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It is twenty-three hours thirty universal time. I'm Jim Tedder in Washington.

Palestinian officials say the Hamas and Fatah groups have agreed to a new cease-fire after a day of fighting in the Gaza Strip. Hospital officials in Gaza say five people were killed. At least eighteen civilians were injured.
Earlier, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh appealed separately for an end to the fighting. Mr. Haniyeh urged Palestinians to unite in the struggle against Israel. He accused the United States of leading efforts to oust the Hamas-led government and American State Department official rejected the accusation.

The Iraqi government says it has executed thirteen prisoners. It says they were guilty of murder and other crimes. Also Tuesday, polices said they found fifty three bodies around Baghdad. Many showed signs of torture. Also in Baghdad gunmen stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from a bank.
On Monday, the United States Defense Department said attacks in Iraq have increased to record levels during the past three months. The Defense Department said the Mahdi Army led by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has passed al-Qaida as the biggest threat to civilians.

President Bush says he plans to increase the number of the United States military forces to deal with a long-term fight against terrorism. Mr. Bush told Washington Post newspaper that he has told the new Defense Secretary to discuss increases with military commanders and report back to him. Mr. Bush says he is considering the need to increase the size of the army and marines. He says the war against terror is going to last for a while and the United States is going to need a military able to continue the fight. Experts say such an expansion will take years and would have little effect on the immediate future in Iraq.

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad says his country is ready for talks with the Bush Administration. Mr. Al-Assad also said that his country would not take orders from United States. He spoke in Moscow after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ten former American officials have urged the Bush administration to get Syria and Iran involved in ending the violence in Iraq. President Bush has yet to support the idea. His Administration has accused Syria of supporting resistance fighting in Iraq.

A Libyan court has ordered death sentences for five Bulgarian medical workers and a Palestinian doctor. The court found them guilty of purposely infecting more than four hundred children with the virus that causes AIDS. The six health care workers have the right to appeal to Libyan Supreme Court. Bulgaria condemned the sentences and called for the release of the six. In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin expressed concern about the rule.

You are listening to the news in VOA special English

United Nations Secretary-General Koffi Annan has warned that invading Iran over its nuclear program would not be wise. Mr. Annan spoke Tuesday in his last news conference before he leaves at the end of the year. He urged the UN Security Council to push for a negotiated end to the Iranian nuclear crisis. Mr. Annan also said he hoped UN would be able to negotiate issues with Sudanese government so there would be a UN force in the Darfur area by the New Year. Mr. Annan said he is happy about the work UN has done on human rights, development and stopping the spread of diseases such as HIV AIDS and bird flu. He said one of his worst times at UN came as he tried to stop the Iraq War as he lost friends in an attack on UN headquarters in Bagdad.

Tens of thousands of supporters of the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh have gathered to support the elections planned for next month. Police were deployed near presidential homel in Dhaka Tuesday to prevent violence in demonstration. Former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia leads the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Mrs. Zia said she would resist demands for the elections to be delayed. The leader of the oppsition Awani league has threatened a nation-wide strike on Thurday. Awani League leader Sheikh Hasina says the temporary government must meet the demands for election reforms before the January election.
The top United States diplomat to the North Korean nuclear talks says he dose not see North Korea taking major steps toward disarming. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill spoke to news reporters in Beijing. Mr. hill said he could not report any progress at the nuclear talks, he also urged China to do more to push North Korea to act on its earlier offer to disarm its nuclear weapons.

American Diplomat Berry Lancrown has expressed concern about the freedom of news media in Azerbaijan. The assistant secretary for democracy, human rights and labor spoke in the Azerbaijan capital Baku, he urged Azerbaijan to expand and protect the legal rights of the news media. Last month government officials forced an independent TV station to suspend broadcasting. The officials also halted publication of two independent newspapers

Astronauts on the American space shuttle Discovery have disconnected spacecraft from the international space station and have begun their trip back to the earth. The astronauts completed four repair projects during their visit to the space station. Discovery is to land Friday at Kennedy space centre in Florida.

And now briefly, here again is the major news of this hour. Palestinian officials say the Hamas and Fatah groups have agreed to a new cease-fire after a day of fighting in the Gaza Strip. President Bush says he plans to increase the number of the United States military forces to deal with a long-term fight against terrorism. And in Bangladesh, tens of thousands of supporters of the former Prime Minister have gathered to support the elections planned for next month. That’s the news in VOA special English. This is Jim Tedder reporting.

EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series: Adding Up the Costs of Study in the US
By Nancy Steinbach / Broadcast: Thursday, December 21, 2006

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

This week in our Foreign Student Series: the cost of higher education in the United States.

The high cost of an education

Students who want to attend an American college or university must explain how they will pay for their education. They have to show that they will be able to pay for each year of study.

Students have to consider not only the tuition, the cost of classes, but also meals and a place to live, known as room-and-board. They also need money for books and supplies. And they need money to spend for social activities and other things.

Educational advisers say foreign students should keep enough money in a local bank to pay for at least two months of spending.

So how much will a year at an American school cost? Generally speaking, the answer is: a lot.

A leading state university in the Pacific Northwest will serve as our example. The University of Washington says foreign students are paying more than thirty-six thousand dollars this year.

This major research university currently has two thousand six hundred foreign students from more than one hundred countries. There are many schools that cost less, but also others that cost more.

Its Web site says the University of Washington does not offer financial assistance to international students. This is generally true of American schools, especially at the undergraduate level.

The international application for the university includes a Statement of Financial Responsibility that must be signed. Students must also provide a bank letter or statement from within the past six months. And they have to name anyone who will help with payments. These people must send proof from a bank to show that they have the money.

Your government or employer may be able to help you pay all or some college costs. A good idea is to ask at least eighteen months before you want to start classes in the United States.

Our Foreign Student Series, including links to Web sites discussed in our reports, can be found at www.voaspecialenglish.com. To learn more about higher education in America, the State Department has a special Web site: educationusa dot state dot g-o-v.

Next time we will discuss another cost that should be considered: health insurance. Our e-mail address is special@voanews.com.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Barbara Klein.

THE MAKING OF A NATION - Story of World War Two: Developing the First Atomic Bombs
By David Jarmul / Broadcast: Thursday, December 21, 2006

VOICE ONE:

THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America.

(MUSIC)

Ruins left by the bomb dropped on Hiroshima August 6, 1945

World War Two ended with one of the most important events in the history of warfare, science, and technology. A team of American scientists, working in secrecy, designed and built the first atomic bombs. President Harry Truman made the decision to use these weapons against Japan.

America's use of atomic weapons brought to an end a terrible worldwide conflict. But it also marked the beginning of the modern nuclear period. And it showed the growing importance of science and technology in a modern economy and military system.

VOICE TWO:

The leaders of the United States have been interested in science since the early days of the nation.

Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were famous not only as great political leaders, but as inventors and scientists. President Abraham Lincoln and the Congress established the National Academy of Sciences during the Civil War in the eighteen sixties. And in the early nineteen hundreds, the nation created scientific offices to study and improve agriculture, public health, and air travel.

By the start of World War One in nineteen fourteen, the federal government was using scientists in many ways.

President Woodrow Wilson created the National Research Council to organize the work of scientists and engineers to win the war. However, government support for science before World War Two generally was quite limited. The government was willing to pay for research only to meet certain clear goals, such as better weapons or military transport systems.

VOICE ONE:

World War Two greatly changed the traditional, limited relationship between American scientists and the federal government in Washington. In the early years of the war, the German forces of Adolf Hitler showed the world the strength of their new tanks, guns, and other weapons. American President Franklin Roosevelt knew that the United States would need to develop modern weapons of its own if it entered the war.

For this reason, Roosevelt established a National Defense Research Committee in nineteen forty to support and organize research on weapons.

The new committee included some of the top scientists in America. Among its members were the presidents of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Bell Laboratories. The committee did its work so well that Roosevelt later formed an even more powerful Office of Scientific Research and Development.

VOICE TWO:

Vannevar Bush

The leader of both groups was a great scientist and organizer named Vannevar Bush. Bush had long experience as a professor of electrical engineering and as an inventor. Many scientists knew him.

Bush put together a hard-working team. And in the years that followed, American scientists and engineers developed one invention after another to help the war effort.

Scientists developed new devices to help the navy find German submarines. They improved methods for bomber planes to find their targets. And they developed more powerful rockets to protect American troops when they landed on foreign beaches.

American scientists and doctors also made great progress in improving the methods of wartime medicine. World War Two may well have been the first war in history in which a wounded soldier was more likely to survive than to die.

VOICE ONE:

The most important scientific development by far, however, was the invention of the atomic bomb.

Albert Einstein

In nineteen thirty-nine, scientist Albert Einstein wrote President Roosevelt a letter. Einstein told the president that it might soon be possible to build a weapon that would use the power of the atom to cause terrible destruction. And he urged Roosevelt to get American scientists to build the atomic bomb before German scientists could build one.

Roosevelt agreed. He created a special team of scientists. Their work became known as the Manhattan Project. Roosevelt made sure that these scientists got all the money and supplies they needed.

VOICE TWO:

The world's first atomic explosion on July 16, 1945, northwest of Alamogordo, New Mexico

Roosevelt died before the scientists could complete their work. But in April, nineteen forty-five, the scientists told the new president, Harry Truman, that they were almost ready to test the atomic bomb. And just three months later, they exploded the world's first atomic weapon in a test in the southwestern state of New Mexico.

Truman had to make a difficult decision. He knew the atomic weapon would cause major death and suffering if it was used on a Japanese city. But he was willing to do anything to avoid the need for American troops to invade Japan. Such an invasion surely would be a long, bloody struggle.

A new prime minister and government in Japan were searching for a way to end the war. But Truman believed that the Japanese still were not ready to surrender. And he felt it was his duty to end the war as soon as possible.

VOICE ONE:

Explosion of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima

On August sixth, nineteen forty-five, the first bomb fell on the city of Hiroshima. It killed nearly eighty thousand people and destroyed a great many buildings. Three days later, a second bomb fell on the city of Nagasaki. It, too, caused great destruction in human life and property.

The bombs left Japan's rulers with no choice. In less than one week, they surrendered.

Truman always defended his decision strongly. "I understand the tragic importance of the atomic bomb," he told the world by radio shortly after the two bombings. "We knew our enemies also were searching for this secret. And we know the disaster that would have come to this nation and to all peaceful nations if they had found it.

"Having found the bomb," said Truman, "we have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us. And we have used it to shorten the suffering of war, and to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans."

VOICE TWO:

American scientists and engineers proved that wars could be won with research as well as with bullets. And all Americans learned how much could be gained when government, scientists, and universities worked together for common goals.

Roosevelt had understood this long before the war ended. He asked Vannevar Bush to study how the federal government could work with scientists and universities in peacetime.

Bush studied the problem. And he offered a number of ideas to President Truman at the end of the war. Bush told the president that science was important to America's progress and safety. He called on the federal government to support scientific study and education.

Professor Bush said that the nation's universities should be greatly strengthened. He called for the creation of a new government agency to provide money for useful science projects.

VOICE ONE:

Truman and the Congress agreed with Bush. And in the next few years, they helped the American scientific and research effort to grow to new size and strength. In nineteen forty-six, an Office of Naval Research was created to support basic science study in the universities. In the same year, the government created the Atomic Energy Commission to develop nuclear energy for military and peaceful uses.

And in nineteen fifty, it created the powerful National Science Foundation to provide support to thousands of the nation's best scientists.

VOICE TWO:

In the years that followed, American science would grow beyond the wildest dreams of Vannevar Bush or the other scientists who worked during World War Two.

Universities would add thousands of new students. They would build new laboratories, book collections, and study centers. By the middle of the nineteen sixties, the federal government would spend more than thirteen thousand million dollars each year for research and development. And five hundred new centers of higher learning would be created.

This investment would help make the United States the world's leader in such fields as computer science, genetics, and space travel.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Warren Scheer. Our program was written by David Jarmul.

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