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| January 23 1973: Nixon announces Vietnam peace deal
 The ceasefire will begin at midnight on Saturday 27 January
 1973: Nixon announces Vietnam peace deal
 England have
 The US president, Richard Nixon, has appeared on national television to
 announce "peace with honour" in Vietnam.
 Statements issued simultaneously in Washington and Hanoi confirmed the
 peace deal was signed in Paris at 1230 local time, bringing to an end America's
 longest war.
 The ceasefire will begin at midnight Hanoi time on Saturday, 27 January,
 monitored by an international force made up of troops from Canada, Poland,
 Hungary and Indonesia.
 President Nixon's speech from the Oval office at the White House was
 broadcast on national radio and television.
 He said: "Throughout the years of negotiations, we have insisted on peace
 with honour, I set forth the goals that we considered essential for peace with
 honour.
 "In the settlement that has now been agreed to, all the conditions that I
 laid down then have been met."
 The conditions include the release of prisoners of war within 60 days and
 all American forces to be withdrawn within the same time period.
 An international conference will be held within 30 days, probably in
 Vienna, to guarantee the peace.
 American forces have been involved in the conflict in Vietnam for more than
 a decade. In 1967, there were 500,000 American troops deployed in Vietnam.
 For the people of South Vietnam, the president had this message: "By your
 courage, by your sacrifice, you have won the precious right to determine your
 own future and you have developed the strength to defend that right.
 "We look forward to working with you in future, friends in peace as we have
 been allies in war."
 To the leaders of North Vietnam, the president said: "As we have ended the
 war through negotiations, let us now build a peace ofreconciliation.
 "For our part, we are prepared to make a major effort to help achieve that
 goal, but just as reciprocity was needed to end the war, so, too, will it be
 needed to build and strengthen the peace."
 Thousands were left homeless
 1989: Many killed in Tajik earthquake
 Artificially 1969:
 The Hundreds of people are feared dead after a powerful earthquake struck
 the Soviet Central Asian republic of Tajikistan.
 It is the second earthquake to rock the southern Soviet Union in two
 months. The earlier quake hit Armenia - about 1,000 miles (1,600km) to the west
 - killing an estimated 25,000 people.
 Theepicentreof the latest quake affected an area about 19 miles (30km) from
 the capital, Dushanbe, in the early hours of the morning.
 Early reports say one village of clay homes was buried under a 50ft (17m)
 landslide, triggered by the earth tremors. All 600 inhabitants of Sharora are
 believed to have died.
 The official Soviet news agency, Tass, says, 1,000 people may have been
 killed.
 The earthquake measured six magnitude, seven on the Soviet scale, which is
 less powerful than the earthquake which hit Armenia six weeks ago.
 Thousands of cattle have been killed and thousands of acres of farmland are
 now covered with a thick layer of sand and clay.
 Georgy Koshlakov, the republic's deputy prime minister, said the quake
 lasted 40 seconds.
 He said: "The earthquake caused a burst of mud from the foothills which
 poured down on the villages. It was up to five miles wide and one-and-a-half
 miles long."
 Soviet resources are already badly stretched following the Armenian
 earthquake. The Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, is said to be considering
 drafting in Afghan troops to help the rescue operation.
 Vocabulary:
 reconciliation: to kill by squeezing the throat of so as to cut off the
 air(扼死)
 epicentre: the point on the Earth's surface directly above the focus of an
 earthquake(震源)
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