German mandate still in question



German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Angela Merkel, leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) react after the first exit polls in the German general election at their party headquarters in Berlin September 18, 2005.

Conservative challenger Angela Merkel's party won the most votes in the German elections on Sunday but fell short of a clear mandate to govern, according to official results. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder staged a dramatic comeback and proclaimed that he should head the next government.

The inconclusive result made it likely that Germany's next government would be weakened because of the narrow margin and difficulties in forming a coalition.

If Merkel is to become Germany's first female chancellor, she now must find a majority in a coalition that would likely force her to water down finance reform plans. Such a deal might also lead to a dampening of her strong opposition to Turkish membership of the European Union.

The vote centered on different visions of Germany's role in the world and how to fix its sputtering economy. Schroeder touted the country's role as a European leader and counterbalance to America, while Merkel pledged to reform the economy and strengthen relations with Washington.

With 298 of 299 districts declaring, the results showed Merkel's Christian Democrats Party leading with 35.2 percent of the vote compared to 34.3 percent for Schroeder's Social Democrats. Voting in the final district, Dresden, was delayed until Oct. 2 because of the death of a candidate. But that outcome was not expected to affect the final result.

The outcome gave Merkel's party 225 seats, three more than the Social Democrats; the Free Democrats got 61, the Left Party 54 and the Greens 51.

Merkel's preferred coalition partners - the pro-business Free Democrats - had 9.8 percent, leaving such an alliance short of outright victory. The Greens, the Social Democrats' current governing partner, had 8.1 percent; together, the two parties also failed to reach a majority, heralding the end of Schroeder's seven-year-old government.

The Left Party had 8.7 percent of the vote, but Schroeder said he would not work with them. The overall election turnout was 77.7 percent.

The result was a major setback for Merkel, whose party was at 42 percent in polls the week before the election.

Vocabulary
mandate 委任
proclaim 宣称
coalition 联盟
margin 差距
outright 完全的
setback 挫折

 

 

World in Pictures
Photo source: ImagineChina

	Dog frisbee championship 众狗竞技飞盘锦标赛 Australian shepherd dog Shelly catches the frisbee in the mini-distance discipline at the European dog frisbee championships in Neuss, Germany, September 17. Over the two days, puppies, junior, starter and senior dogs competed with each other in the freestyle, mini-distance, long-distance and dog dance disciplines.
	World's longest letter 世界最长的信写给布什 Elementary school children walk along the world's longest letter, stretching half a mile along the National Mall in Washington DC, September 15. The letter, comprising 4,000 letters handwritten by 8 and 9 year-old school children from across the country, was addressed to US President George W. Bush and ranged over topics from stopping the war in Iraq to ending world hunger.
	500, 000 bees on the body 2小时"招惹"50万只蜜蜂 Colombian beekeeper Norberto Marin Tellez, 35, stands with a coat of more than 500,000 Africanized bees covering his face and body, in a successful attempt to set a new Guinness World Record during an almost two-hour event, September 15 in Bucaramanga, Colombia.
	The mooncake ship 郑和下西洋"月饼船"亮相 Kong Tong Wah, master chef at Tong Wah Mooncakes, stands on a replica of a ship made from mooncake in downtown Kuala Lumpur, September 16. Kong, who holds two Guinness World Records for his over-sized mooncake creations, created the giant mooncake in honor of Chinese Admiral Zheng He's journey to the historical port of Malacca six hundred years ago. The mooncake ship, measuring 32 feet (9.7 meters) in length, was made out of 1800 kilograms of mooncake material.
	Splitting watermelons with the head 一分钟用头撞碎32只西瓜 Spaniard Leonardo D'Andrea amazed millions of TV viewers when he set a new world record for splitting watermelons with his forehead. He mashed 32 melons in under a minute to pip the record. Leonardo, from Barcelona, traveled to New York to attempt the record on Live with Regis and Kelly. He had held the record at 22 until it was recently smashed by an Australian. A Guinness World Records spokesman warned viewers: "Don't try this at home."

 

 

World in Words
Collected & translated by Beverly

"This will be a monument to universal justice that Mostar needs. "
"这将成为一座献给普遍正义的纪念碑, 莫斯塔尔需要的正是这种精神. "
The ethnically divided Bosnian city of Mostar has agreed to erect a new symbol of unity - a statue of kung fu legend Bruce Lee, worshipped by Muslims, Serbs and Croats.
--一直处于民族分裂状态的波斯尼亚城市莫斯塔尔决定竖立一座李小龙雕像作为团结的象征. 因为穆斯林、塞尔维亚人和克罗地亚人都很崇拜这位功夫影星.

"Rather than blindly insisting there is zero error in fingerprint matching, we should acknowledge the obvious, study the errors openly. "
"与其迷信指纹鉴定的零错误率, 不如承认其中显而易见的失误, 并公开地进行探讨分析. "
Simon Cole, criminologist at the University of California. A new study suggested there could be a thousand or more unrecorded identification errors a year in the United States.
--此言出自美国加州大学的犯罪学专家西蒙·科勒. 一项最新研究显示, 美国每年可能会有1000例甚至更多不为人知的指纹鉴定冤案.

"We sure appreciate the man that saved it. It's amazing a letter can come back after all these years."
"我们真的很感谢保存这封信的好心人, 一封信能在这么多年后物归原主真是个奇迹. "
Louise Kisling, sister of Clinton Krotz, a soldier killed in World War II whose letter was finally made it home after 60 years.
--二战阵亡士兵克林顿·克罗茨的遗书终于在60年后送达家人手中. 对此克林顿的姐姐路易丝·吉斯林心存感激.

"Clothes Care symbols are a unique and useful language, clearly a language that few people in the UK have taken the time to learn. "
"衣物洗涤标志是一门独特而实用的语言. 很明显, 没有几个英国人愿意花时间去学习这门语言. "
According to a new poll, nine in 10 people are unable to decipher common symbols used on clothes labels.
--英国一份调查表明90%的人不明白服装标签上常见洗涤标志的含义.