasons. Beagles are intelligent and active dogs. They are loyal and obey orders. American officials have found that most beagles will remain calm in crowded, noisy areas. They also are gentle with people. And they have an excellent sense of smell.

Experts say beagles can identify smells so weak that even modern scientific technology could not measure them.Beagles also have an excellent ability to identify differences among smells. The part of a dog’s brain that receives messages from the nerves of the nose is highly developed. This area can store information the way a computer does.

The Agriculture Department established its program with dogs in Nineteen-Eighty-Four. At first, different kinds of dogs were used. Then officials worked with the armed forces in Texas to train Beagle Brigade teams. In Nineteen-Eighty-Seven, the Department opened three training centers and began training its own teams.

Now the Beagle Brigade has more than fifty teams at twenty-one international airports. More teams are being added. Plans are being made to deploy teams along the American border with Mexico. Plans also call for the use of dogs at some mail centers.

U-S-D-A officials also have provided help to agriculture officials in other countries who want to start their own dog programs. Officials in Australia, Canada, Guatemala, Mexico, New Zealand and South Korea have asked for help.

This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT

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This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT.

Scientists have long debated what caused many kinds of large animals in North America and Australia to disappear. Two new studies blame ancient humans for the disappearance. They say human hunters on both continents may have killed the animals for food. Science magazine reported the findings.

Thirteen-thousand years ago, North America was home to many large mammals. They included woolly mammoths, several kinds of horses, camels and oxen. However, these and many other animals died out soon after. More than seventy percent of the continent’s large mammals were affected.

John Alroy of the University of California at Santa Barbara led one of the studies. He developed a computer program to study the effect of human hunters on forty-one kinds of large mammals.

Mister Alroy based his study on evidence that humans first arrived in North America about thirteen-thousand years ago. He examined how a group of about one-hundred humans could grow in number over a period of one-thousand-two-hundred years. Mister Alroy estimated such things as reproduction rates and the amount of food humans need to survive. He found that it was possible for the small group of humans to expand to about three-hundred-thousand members during the period.

Mister Alroy said ancient humans could have killed off many kinds of large animals native to North America. He said the animals that disappeared had low rates of reproduction. This would have prevented them from recovering from the attacks by humans.

Science magazine also reported the findings of a study by Australian, French and American scientists. They studied fossil remains from twenty-eight areas across Australia and Papua New Guinea. The scientists said the fossils show that large animals in the area disappeared about forty-six-thousand years ago. That is a few thousand years after humans arrived.

More than thirty years ago, Paul Martin of the University of Arizona described how the disappearance of large animals was linked with human expansion. He says the two studies support his position. Mister Martin adds that local climate may have influenced the disappearance of some animals.

This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow.