|
|
February 19
Deng Xiaoping
1997: China"s reformist Deng Xiaoping dies
England have
China"s paramount leader Deng Xiaoping has died at the age of 92.
He had been suffering from failing health for several years and was last
seen in public three years ago.
The country"s official news agency said his death was the result of
advanced stages of Parkinson"s Disease complicated by a lung infection and that
he had failed to respond to emergency treatment.
Chinese radio"s shortwave English language service praised his
"outstanding" leadership as a "great Marxist and the true architect of China"s
socialist reforms and modernisation".
A funeral committee has been announced, to be headed by Jiang Zemin, which
regional experts say makes him the most likely candidate to gain the
leadership.
Meanwhile Tiananmen Square the symbolic heart of China and the communist
party is reported to be peaceful, with no sign of extra security.
The BBC"s Beijing Correspondent Humphrey Hawksley said that given Deng
Xiaoping"s stated disregard for the "cult of the personality" it was unlikely
there would be any grand state funerals.
Humphrey Hawksley said: "Deng wished to hand over rule to a collective
leadership of modern thinking technocrats and not a god-king that China has
traditionally been accustomed to."
International reaction to the news has been complimentary about the dead
dictator and his contribution to the world economy.
US Secretary of State Madeline Albright said he was "an historic figure"
and that the US would continue to pursue a "multi-faceted relationship with
China", based on issues of trade, the environment and human rights.
The UK"s Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind expressed his hope economic and
political reforms would gather speed, not only for China but to protect Hong
Kong"s future.
Lanarca Airport was the scene of a 50-minute gunbattle
1978: Egyptian forces die in Cyprus gunfight
Artificially 1969:
The At least ten Egyptian commandos have been killed in a late-night gun
battle with Greek Cypriot soldiers at Larnaca airport, Cyprus.
Egyptian troops and Cypriot forces exchanged fire as the fate of hostages
and their abductors aboard a Cypriot airliner lay in the balance.
The Cypriot Government says it was in the process of solving the hostage
crisis when the Egyptians launched their own assault on the airliner.
Egypt has blamed Cyprus for the bloodshed and said their special forces
helped save the hostages and capture the terrorists.
The crisis began yesterday when the editor of a prominent Egyptian
newspaper and friend of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Youssef Sebai, was
assassinated at the Nicosia Hilton by two gunmen.
Negotiators then agreed to allow the killers to leave Cyprus with 11
hostages including Egyptians, in a Cypriot Airlines DC8.
However, the plane was forced to return to the island after other states
refused to allow it to land.
The Cypriot Government said they then permitted an Egyptian military C-130
Hercules to fly into Larnaca, but gave strict instructions to the Egyptians not
to interfere.
Egyptian commandos then launched an all-out assault on the DC8 even as
Cypriot negotiations had apparently secured the hostage-takers" surrender.
BBC reporter John Bierman described how the Cypriots opened fire on the
Egyptian anti-terror unit resulting in a 50-minute fight between the two
sides.
He said President Kyprianou and other senior Cypriot officials observing
events were forced to retreat from the airport control tower after it was hit by
bullets.
An attempt by one Cypriot officer to order Egyptian soldiers already lying
in their firing positions to surrender was described as an act of "insane
bravery".
Most of the commandos were forced to seek cover in a nearby empty airliner
after their Hercules was destroyed by a shell.
The crisis appears to have ended after the Cypriot National Guard
overpowered the Egyptian commandos and the DC8"s crew persuaded the gunmen to
give up their weapons.
Wounded Egyptian commandos and Cypriots were rushed to Larnaka
hospital.
Vocabulary:
paramount : having the highest rank or jurisdiction; superior to all
others; chief; supreme(极为重要的) |
|
发表于 2016-7-9 23:20:29