Just 10 minutes,let's read English news everyday 每天十分钟一起读新闻

maybe11

Reading English news is a good way to practice English.

We read news everyday, home or international ones. An important international news is often translated into different languages and published in local medias all over the world. For example, many of you may read recently the following two news: the recent market slump due to the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating, and the U.S. Army Chinook helicopter shot down Saturday by the Taliban. However, can you restate them in English? Don't worry if you have difficulties in doing so. To be honnest, I cannot either.

For me, the problem lies in the vocabulary and suitable expressions. I was disturbed by the problem for a while. I was really dumb and I didn't realize until quite recently that reading English news is a perfect solution to the problem. Another suggestion from one of my colleagues is reading pocket books. Well, I prefer reading English news, because it's time-saving, just 10 minustes, per day. Moreover, you may have the chance to practice your reading, speaking and listening immediately，talking to your colleagues in coffee or tea breaks.

Just 10 minutes, let's read English news together everday!

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I will try to post one or two news everyday. I hope you who're reading the post now can join us to practice your English.

Your supports will be appreciated!

Best regards,
maybe11

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World Financial Officials Hold Emergency Call to Discuss U.S. Credit Downgrade

Financial officials from the Group of 20 major economies reportedly held an emergency conference call Sunday to the discuss the debt crises in the U.S. and Europe following several days of market panic and a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating.

Reuters reported that Japan and South Korea said that they were still confident in U.S.treasuries.

"I expressed our country's position on the (G20 conference) call that there will be no sudden change in our reserve management policy," South Korean Deputy Finance Minister Choi Jong-ku told Reuters.

Standard Poors Ratings Headquarters

Standard & Poor's adjustment of the U.S. credit rating Friday night added to growing fears over debt levels and economic growth in the world's biggest economy and in large European nations such as Italy and Spain.The downgrade from an AAA rating to an AA-plus is also set to hurt Europe, whose economy is closely linked to the U.S. and whose weak members depend on strong demand abroad for their goods to help them grow.

Early Sunday morning, markets in the Middle East tumbled at the start of their first day of business since the downgrade, even as some experts said that the rating change may not be as badas originally thought.

"Investors have voted and are saying the U.S. is goingto pay them." Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics said."U.S. Treasuries are still the gold standard."

Zandi noted that neither his parent organization, Moody's, nor Fitch, the other of the three major rating agencies, had downgraded U.S. debt.

"Anytime there's a problem anywhere on the planet,investors come to the safety of the U.S., and they don't go anywhere else," Zandi said.

Many economists see the world's big central banks as the last line of defense at this moment in the crisis, after policy makers in Europe andthe U.S.have failed to agree on the kind of shock-and-awe moves that many investors demand.

Many investors have also been calling on the U.S. Federal Reserve to start pumping money into the American economy again to help underpin the slowing economic recovery.

Concerned that the U.S.downgrade will deal a significant blow to consumer and business confidence, as well as world financial markets, the Group of Seven industrialized nations will discuss the U.S.credit rating and the eurozone sovereign debt concerns before Asian markets open for trading Monday.

Both Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn on Friday called for coordination between G7countries, saying the crisis has to be tackled on a global level.

On Saturday, British Prime Minister David Cameron spoke by telephone with President Nicolas Sarkozy of Franceto discuss the euro area and the U.S. debt downgrade, Cameron's office said in a statement. "Both agreed the importance of working together, monitoring the situation closely and keeping in contact over the comingdays," it said.

The G-7 contacts come after one of the worst weeks in global financial markets since the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008.

Contributing to the market slump was the eleventh-hour dealin Washington Tuesday to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, a move not effective enough to avoid the credit downgrade.

John Chambers, managing director and chairman of the S&Psovereign ratings committee, explained to Fox News on Saturday that the downgrade was "motivated by a number of factors," including the gridlock in Washington.

Chambers warned that the agency could downgrade U.S. debt anotch lower in the next six to 24 months if Congress doesn't cut another $1.6trillion over 10 years to reach the $4 trillion figure.

The probability of another downgrade is 3-1 odds, he said.

Asked whether the U.S. can regain its triple-Arating, Chambers said the five governments that managed to recover their rating did so in nine to 18 years.

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Fights Break Out in Afghanistan as NATO Moves to Recover Downed Helicopter

An Afghan official says there is fighting in the area where a U.S. Army Chinook helicopter was apparently shot down Saturday by the Taliban, killing 38, including more than 20 Navy Seals from the unit that killed Usama bin Laden in May.

Wardak provincial spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said Sunday that a joint operation was taking place in the Tangi Joy Zarin area of Sayd Abad district where the large transport helicopter went down late Saturday.

The clashes Sunday did not appear to involve the troopsaround the crash site.

"There have been a small number of limited engagements in the same district as yesterday's helicopter crash, however those clashe shave not been in the direct vicinity of the crash site," NATO said in astatement. "As of now, we have no reporting to indicate any coalition casualties resulting from these engagements."

Wardak provincial spokesman Shahidullah Shahid confirmed the helicopter recovery mission was under way and said there were reports of Taliban casualties overnight.

"There is a joint operation going on by Afghan and NATO forces. A clearing operation is ongoing in the district and there are reports of casualties among insurgents," Shahid said. "The area is still surrounded by American forces."

U.S. officials say the 22 Navy SEAL Team Six members and other troops lost in Saturday's helicopter crash in Afghanistan had rushed to the area to help fellow U.S. troops under fire.

The officials say the SEALs had responded to a request by U.S. Army Rangers who were taking heavy fire after going after a target.

One of the officials says the SEALs had completed their mission, subduing the attackers, and were departing in a U.S. Army Chinook helicopter when it was apparently hit by rocket-propelled grenade fire.

The other official said that the Rangers, special operations forces who work regularly with the SEALs, secured the crash site afterward.Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the event while the investigation remains ongoing.

The SEAL mission was first reported by CNN.

President Barack Obama said Saturday that the deaths are a reminder of the "extraordinary" price the U.S. military is paying in the decade-long Afghan war.

A total number of 38 people died in the crash, killing 7 Afghans and one interpreter.

"We don't believe that any of the special operators who were killed were involved in the bin Laden operation," a senior U.S. military official told Fox News.

The death toll would surpass the worst single day loss of life for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001 -- the June 28, 2005 downing of a military helicopter in eastern Kunar province. In that incident, 16 Navy SEALs and Army special operations troops were killed when their craft was shot down while on a mission to rescue four SEALs under attack by the Taliban. Three of the SEALs being rescued were also killed and the fourth wounded. It was the highest one-day death toll for the Navy Special Warfare personnel since World War II.

The Taliban claimed they downed the helicopter with rocket fire while it was taking part in a raid on a house where insurgents were gathered in the province of Wardak late Friday. It said wreckage of the craft was strewn at the scene. A senior U.S. administration official in Washington said the craft was apparently shot down by insurgents.

NATO confirmed the over night crash took place and that there "was enemy activity in the area."

"We are in the process of accessing the facts,"said U.S. Air Force Capt. Justin Brockhoff, a NATO spokesman.

With its steep mountain ranges, providing shelter for militants armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers, eastern Afghanistan is hazardous terrain for military aircraft. Large, slow-moving air transport carriers like the CH-47 Chinook are particularly vulnerable, often forced to ease their way through sheer valleys where insurgents can achieve more level lines of fire from mountain sides.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday gave the first public word of the new crash and expressed his condolences to President Barack Obama.

The helicopter was a twin-rotor Chinook, said an official at NATO headquarters in Brussels.The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he was receiving his information from an Afghan officer in Kabul.

The volatile region of Wardak borders the province of Kabulwhere the Afghan capital is located and is known for its strong Taliban presence.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement that Taliban fighters downed the helicopter during a "heavy raid" in SaydAbad. He said NATO attacked a house in Sayd Abad where insurgent fighters were gathering Friday night. During the battle, the fighters shot down the helicopter, killing 31 Americans and seven Afghans, he said, adding that eight insurgents were killed in the fight.

There have been at least 17 coalition and Afghan aircraft crashes in Afghanistan this year.

Most of the crashes were attributed to pilot errors, weather conditions or mechanical failures. However, the coalition has confirmed that at least one CH-47F Chinook helicopter was hit by a rocket propelled grenade on July 25. Two coalition crew members were injured in that attack.

Meanwhile, in the southern Helmand province, an Afghan government official said Saturday that NATO troops attacked a house and inadvertently killed eight members of a family, including women and children.

NATO has come under harsh criticism in the past for accidentally killing civilians during operations against suspected insurgents.However, civilian death tallies by the United Nations show the insurgency is responsible for most war casualties involving noncombatants.

In south Afghanistan,NATO said two coalition service member were killed, one on Friday and anotheron Saturday. The international alliance did not release further details.

With the casualties from the helicopter crash, the deaths bring to 365 the number of coalition troops killed this year in Afghanistan and 42 this month.

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British Police Face Public Anger as Riots Rage

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/08/09/uk-prime-minister-recalls-parliament-to-deal-with-sickening-rioting-crisis/#ixzz1UZ0XORyU

LONDON –
Britons swept up, patched up and fearedfurther violence Tuesday, demanding police do more to protect them after three nights of rioting left looted stores, torched cars and blackened buildings across London and several other U.K. cities.

Police said they were working full-tilt, but found themselves underattack -- from rioters roaming the streets, from a scared and worried public,and from politicians whose cost-cutting is squeezing police numbers ahead ofnext year's Olympic Games.

Related Video

London's Metropolitan Police force vowed an unprecedented operation to stop more rioting, flooding the streets Tuesday with 16,000 officers, nearly three times Monday's total.

Although the riots started Saturday with a protest over a police shooting, they have morphed into a general lawlessness that police have struggled to halt with ordinary tactics. Police in Britain generally avoid tear gas, water cannons or other strong-arm riot measures. Many shops targeted by looters had goods that youths would want anyway -- sneakers, bikes, electronics, leather goods -- while other buildings were torched apparently just for the fun of seeing something burn.

Police said plastic bullets were "one of the tactics" being considered to stop the looting. The bullets were common in Northern Ireland durings its years of unrest buthave never before been used in mainland Britain.

But police acknowledged they could not guarantee there would be nomore violence. Stores, offices and nursery schools in several parts of London closed early amidfears of fresh rioting Tuesday night.

"We have lots of information to suggest that there may be similar disturbances tonight," Commander Simon Foy told the BBC."That's exactly the reason why the Met (police force) has chosen to now actually really 'up the game' and put a significant number of officers on the streets."

The riots and looting caused heartache for Londoners whose businesses and homes were torched or looted, and a crisis for police and politicians already staggering from a spluttering economy and a scandal overillegal phone hacking by a tabloid newspaper that has dragged in senior politicians and police.

"The public wanted to see tough action. They wanted to see it sooner and there is a degree of frustration," said Andrew Silke, head of criminology at the University of East London.

London's beleaguered police force called the violence the worst inmemory, noting they received more than 20,000 emergency calls on Monday -- fourtimes the normal number. Scotland Yard has called in reinforcements from around the country and asked all volunteer special constables to report for duty.

Police launched a murder inquiry after a man found with a gunshot wound during riots in the south London suburb of Croydon died of his injuries Tuesday. Police said 44 officers and 14 members of the public were hurt, including a man in his 60s with life-threatening injuries.

So far over 560 people have been arrested in London and over 100 charged, and the capital's prison cells were overflowing. Several dozen more were arrested inother cities.

Prime Minister David Cameron -- who cut short a holiday in Italy todeal with the crisis -- recalled Parliament from its summer recess for an emergency debate on the riots and looting that have spread from the deprived London neighborhood of Tottenham to districts across the capital, and thecities of Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol.

Cameron described the scenes of burning buildings and smashed windows as "sickening," but refrained from tougher measures such ascalling in the military to help police restore order.

"People should be in no doubt that we will do everything necessary to restore order to Britain'sstreets and to make them safe for the law-abiding," Cameron told reportersafter a crisis meeting at his Downing Streetoffice.

Parliament will return to duty on Thursday, as the political fallout from the rampage takes hold. The crisis is a major test for Cameron's Conservative-led coalition government.

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Stock markets fall again as bank shares tumble
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14472079

European and US stock markets have begun to fall again,led down by steep falls in European banking shares.

In New York,the Dow Jones index was down 2.21% at 10,991.19 points.

An earlier rally in European shares proved short-lived after bank shareswere marked down heavily, with Societe Generale plunging 20% and Unicredit 8%.

The Cac 40 in Paris was down 4.1%,Frankfurt's Dax down 3.5%, while in Londonthe FTSE was down 2.1%. Italy'sFTSE MIB was down 5.8%.
UKbanking shares were also hit, with Barclays down 6%, RBS 4.8%, HSBC 4% andLloyds falling 3.6%.

David Buik, of BGC Partners, said it was almost inevitable that banking stocks would be falling.

"The banks have all got exposure of some degree or another to sovereign debts," he said.

"And none of the banks are going to get away scot-free. There are going to be writedowns."

Downgrade for France?

In nervous trading conditions, there was speculation that France would be next to follow the US and lose its top-grade AAA credit rating, something that was "formally" denied by the French finance ministryand the main ratings agencies, Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch.

But Lyn Graham-Taylor, fixed income strategist at Rabobank,said the markets were right to be concerned that Francecould lose its AAA credit rating: "We think from a fundamental perspective that France is due a downgrade," he said.

"In essence, France is the country with a AAA credit rating that can least afford to pay into any future eurozone-widebail-out scheme."

There are also concerns about the health of French banks and their exposure to government debt issued by some of the eurozone's weakest states.

Earlier, President Sarkozy followed an emergency government meeting by promising France would meet its deficit-cutting target "whatever the developments in its economic situation".

The government will meet again on 24 August to discuss measures to cut its deficit.

Calmer morning market conditions had helped the Italian government, whose indebtedness has worried the markets far more than France's recently, to borrow 6.5bn euros from the market in 12-month bonds at an interest rate of 2.9%, much lower than the 3.67% rate it paid a month ago.

Safety

Meanwhile, cautious investors continued to hedge their bet sin so-called safe-haven investments, including gold, which hit another new record of record $1,779.14 .

The Swiss authorities announced measures to try to reduce the value of the Swiss franc, which has also soared as investors seek safe investments, but has been hurting Swiss exporters.

The afternoon falls put paid to a short-lived rally sparked by an announcement from the US Federal Reserve late on Tuesday, which said it was unlikely to raise in interest rates for two years.

This, along with a pledge of further help to aid theeconomic recovery, if necessary, gave investors confidence.

But the Federal Reserve's statement also painted a bleak picture of the US economy, referring to weaker than expected economic growth,depressed household prices and spending and sluggish unemployment growth.

The fears about the state of the US economy were fanned last week by Standard & Poor's decision to cut the US's creditrating from AAA to AA+ for the first time.

On top of this, the continuing debt issues in Europe have prompted many analysts to revisit their own estimates for both economic and corporate profit growth.

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Noted New York Law Enforcer William Bratton To Advise U.K.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/08/12/noted-new-york-law-enforcer-william-bratton-in-talks-to-help-uk-with-riots/#ixzz1Uu12HaWQ

NEW YORK –
Former New York Police Commissioner William Bratton will advise the British government on gangs in the wake of rioting in London, Prime Minister David Cameron's office said Friday.

Downing Street said in a statement that Cameron had spoken with Bratton earlier in the day and thanked him for agreeing to make himself available for a series of meetings in the U.K. this fall to share his expertise tackling gang violence.

Bratton "will be providing this advice in a personal capacity and on an unpaid basis,"it added.

Bratton told The Associated Press on Friday evening, however, that he's giving a free consultation that he hopes will turn into a paid contract.

Cameron told British lawmakers earlier this week that he would welcome Bratton's input following a flurry of criticism over police response to rioting in London.

Bratton -- who gained fame by fighting crime with innovation and bravado as he headed police departments in New York, Boston and Los Angeles-- confirmed to the AP in a phone interview that Cameron had called him Friday seeking his expertise.

"We can definitely take some of the lessons here and apply them there," Bratton said. During his conversation with Cameron, Bratton said, "he thanked me for my willingness to work for them, and I thanked him for the opportunity."

Bratton -- who is now a prominent security consultant -- said that disturbing scenes of police overwhelmed by rioting in London show a need for more minority officers and other long-term solutions that have worked in New York and other U.S. cities,.

"This is a prime minister who has a clear idea of what he wants to do," Bratton said."He sees this crisis as a way to bring change. The police force there can be a catalyst for that. I'm very optimistic."

Bratton, 63, left the Los Angeles police in 2009 and is now chairman of Kroll, a Manhattan-based private security firm.

More than 1,700 people have been arrested after a week of violence in London and other British cities after a protest demanding justice over a fatal police shooting under disputed circumstances devolved into a riot.

Hundreds of stores were looted, buildings were set ablaze and five people died amid the mayhem that broke out Saturday in London and spread over four nights across England.

Police have been out maneuvered by mobile gangs of rioters, and the unrest has stirred fears of heightened racial tensions.

Bratton said he believes British police need to focus on quelling racial tensions by collaborating more with community leaders and civil rights groups. He also said social media sites can be a useful tool for law enforcement trying to monitor gang activities.

"The idea is to get ahead of the violence rather than just react to it," he said.

Another part of the potential long-term solution for London's Metropolitan Police, widely known as Scotland Yard, is to become more racially diverse, Bratton said.

"Part of the issue going forward is how to make policing more attractive to a changing population," he said.

Los Angeles and New York have benefited from police forces that "reflect the ethnic makeup of the cities," he said.

Over the past two decades, Bratton has gained a reputation as a bold leader who refocused police departments in cities struggling with spikes in gang and other violence.

When Bratton stepped in as Boston's police commissioner in 1991, the city was still being rocked by the violence that gripped many U.S. cities in the late 1980s as potent and addictive crack cocaine flooded urban neighborhoods. The ensuing gang turf wars forced a dramatic spike in the city's murder rate, hitting a high of 153 people in 1990.

One of the steps Bratton took to curb the violence was to deliver a list of about 400 of the city's gang and drug kingpins to then-Mayor Raymond Flynn, who had appointed him police chief.

Flynn said Bratton wanted direct indictments for as many as possible, sweeping some of the city's most violent criminals off the street for up to a decade.

"That's what he was good at; he was able to get those ring leaders off the streets," Flynn said.

Throughout the decade, Boston's murder rate steadily fell to 35 in 1998. Soon top political figures, including former President Bill Clinton, hailed the "Boston Miracle" with a good portion of the credit going to Bratton.

Although the city's murder rate has fluctuated since then, local leaders credit the legacy of community policing with helping keep the city relatively safe.

"When police are out in the neighborhood on an ongoing basis, there's a trust relationship that's built up," said Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, whose district includes Jamaica Plain, one of the city's most racially and ethnically diverse neighborhoods. "It's a strong model."

In 1993, then- NewYork Mayor Rudolph Giuliani recruited Bratton to help him pursue his administration's law-and-order agenda.

Bratton soon won admirers on Wall Street by applying corporate management techniques to big-city policing: A new set of chiefs "re-engineered" the department to tracklesser crimes by computer and thwart them before they evolved into anything worse.

In his first two years with the New York Police Department, reports of serious crime dropped 27 percent, matching levels not seen since the 1960s. Homicides alone fell nearly 40 percent.

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China unrest over toxic chemical plant in Dalian

Scuffles have broken out in the north-eastern Chinese city of Dalian between police and protesters demanding the relocation of a chemical plant.

Thousands of residents took part in the demonstration, state media say. Calls for the plant to be moved began mounting last week after a tropical storm broke the dyke around the plant, sparking fears of a toxic spill.

The plant produces paraxylene (PX), a chemical used in fabric manufacture which can be highly toxic. China's state news agency Xinhua said the city's top official, Tang Jun, had tried to calm the crowd on Sunday by promising to move the plant out of thecity, but the protesters showed no sign of dispersing.

There were no reports of injuries in the scuffles during which riot police were deployed to shield the municipal government office. Calls for protesters to gather on Sunday for a "group stroll", asthe rally was termed, had reportedly been circulating on social networks.

'PX out!'

Photographs posted on the internet on Sunday showed protesters, including children, marching under such banners as "I love Dalian and reject poison" and "Giveme back my home and garden! PX out! Protect Dalian!".

One picture showed three men standing on top of a police van in front of People's Square and a person in a skeleton costume surrounded by hundreds of men and policemen, Reuters news agency reports.

On Monday, residents living near the PX plant had to be evacuated after storm waves breached a dyke protecting it. The dyke was repaired but concern rose among local people and reports suggested the plant may have been operating illegally months before it received mandatory environmental approval.


PX is used to make plastics, polyester and cleaning products, and can damage vital organs after long-term exposure.A Dalian resident, who declined to be named, told Reuters news agency: "We know that the typhoon caused some leak of poisonous chemicals from the PX project and we are all worrying about it because it is a threat to our life."


Local people hoped their protest would "push the government to do something as soon as possible to dispel" the concern, the resident added.
Weibo, China's version of Twitter, was being censored by the authorities to block searches forthe terms "PX", "Dalian" and"Dalian protests".

"Group strolls" have become a favoured tactic for Chinese people to show discontent with the government.

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STUDENT DEBT: America's Next Bubble?                                          

By James Rosen                                         

         

Published August 19, 2011

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/19/student-debt-americas-next-bubble/#ixzz1VYgiOLnq

“I still have student loans,” David Guard, a graduate of Gettysburg College and American University, told Fox News recently, as law makers and the White House bickered over the debt ceiling. “I could see an increase in those interest rates.”

Such fears are common place and spreading, as educators,economists, parents, and students watch with growing dismay what some are calling America’s next bubble: the skyrocketing volume of student loan debt.

Figures provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York show that since 1999, outstanding student loan debt has grown by more than 511 percent. Over that same period, all other household debt in America – the sum total of all credit card bills, all auto loans, even all mortgage debt assumed during the great housing boom and bust that triggered the financial crisis – grew by about 100 percent.

Rising by $100 billion a year, outstanding student loan debt now stands at about $930 billion, and is expected to reach $1 trillion byyear’s end.

“Student loan debt has become a macroeconomic factor; itaffects the economy,” said Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of the financial aidwebsite www.finaid.org. “Students who graduate with excessive debt are morelikely to delay buying a car, buying a house, getting married, having children,saving for their retirement….They're spending less because they first have totackle their student loan debt.”

Tackling that debt, at a projected monthly rate of .5 to 1.0 percent of the overall amount due, means that an estimated $5 to $10 billion isbeing sucked out of the economy each month.

What’s more, the country’s dismal job market leads to rising rates of delinquency and default. Unemployed, and under-employed, college graduates have a tougher time making payments on their student loans; as a consequence, the rate at which such payments are falling more than 90 days past due is on the rise.

“Certainly, students have their role,” Michelle Asha Cooper,president of the Institute for Higher Education Policy, told Fox News. “They’re individual consumers. We need them to make wise and appropriate choices about where they go to school, and their repayment options.”

Experts cited a confluence of factors creating the student loan bubble: larger numbers of college enrollees; rising tuition rates;diminishing pools of grant aid; and sometimes extra vagant, and unnecessary, spending by institutions of higher learning, who pass their costs on to student borrowers.

Colleges and universities, said Cooper, “have a responsibility to make sure that they are doing everything possible to restrain college costs.”

But while he agrees the explosion in student debt is cause for alarm, Kantrowitz – who earned bachelor degrees in mathematics and philosophy from MIT and a master’s degree in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University – rejects the application of the term “bubble” to the problem. That, he said, would require an “oversupply of liquidity” relative to the value and cost of an education that is not discernible at present.

Beyond dispute is the value of a higher education diploma, not withstanding the risks associated with borrowing heavily to obtain it. Federal data last month showed an unemployment rate of under 5 percent for those with at least a college degree, compared with a rate of over 9 percent for those who only have a high school education.

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Iran Reportedly Sentences American Hikers to 8 Years in Prison

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/08/20/iran-reportedly-sentences-american-hikers-to-8-years-in-prison/#ixzz1Vb6iQC41

TEHRAN, Iran -- Two American men arrested more than two years ago while hiking along the Iraq-Iran border have been sentenced to eight years in prison on charges that include espionage, state TV reported Saturday, in an apparent sharp blow to hopes their release was imminent.

The announcement seems to send a hard-line message from Iran's judiciary -- which answers directly to the ruling clerics -- weeks after the country's foreign minister suggested that the trial of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal could clear the way for their freedom.

It also is likely to raise speculation about Iran using the Americans as political bargaining chips and could bring added tensions to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's expected visit to New York next month for the annual General Assembly at the United Nations.

But the report -- although carried on Iran's highly controlled state media -- was not immediately confirmed by authorities. Iranian government officials made no further comment, but it is not unusual for Iran to use selected state news outlets to make high-profile announcements.

In Washington, State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland restated U.S. appeals for their release. "It is time to reunite them with their families," she said.

The Americans, whose final court hearing was three weeks ago, deny the charges and say they were only hiking in a scenic and largely peaceful area of northern Iraq near the porous border.

They were detained in July 2009 along with a third American, Sarah Shourd, who was released in September 2010 on $500,000 bail and returned to the United States. Shourd's case "is still open," the state-run TV website irinn.ir reported.

Bauer and Fattal, both 29, have been sentenced to three years each for illegal entry into Iran and five years each for spying for the United States, the website quoted "informed sources" at Iran's judiciary as saying. It was not immediately clear if that includes time served. They have 20 days to appeal the sentence.

Their Iranian attorney, Masoud Shafiei, said he has not been notified of the verdict but he will definitely appeal the sentence if true.

"I've not been notified of any verdict in the case of my clients," Shafiei told The Associated Press. "This is a strong verdict inconsistent with the charges."

It's unclear what maximum sentence was possible by the Revolutionary Court, which handles state security issues. Espionage can bring the death penalty, but handing the sentence to a foreigner is unknown legal territory in Iran.

Iran insists that its judiciary is independent from political currents, but Iranian officials have used the detained Americans to draw attention to alleged mistreatment of Iranians in U.S. prisons and others who were held by U.S. forces in Iraq. The report on the sentences came just two days after President

Barack Obama made his most direct call for the resignation of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who remains among Iran's closest Mideast allies.

The case, meanwhile, has added to tensions between the United States and Iran that were already high over other issues, including Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

But Iran also recognizes the potential for goodwill gestures. Shourd's release -- assisting with talks by Oman -- came last year as Ahmadinejad was preparing for the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders.

The Americans say they mistakenly crossed into Iran when they stepped off a dirt road while hiking near a waterfall in the Kurdish region of Iraq. While other parts of Iraq remain troubled by violence, the semiautonomous Kurdish north has drawn tourists in recent years, including foreigners.

The U.S. government has appealed for the two men to be released, insisting that they have done nothing wrong. The two countries have no direct diplomatic relations, so Washington has been relying on an interests section at the Swiss Embassy in Tehran to follow the case.

Earlier this month, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said he hoped "the trial of the two American defendants who were detained for the crime of illegally entering Iran will finally lead to their freedom." Their lawyer also had expressed hope they might receive a pardon for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Phone and email messages left for Sarah Shourd, relatives of the two men and the families' spokeswoman Samantha Topping were not immediately returned.

Shourd is back living in Oakland, California; Bauer grew up in Onamia, Minnesota; and Fattal is from suburban Philadelphia. The last direct contact family members had with Bauer and Fattal was in May 2010 when their mothers were permitted a short visit in Tehran.

Their case most closely parallels that of freelance journalist Roxana Saberi, an Iranian-American who convicted of spying before being released in May 2009. Saberi was sentenced to eight years in prison, but an appeals court reduced that to a two-year suspended sentence and let her return to the U.S.

At the time, a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary said the court ordered the reduction as a gesture of "Islamic mercy" because Saberi had cooperated with authorities and expressed regret.

In May 2009, a French academic, Clotilde Reiss, also was freed after her 10-year sentence on espionage-related charges was commuted.

Last year, Iran freed an Iranian-American businessman, Reza Taghavi, was held for 29 months for alleged links to a bombing in the southern city of Shiraz, which killed 14 people. Taghavi denied any role in the attack.