Spotlight
Saudi Arabia hosts oil summit
The world's top energy policymakers met in Saudi Arabia last weekend for emergency talks on halting oil's unrelenting rally, although divided views over the cause of recent gains divided the meeting.
Saudi Arabia encouraged OPEC peers with spare production capacity to join the kingdom in pumping more barrels, although some in the cartel skeptically countered that raising output will not rein in prices because they are driven more by speculation than market fundamentals.
Even so, officials said the meeting itself showed the growing will for a global effort to tackle oil's rise, which has triggered protests from Brussels to Bangkok over record fuel costs that threaten the world's economy.
Riyadh summoned producers, consumers and chief executives from big oil firms to the meeting after an unprecedented day of trading on June 6 when oil prices surged by $11 a barrel to a new peak, the largest ever one-day rise. Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, said in recent days it would raise output to 9.7 million barrels per day in July, its highest rate in decades.
<<<背景链接
油价在过去一年里翻了一番，尽管近期高增长势头有所趋缓，但目前油价仍在每桶140美元的高位徘徊。上周，美国纽约市场交货的轻质原油期货价格收报每桶134.62美元。亚洲主要石油消费国，包括石油消费量居世界第二的中国，最近都提高了国内燃料价格。分析家认为正是原先低廉的燃料价格加速了需求的增长。而大洋彼岸的美国规管当局正密切关注期货市场的投机行为。
沙特阿拉伯表示，计划在今后继续扩展其石油和天然气的产能，到明年年底前将石油产能提高至1250万桶/天。作为全球最大的石油生产国，沙特此举也打消了其他一些国家的忧虑。
石油消费国称只要欧佩克增加产量就可以压低石油价格，而欧佩克产油国则反复强调油价的升高是投机者哄抬价格、美元贬值和政治不稳定等因素综合作用的结果。 美国规管当局背负着来自立法者的行政压力，最近正密切关注期货市场的投机行为，减少投机热钱的流入。

EUROPE
EU crackdown on migrants
欧盟加强取缔非法移民
European Union lawmakers voted last Wednesday to allow undocumented migrants to be held in detention centers for up to 18 months and banned from European Union territory for five years. Protesters outside the European Union office in Madrid denounced immigrant detentions and deportations.
Criticized by groups like Amnesty International as “severely flawed” and an erosion of human rights standards, the so-called return directive passed in the European Parliament by a broad majority, although a significant number of lawmakers abstained from the vote.
<<<背景介绍
目前，欧盟27个成员国中的25个已实现了相互之间的人员自由流动，但整个联盟尚未有关于移民的统一政策。法令的支持者认为这个法令能够把处理逾期停留或偷渡入境的非法移民的条例有机地整合起来。
欧盟现有224个移民收容中心，能够同时收容大约三万名非法移民。在关于移民的人身自由应该被限制多久的问题上，各国条例规定不尽相同，在法国是一个月，而在另外八个欧盟国家，则没有规定期限。

ASIA
Pressure mounts on Thai PM
泰总理沙马下台压力剧增
Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej agreed last weekend to resign if he lost a no-confidence vote in Parliament but remained defiant in the face of anti-government protesters who have surrounded his office.
Thousands of demonstrators who broke through a police cordon on Friday continued to occupy the area around Thailand's seat of government. The protesters, led by the People's Alliance for Democracy movement, claim Mr. Samak's government is a proxy for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup.
<<<背景介绍
去年12月，泰国人民力量党主席沙马赢得大选。因为很多内阁成员都是前总理他信的亲信，沙马内阁披着一层浓浓的“他信色彩”，批评家说新政府的头一件大事就是要使他信复职。当初，由沙马所在政党主导的执政联盟控制了下议院大约2/3的席位。而这次，这些盟友们将不得不让沙马下台以应对他的“不信任危机”。
示威活动是从三周前开始的。如今流言已传遍曼谷，称泰国军方将发动又一次政变，干预国内日益恶化的政治斗争，但泰国陆军总司令已多次驳斥，称此为不实流言。

AMERICAS
Sino－US economic meeting wraps up
中美战略经济对话富有成果
China and the United States concluded two days of high-level economic talks last week and announced efforts to cooperate on energy and the environment and to try to negotiate a new treaty to ban discriminatory practices that block foreign investments in both countries.
The investment accord talks could slip into next year and might have to be completed by the next American president. U.S. Treasury secretary Henry Paulson and Wang Qishan, the vice premier who was China’s chief envoy in the economic talks, hailed the session as positive.
<<<背景介绍
第一次中美战略经济对话于2006年底在北京举行，这个对话机制得到了中美两国领导人和经济决策者们的肯定。本轮对话是双方的第四次对话，双方商定第五次会谈将于今年12月在北京举行。届时，美国总统选举已结束，这将使既定的条约、协定变得复杂。由于双方都想预估新政府的立场，会谈的进展可能放缓。
随着近期人民币升值、美元贬值，美国对中国产品出口速度的增长已经高于进口速度的增长。美国任由美元贬值给世界经济带来的消极影响在国际上招来一片骂声，这让美方少了颐指气使的霸气。去年美国对中国的贸易赤字超过2500 亿美元。

AFRICA/OCEANIA
Zimbabwe opposition withdraws from election
津巴布韦反对党退出大选
The leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition party withdrew Sunday from a presidential runoff just five days before it was to be held, saying he could neither participate in a fixed election nor ask his voters to risk their lives in the face of threats from forces backing President Robert Mugabe.
Opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai, the standard bearer of the Movement for Democratic Change, said at a news conference in Zimbabwe’s capital that his party was facing a war rather than an election.
<<<背景介绍
津巴布韦在今年3月底举行的首轮总统选举中，反对党领导人摩根·茨万吉拉伊得到的选票超过现任总统穆加贝，但因得票数未超过半数，选举无效。津巴布韦决定在6月27日举行第二轮总统选举。茨万吉拉伊曾因试图暴力推翻穆加贝政权而五次被捕，其所在党的二号人物已被当局以颠覆国家罪逮捕并面临死刑。
茨万吉拉伊退出竞选的决定迫使津巴布韦的邻国表明立场。现任总统穆加贝已84岁高龄，年轻时是津巴布韦独立解放斗争的英雄。津巴布韦是有着殖民地历史的国家，因此，穆加贝反西方制裁的言论在国内引起了比较强烈的共鸣。
Translated by Zhang Ping
Vocabulary
unrelenting 持续不断的
discriminatory 歧视的
cartel 同业联盟 abstain 弃权
denounce 声讨 summon 召集
defiant 不服从的 proxy 代表者
detention 拘留 rein in 控制