Authors of Medical Studies Not Always Who They Seem

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''Ghost authors'' and ''honorary authors'' present a problem for journals. First of two parts. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Medical journals are an important part of continuing education for doctors and other health providers. Journals say they do their best to publish high quality studies by trusted authors.

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors says: "An 'author' is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study ... "

In other words, someone who did much of the work.

Credit is to be based on three conditions. The first involves designing the study and gathering and analyzing the data. The second involves preparing the article. And the third involves final approval of the version to be published.

Readers may have no way to know who did what when studies list several authors. And not all studies list all their authors.

The Public Library of Science, or PLoS, is a nonprofit organization based in California. Its journals are available free online. The editors of PLoS Medicine ask authors if anyone from a company or public relations agency suggested or paid for their article.

They also ask if a professional writer helped with the article and to what extent. And they ask if the article is similar to articles published in other journals.

By asking these questions, the editors try to guard against the use of ghost authors. A ghost author is someone who had a lot to do with an article but is not given credit.

Drug companies have been known to pay researchers to place articles in journals to support their products.

Not all ghost authors, though, are paid. And there may be nothing scientifically wrong with a study involving paid authors who are not identified. But journal editors say everyone who worked on a study needs to take responsibility.

Another issue is the honorary author. Unlike a ghost author, an honorary author gets credit in the article but had little if anything to do with it. Authors sometimes add a well-known name to increase the chances that an article will be published. For example, the person may be the head of the university department that did the study.

The chief editor of PLoS Medicine says honorary authors are a more common problem than ghost authors. Virginia Barbour says the pressure in higher education to get published may be responsible for some of this. But she says any kind of dishonesty can shake people's faith in the medical profession.

We'll have more on this subject next week. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember.

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American History Series: Lincoln Needs a Victory

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The president was looking for a chance to make what would come to be called the Emancipation Proclamation. But he was losing political and popular support. Transcript of radio broadcast:

Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English.

By the summer of eighteen sixty-two, the American Civil War had been going on for more than a year. The Union had won some battles. The Confederacy had won others. But neither side was in a position to win the war.

President Abraham Lincoln needed a major victory. He was losing the support of both politicians and the public. A major victory would not only help him that way. It also would make it easier for him to make an important announcement.

For a number of months, he had been planning an announcement about the black people held as slaves in the South. It would come to be known as the Emancipation Proclamation.

Today, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe tell about Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.

VOICE ONE:

General Robert E. Lee

At the end of August, eighteen sixty-two, Confederate troops under the command of Robert E. Lee defeated the main Union army at Manassas, Virginia.

The battlefield was less than fifty kilometers from Washington.

The year before, Confederate troops had sent the Union army fleeing from that same battlefield. Now they had done it again.

With this latest victory, General Lee decided on a major move. He would carry the war into the northern states.

Lee took his army of sixty thousand men across the Potomac River into Maryland. He ordered some of his men to capture the Union position at Harpers Ferry. He moved the others to Sharpsburg, a town on the Potomac River.

He put his men into position along Antietam Creek, just outside of town. His lines extended almost three kilometers. There, at Antietam, he would make his stand.

He was still close enough to Virginia to withdraw, if the Union force following him proved too strong.

VOICE TWO:

The Battle of Antietam

The Union force arrived in the middle of September. It did not attack immediately. It spent one full day getting into position along Antietam Creek across from the Confederate army. It attacked the following day at sunrise.

The Union general, George McClellan, planned to attack all along the Confederate line at the same time. But this did not happen.

First, Union troops attacked one end of the line, which extended into a field full of tall corn plants. Then they attacked the center of the line, which was in an old, deeply sunken road that gave it good protection. Finally, they attacked at the other end of the line.

For each northern attack, General Lee was able to move men to where they were needed. The northern troops got within twenty-five meters of the Confederate line. But they could not break through anywhere.

VOICE ONE:

On the first day of battle at Antietam, Lee lost twenty-five percent of his men. On the second day, the two armies faced each other without firing. They were too tired to fight.

As they rested, however, fresh Union soldiers moved into position. Lee knew they would attack with full force the next day. He knew he could not win. Sadly, he ordered his men back to Virginia.

It was now clear: Antietam was a northern victory.

It was not a complete victory. The Union army could have chased the Confederate army and destroyed it. But General McClellan did not do this. He was satisfied that he had stopped the invasion.

VOICE TWO:

In Washington, President Lincoln welcomed the news. He had waited a long time for a northern victory.

Detail from a painting of President Lincoln first reading the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet

A few days after the battle, Lincoln held a special meeting with his cabinet. He talked about the declaration on slavery which he had prepared. It would free Negro slaves in the rebel states of the South.

"As you remember," he said, "I put the declaration aside several weeks ago, until I could issue it supported by a military victory. The action of the army against the rebels has not been exactly what I should have liked. But the rebels have been driven out of Maryland. And Pennsylvania is no longer in danger of invasion."

President Lincoln said he thought the time was right to announce the Emancipation Proclamation. The cabinet made some minor changes in the document, and Lincoln signed it.

VOICE ONE:

Newspapers printed the proclamation. This is what it said:

VOICE TWO:

"I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy, do hereby declare that on the first day of January, eighteen-sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state then in rebellion against the United States, shall then become and be forever free.

"The government of the United States, including the military and naval forces, will recognize and protect the freedom of such persons, and will interfere in no way with any efforts they may make for their actual freedom."

VOICE ONE:

Signing the proclamation

President Lincoln had tried to keep the question of slavery out of the Civil War. To him, there was just one reason for fighting: to save the Union. Nothing meant more to him than preventing the nation from splitting up.

Lincoln feared that the issue of slavery would weaken the northern war effort. Many men throughout the north would fight to save the Union. They would not fight to free the slaves.

Lincoln also needed the support of the four slave states that did not leave the Union: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri. He could not be sure of their support if he declared that the purpose of the war was to free the slaves.

As Lincoln waited for a Union victory to announce his Emancipation Proclamation, he wrote a letter to the "New York Tribune" newspaper. The letter was to prepare the public for what was to come. This is what Lincoln said:

VOICE TWO:

"My chief object in this struggle is to save the Union. It is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it. And if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it. And if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.

"What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union. This is how I see my official duty. It does not change my wish -- as a person -- that all men everywhere could be free."

VOICE ONE:

President Lincoln failed to keep the question of slavery out of the Civil War. As the war went on, month after long month, people in the North began to see it as more than a struggle for national unity. They began to see it as a struggle for human freedom.

Abolitionists were active. In speeches and writings, they said over and over again that slavery was evil.

As public opinion began to change, anti-slavery members of Congress gained more power.

By the summer of eighteen sixty-two, they had enough support to pass laws ending slavery in Washington, D.C. and United States territories. They also pushed through Congress a bill that would do much to end slavery in the states.

VOICE TWO:

The bill was called the Confiscation Act. It gave the federal government the power to confiscate, or seize, the property of all persons who supported the southern rebellion. Slaves were considered property. So any slaves seized under the act would become free immediately. Slaves who escaped from rebel slave owners also would be free. The bill would not affect slaves owned by persons who supported the Union.

President Lincoln did not like the Confiscation Act. He thought it interfered with his wartime powers as Commander-in-Chief.

VOICE ONE:

However, Lincoln was under great pressure from Abolitionists. So he signed the new law. But he did not plan to enforce it. He still hoped for a plan that would free the slaves slowly, over time.

He proposed such a plan, but only for the border states between north and south. Under his plan, the federal government would buy slaves in the border states and free them.

Lawmakers from the border states rejected Lincoln's plan. And that is when he decided to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

We will tell about the effects of that decision next week.

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER:

Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. The narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe.

THE MAKING OF A NATION is a radio series written with English learners in mind. Each weekly program is fifteen minutes long. The series began in May of nineteen sixty-nine. People who grew up listening to it are now old enough to listen with their own children, or even their grandchildren.

These days, with the Internet, people can download the transcripts and MP3s of our series at voaspecialenglish.com. They can also follow us on Twitter at VOA Learning English.

There are more than two hundred programs in the complete series, which starts over again every five years. New programs with recent history are added at the end of each cycle.

Most of the shows were produced a long time ago. This explains why a few words here and there may sound a little dated. In fact, some of the announcers are not even alive anymore. But we know from our audience that THE MAKING OF A NATION is the most popular of the feature programs in VOA Special English.

Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- an American history series in VOA Special English.

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Obama, Top Advisers Discuss Afghanistan Strategy

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President Barack Obama (file photo)

U.S. President Barack Obama has met with his top military commanders, diplomats, intelligence officials and other advisers, to review Washington's war strategy in Afghanistan. The administration is also considering the top commander's request for more troops.

President Obama and 18 members of his national security team spent about three hours in the White House Situation Room Wednesday, assessing their Afghanistan policy. Details of the discussion were not released.

The president's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, says this is the second of five such meetings to be held over several weeks, to determine the best course in Afghanistan. "Let's get a firm strategy, let's discuss that, let's poke and prod it and ensure that we have done it the right way, then implement tactics to achieve that strategy, and part of those tactics are deciding resources," he said.

One choice Mr. Obama faces is whether to send more troops to Afghanistan to prevent the Taliban from regaining control, or to use special forces and unmanned spy planes to target al-Qaida in Pakistan.

The U.S. Commander in Afghanistan, Army General Stanley McChrystal, has said the U.S. will likely lose the war if the administration does not send more troops.

Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell says key military leaders all support the type of counterinsurgency strategy that has resulted in significant progress in Iraq in recent years. That approach requires a large number of troops to provide security and help the local government assert its authority and deliver services.

Morrell says Defense Secretary Robert Gates supports that approach. But the spokesman says much has happened since the president announced his strategy in March, and Gates wants a closer look. "He wants to have a thorough discussion with the president and the rest of the national security team about whether that does remain the best way to pursue our enemies in Afghanistan, and ultimately bring a level of peace and security there, so that it no longer poses a threat to us," he said.

Mr. Obama ordered an additional 21,000 forces into Afghanistan in March, boosting the U.S. total to 68,000. Troops from U.S. allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization bring the total to about 100,000.

Reports say General McChrystal wants between 30,000 and 40,000 additional troops. Morrell says Secretary Gates still has the commander's specific troop request "locked in his desk drawer," and it will stay there until a later stage of the strategy review.

Before Wednesday's meeting, presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs said another decision to be made is how to deal with insurgents in Pakistan. "Pakistan will play a big role in the discussions, both today and moving forward. Extremist elements that were in Afghanistan have now been pushed into the mountains and into Pakistan," he said.

Overall, Gibbs says the president's main goals in Afghanistan have not changed. "I think the president believes strongly that the goals that he outlined are still very key to our national security, that we have to disrupt, dismantle and destroy al-Qaida and its extremist allies," he said.

Support for the eight-year-old war is declining among Americans. Slightly more than half say the conflict is not worth the fight. And some Democrats in Congress have questioned whether escalating the war is wise.

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Israel Agrees to Palestinian Prisoner Release in Exchange for Soldier Videotape

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Palestinian relatives of Fatima Al Zaq, scheduled to be released from Israeli prison celebrate in Gaza City, 30 Sep 2009

Israel says it has agreed to release 20 Palestinian women from its prisons in exchange for a videotape of an Israeli soldier who was captured by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid three years ago and taken to the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian militants abducted Gilad Shalit while on he was on patrol in 2006 and took him into the Gaza Strip. Two other Israeli soldiers were killed in the raid.

Since then, militants have refused the Red Cross access to Shalit and there has been almost no information about his condition.

Public pressure has grown in Israel for the return of the thin, bespectacled soldier who was 19 at the time of his capture. His case has touched Israelis, creating a huge appetite for any news about him.

That public pressure appeared to pay off Wednesday, when Israel's security cabinet announced it will release 20 Palestinian women security prisoners and detainees. The release will be in exchange for a recently recorded videotape showing that Shalit is alive.

Shimon Peres (2007 photo)

Israel's President Shimon Peres, speaking on Israeli radio, indicated a deal for the young soldier's release is probably a long way off.

"It's an important step but only a single step," said Shimon Peres. "The road for his liberation is still a long one and a complicated one."

Hamas - the militant Islamist faction that controls the Gaza Strip - confirmed the deal, which was brokered by German and Egyptian mediators.

A Hamas spokesman known as Abu Obeida told reporters in Gaza his group will continue to insist on the release of hundreds of higher-level Palestinian prisoners before it considers freeing Shalit. He called the agreed exchange a simple deal that he hopes will be a precursor to a comprehensive agreement.

The Hamas official said that with the help of Egyptian and German mediators, a deal had been struck to release the 20 Palestinian women held in what he described as Zionist prisons, in the coming days.

Israel says the women, who Hamas says are of various Palestinian factions, are to be released on Friday.

A list of names posted on Wednesday shows none of the women to be freed were being held for murder offenses and some are nearing the end of their sentences.

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Guinea Military Bans 'Subversive' Meetings Following Monday Violence

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Guinea's military government says it will not allow any gatherings that could threaten public safety, following the killing of at least 157 people protesting the expected candidacy of the country's military ruler. Military authorities are launching an investigation into the violence.

Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, attends a meeting at Camp Alpha Yaya Diallo military camp in Conakry, Guinea (File)

Military ruler Captain Moussa Dadis Camara says the investigation will shed light on what he called "these tragic events which threaten social peace."

Speaking on state television, Captain Camara warned that opposition leaders found responsible for the violence would be punished. He says some of his political opponents are paying young people to incite violence. Captain Camara announced a ban on what he calls "any mass gatherings which are of a subversive nature."

Guinea's Interior Ministry says 57 people were killed in Monday's violence only four of them from gunshots. It says the rest were trampled or died of asphyxiation.

Human rights groups in Guinea say at least 157 people were killed when members of the presidential guard shot into crowds of demonstrators at Conakry's main sports stadium.

The final death toll may never be known, as soldiers have already collected bodies themselves rather than allow them to be counted at public morgues.

Captain Camara is trying to shift responsibility for the violence onto his political opponents, saying some of the crowds at Monday's unauthorized protest looted weapons from a police station.

But he is also trying to distance himself from his own presidential guard, saying he can not control elements of Guinea's military responsible for what he is calling "those atrocities." He says he did not know what was happening at the stadium and wanted to go himself to see, but that it was not safe.

He says he is "very sorry" about the killing. He says did not take power nine months ago to have a confrontation with the Guinean people. Captain Camara has visited some of the wounded in hospital and declared two days of national mourning.

It is the most violent repression of political dissent since last December's coup and comes just months before a presidential election in which Captain Camara is expected to be a candidate.

He has not yet formally launched his campaign, but has told supporters that he will not insult them by ignoring their demands that he run.

It is this expected candidacy that a coalition of political parties, civil society groups and trade unions were protesting Monday. The African Union says it will sanction Captain Camara, if he decides to run for president.

France has suspended military assistance to Guinea and says it is reviewing its entire bilateral aid package. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner says the European Union is meeting Wednesday to consider additional measures that could be taken swiftly, particularly against individual members of Guinea's ruling military council.

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Widespread Water Found on Surface of Moon

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Also: New pictures from the improved Hubble Space Telescope. And American scientists find one of life’s building blocks on a comet.Transcript of radio broadcast:

VOICE ONE:

I'm Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. This week, we tell about the discovery of water on the moon.

We learn where scientists found one of the basic substances necessary for life. And we hear about the newly improved Hubble Space Telescope.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The moon appears to be a dry and dead place. Scientists have long believed that Earth's satellite lacks the ability to hold water near its surface because it has no atmosphere. So the announcement by the United States space agency shocked many in the scientific community.

A false-color image from NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper showing water-holding minerals near a crater on the moon

CARLE PIETERS: "Widespread water has been detected on the surface of the moon."

That was Carle Pieters, a professor at Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island. She is lead investigator for a NASA team studying the lunar findings.

The NASA scientists discovered water molecules mainly in the moon's extreme northern and southern areas. The researchers note, however, that they could also be seeing evidence of another molecule, hydroxyl.

Hydroxyl is the combination of one hydrogen atom and one oxygen atom. Water is made of one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms. The NASA team still is not sure how much of what they have found is water and how much is hydroxyl.

VOICE TWO:

Instruments on three separate spacecraft have now shown evidence of lunar water. NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper provided the most recent evidence. It was one of eleven scientific devices carried by the Chandrayaan-One spacecraft of the Indian Space Research Organization.

The mapper is a spectrometer, a device that measures reflected light wavelengths. It is able to show scientists what an object is made of from great distances. Similar devices on NASA's Cassini and Epoxi spacecraft also reported the presence of water. But those observations were made years ago and NASA scientists had not trusted the results without clear confirmation. Now, Mizz Pieters calls the new results completely conclusive. The findings were published in the journal Science.

VOICE ONE:

The Moon Mineralogy Mapper can only observe lunar soil to a depth of a few millimeters.

And the amount of water present in that layer is very small. Jim Green is director of NASA's Planetary Science Division. He points out that even the driest deserts on Earth have more water than the surface of the moon near its poles.

An artist's picture of the LCROSS spacecraft nearing the moon

Still, the discovery raises some important questions. Was water brought to the moon by space rocks and icy bodies called comets? Or could processes deep within the moon produce water? If that is the case, it may be possible that the moon could hold enough water for future explorations or even colonies.

Indian space officials lost contact with Chandrayaan-One late in August. But another NASA project, the Lunar Crater Observing and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, could provide answers to what lies deeper beneath the moon's surface.

That project involves crashing a rocket stage into the moon's south pole. LCROSS will then study the soil thrown up to ten kilometers above the lunar surface before it too crashes into the moon. NASA scientists hope to extend their search for water as deep as five meters beneath the surface of the moon. LCROSS is expected to crash into the moon next month.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Scientists have wondered for a long time about where the substances necessary for life came from. Water exists on Earth and the planet Mars. But what about important carbon-based molecules? Astronomers have recently found some surprising evidence that some of those materials may have come from comets.

Scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, found the substance glycine in material brought back to Earth from a comet. Glycine is one of the common amino acids. On Earth, organisms use glycine to create proteins. The discovery is exciting because it suggests that the building blocks of life may be more common in the universe than scientists had thought.

VOICE ONE:

An artist's picture of Stardust nearing comet Wild 2

The story of how space scientists were able to recover the material and bring it back to Earth is just as exciting. NASA captured the material using the Stardust spacecraft launched in nineteen ninety-nine from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Stardust passed through a cloud of material surrounding comet Wild Two in January of two thousand four.

A comet is a huge ball of frozen gas and dust that often releases a long trail of material as it nears the sun. A specially designed collector gathered dust particles from the comet and stored them on the spacecraft. Stardust then returned to Earth and released a special reentry capsule containing the material it had collected.

The recovery of the Stardust capsule was difficult because of its high reentry speed. The capsule was traveling at almost forty-six thousand kilometers an hour. It set a record as the fastest human-made object to ever enter the atmosphere.

The Stardust capsule successfully parachuted onto a dry plain in the state of Utah on January fifteenth, two thousand six. Since then, scientists around the world have been working to identify substances gathered from Comet Wild-Two.

VOICE TWO:

The discovery of glycine was not completely unexpected. But it is the first time an amino acid has been discovered on a comet. Amino acids have already been found in space rocks called meteorites. There is also early evidence suggesting that amino acids may also exist in the space between stars.

Yet, it took some time for the team to confirm that the amino acid glycine came from space. Glycine is very common on Earth. And the team at Goddard Space Flight Center was testing extremely small amounts of material. The researchers found the presence of carbon thirteen, a version of the carbon atom that is usually found in space. The presence of carbon thirteen confirmed that the glycine was from space.

Jamie Elsila led the research team. She said the discovery "supports the theory that some of life's ingredients formed in space and were delivered to Earth long ago by meteorite and comet impacts." The team's findings are to be published in the journal Meteorics and Planetary Science.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The Hubble Space Telescope's image of the Butterfly Nebula

The Hubble Space Telescope has again captured the imagination of the public by returning extraordinary images of the solar system and beyond. The telescope recently received new equipment and instruments to make it even more powerful. NASA released some new pictures earlier this month. One shows the remains of a dying star four thousand light years away which has thrown off a cloud of glowing hydrogen gas.

The image of the Butterfly nebula shows the intense color and detail that only Hubble can provide with such clearness.

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit in April of nineteen ninety. The project cost one and a half billion dollars. But when the telescope reached orbit, NASA scientists were shocked to discover that the costly mirror of the telescope had not been shaped correctly. Hubble was still able to carry out observations. But it was not until nineteen ninety-three that the problem was completely solved using corrective mirrors.

VOICE TWO:

Hubble's first-ever image

Hubble orbits about six hundred kilometers above the Earth's surface. We think of the telescope as moving slowly in its orbit. But it is really traveling at twenty-eight thousand kilometers an hour. It completes an orbit of the Earth in only ninety-seven minutes.

The first image taken by Hubble hardly showed its extraordinary power. It was of a small area of a group of stars. Although it was not a colorful picture, scientists were pleased. They could compare it with images taken by Earth-based telescopes.

VOICE ONE:

There have now been five missions to service and repair Hubble. The repairs carried out in May by the crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis are expected to be the last. Astronauts added a new wide field camera and a new spectrograph. They repaired an existing infrared wavelength camera and spectrometer. And they fixed Hubble's directional controls and batteries. The work required five separate spacewalks over eleven days. But the mission will keep Hubble alive until at least two thousand fourteen.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Shirley Griffith. You can see pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope and find transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

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Findings Raise Hopes for Progress on AIDS Vaccine

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Scientists say the risk of H.I.V. infection was reduced by almost one-third in a big study in Thailand. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

AIDS researchers say they still have much work to do on a vaccine against H.I.V. But the first reports of some success have raised hopes. Scientists say an experimental vaccine reduced the risk of infection in humans by thirty-one percent and was safe.

A lab technician works on blood samples at the research center in Bangkok, Thailand, where the AIDS vaccine tests took place

The study was designed to test for two abilities. One was the ability of the vaccine to prevent H.I.V. infections. The other was its ability to reduce the amount of virus in the blood of people who became infected during the study.

Volunteers received vaccinations over a period of six months and were tested for H.I.V. for an additional three years. The study began in two thousand three. It was the largest AIDS vaccine trial yet. It involved more than sixteen thousand adults in Thailand.

Half received the vaccine. The other half received a placebo, an inactive substance. The volunteers did not know which they were getting.

Seventy-four people in the placebo group became infected during the study. The researchers say that was compared with only fifty-one of those who received the vaccine.

Supachai Reks-Ngarm

Doctor Supachai Rerks-Ngarm, who led the study for the Thai Ministry of Public Health, called it a scientific breakthrough.

The Surgeon General of the United States Army sponsored the study and released the final results last week.

The National Institutes of Health also took part. Doctor Anthony Fauci at N.I.H. called the findings an important step forward. He said it represents the first time an investigational H.I.V. vaccine has shown some ability to prevent infection. But he also said additional research is needed to better understand how the vaccine reduced the risk in those individuals.

The vaccine did not lower the amount of virus in the blood of volunteers who became infected during the study.

The study was based on versions of H.I.V. commonly found in Thailand. The volunteers received a combination of two vaccines. The first, or prime, vaccine came from the Sanofi Pasteur company. The second, or booster, vaccine was developed by VaxGen. The nonprofit group Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases now has rights to it.

Neither vaccine had been successful by itself when tested earlier. More detailed results of the study are expected to be presented at an AIDS vaccine conference in Paris next month.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

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UN's Top Afghan Envoy Supports Call for More Troops

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Kai Eide, chief of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan(UNAMA) (file photo)

The U.N.'s top envoy for Afghanistan, Kai Eide, has expressed support for the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan's call for more troops in that country. Eide told the U.N. Security Council Tuesday that more international troops are necessary to help train Afghan military and police forces.

Eide said he did not want to get into the debate over the need for additional international fighting forces, but he called U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal's assessment of the war, "clear, straightforward and demanding." "We agree on the need to improve the strength and capacity of the Afghan army and police," he said.

Later, he told reporters that the debate in Western countries regarding engagement in Afghanistan should be reason for concern for both the current and future Afghan governments. He also explained that he thinks more troops are necessary to support the country's nascent police and military.

"I think that more troops are certainly needed, particularly to do one thing - we need to build up the Afghan security forces quickly - both the army and the police. That will, by necessity, need more troops, not only for the training, but for the mentoring in the field. It is quite inevitable," he said.

Eide said that cannot be only a U.S. effort. He said he spoke earlier in the day to European defense ministers who are meeting in Sweden and urged them to play a larger part in training and building up the police and army.

For his part, Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta welcomed the high priority the U.S. government has given Afghanistan. "We are confident the surge in U.S. military support, coupled with the increase in civilian and developmental assistance, is the best way forward," he said.

In Washington Tuesday, President Barack Obama met with the new head of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Mr. Obama said the United States and NATO agree that it is critically important to dismantle the al-Qaida network and work effectively with the Afghan government to ensure security in the country. Mr. Rasmussen said NATO allies are now examining General McChrystal's assessment of the war.

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Obama, NATO Chief Agree on Afghanistan Strategy

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President Barack Obama (right) and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at White House, 29 Sep 2009

The secretary general of NATO says he agrees with U.S. President Barack Obama's approach to the war in Afghanistan. The two leaders discussed strategy on Tuesday.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the leader of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, says President Obama is right to decide strategy, then troop strength, for Afghanistan.

"The first thing is not numbers," Rasmussen said. "It is to find and fine-tune the right approach to implement the strategy already laid down. And all NATO allies are right now looking at McChrystal's review."

Army General Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, has sent his evaluation of the situation on the ground to Mr. Obama and European leaders. Among other things, he is calling for more combat troops.

In the Oval Office on Tuesday, the president joined Mr. Rasmussen in saying the NATO operation in Afghanistan is a team effort.

"This is not a American battle; this is a NATO mission as well," Mr. Obama said. "And we are working actively and diligently to consult with NATO at every step of the way."

Mr. Obama is considering whether to send more troops to Afghanistan to prevent the Taliban from again taking control of the country or to use special forces and unmanned spy planes to target al-Qaida in Pakistan.

Either way, the president said U.S. goals in Afghanistan have not changed.

"It is absolutely critical that we are successful in dismantling, disrupting, destroying the al Qaida network," Mr. Obama said. "And that we are effectively working with the Afghan government to provide the security necessary for that country."

After meeting with Mr. Obama, NATO's Anders Rasmussen said he is convinced that success in Afghanistan will be achieved.

"This alliance will stand united and we will stay in Afghanistan as long as it takes to finish our job," Rasmussen said.

President Obama's meeting with Mr. Rasmussen is one of a series of meetings on Afghanistan strategy taking place during the next few weeks. A major meeting of key administration and military officials on Afghanistan, originally scheduled for Tuesday, has been postponed until Wednesday.

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30 Afghan Civilians Killed in Roadside Bombing

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Local officials in southern Afghanistan say a roadside bomb blasted a passenger bus Tuesday, killing 30 civilians and wounding at least 39 others. The latest violence comes days after a U.N. report declared August the deadliest month of the year for civilians in Afghanistan.

The Afghan government is blaming the Taliban for the latest attack outside the southern city of Kandahar.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed dozens of civilians, including women and children riding on the bus.

Afghan presidential spokesman Humayoon Hamedzada says authorities are investigating.

"We are deeply sorry for the loss of life, but our provincial authorities and the security agencies have received instructions to complete the investigations," Hamedzada said.

Tuesday's explosion occurred just west of the city on a highway where a similar blast killed three civilians a day earlier.

Late last week, the United Nations issued a report that said it had recorded some 1,500 civilian casualties between January and August. August was this year's deadliest month, as the Taliban sought to discourage people from voting in the presidential election.

The report also said almost three times as many civilian deaths were attributed to anti-government elements than to pro-government forces.

The spokesman for international forces in Afghanistan, U.S. Army Colonel Wayne Shanks, says NATO troops are working with local populations to clear the roads of Taliban bombs.

"Every time [the Taliban kills] innocent civilians, they are hurting themselves," Shanks said. "Just like if we make a mistake and we hurt innocent civilians, we are hurting ourselves. And we are trying to absolutely fix that."

Meanwhile in Pakistan, authorities say another suspected U.S. missile strike targeted militants in South Waziristan. Officials believe the insurgents in Pakistan's tribal regions have ties to the Taliban and al-Qaida and use the area as a base of operations for strikes in Afghanistan against foreign troops.

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How Changes on the Sun Can Affect Our Climate

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Also: New findings about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. And music for monkeys. Transcript of radio broadcast:

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week, we will tell about a study linking activity on the sun to changes in Earth’s climate. We will also tell about a discovery involving patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. And, we will hear some music written especially for monkeys.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

An American study has shown a link between activity on the surface of the sun and weather conditions on Earth. Scientists say small changes in the sun’s brightness can produce effects on Earth similar to two weather events in warm waters of the Pacific Ocean. The two events are commonly known as La Nina and El Nino. Reports say the study may lead to better predictions of temperatures, rainfall and the intensity of weather systems.

A drawing of the Earth and Sun

Scientists measure solar activity by counting dark areas on the sun’s surface. These sun spots produce bursts of energy. Other scientists have shown that sun spot activity can be measured in periods of time that last about eleven years. The total energy reaching Earth from the sun rises and falls by just one tenth of one percent across this solar cycle.

VOICE TWO:

In the new study, scientists examined more than one hundred years of ocean temperature records. They also used computer programs designed to reproduce the world’s climate. They found the highest levels of solar activity cause small, but far-reaching effects on weather systems around the world. These periods of high activity are known as solar maximum.

Gerald Meehl was the lead writer of a report about the study. He says his team showed the effects of a new process to understand what happens in the Pacific’s warm waters where there is a maximum of solar activity. Professor Meehl works for the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. The center organized and helped to pay for the study. The findings were published recently in the Journal of Climate.

VOICE ONE:

The report says that, at maximum activity, the small increase in sunshine over several years causes a small temperature increase in Earth’s atmosphere. This is especially true in cloud-free areas of the Pacific.

The extra heat is enough to cause ocean waters to evaporate into the air. This wet air is then carried by trade winds to the normally rainy areas of the western Pacific, near the Equator. This creates more rainfall.

The trade winds become stronger as the process gets repeated. This keeps the eastern Pacific cooler and drier than normal. It also creates conditions similar to the weather event known as La Nina. However, the cooling of about one and one-half to three degrees Celsius is only about half as strong as a real La Nina.

VOICE TWO:

About two years after a solar maximum, the Pacific experiences conditions similar to El Nino – the opposite of La Nina. These are also only half as strong as a real El Nino.

Real La Nina events have been linked with cooler than normal temperatures on the surface waters of the Pacific Ocean. El Nino events are linked to warmer than normal temperatures. Both events can have important effects on weather systems and climates around the world.

Gerald Meehl says a better understanding of solar activity and its influence on weather may help researchers predict long-term weather conditions.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is known by the letters A.D.H.D. Children with A.D.H.D. might have trouble paying attention. They might not seem to listen. They might forget things. They might not be able to stay seated or play quietly.

Barbara Eddy with her daughters, Allegra, left, and Francesca. The mother from Pasadena, California, has A.D.H.D.

Children with A.D.H.D. might talk too much. And they might act and speak without thinking about the results of their behavior. These are among the signs named on the web site of America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Doctors usually identify the disorder in children. But experts say the behaviors often last into adulthood.

VOICE TWO:

Researchers have been looking for the cause or causes of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Now, a brain-imaging study offers more evidence that could lead to new ways to treat it. Researchers say they observed shortages in the brain's reward system in patients with A.D.H.D. The study found that levels of some proteins were lower than normal.

VOICE ONE:

Nora Volkow is director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. She says the lack of attention and self-control that mark A.D.H.D. could be caused by problems in the flow of dopamine. She says people might have difficulty completing an activity if they cannot expect some kind of reward in return.

Researchers studied the pathways on which dopamine travels in fifty-three adults with A.D.H.D. Doctor Volkow says the researchers then compared the pathways to those of forty-four adults without the disorder.

NORA VOLKOW: "There was a lower concentration of dopamine markers in the brain of individuals with A.D.H.D., specifically in the areas of the brain that are involved with reward and motivation."

VOICE ONE:

Doctor Volkow says the dopamine levels were directly linked to the severity of the patient's inattention.

VOICE TWO:

The study used brain images taken at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York State. Gene-Jack Wang is chairman of the Brookhaven medical department. He says the finding might also help explain why people with A.D.H.D. are more likely to abuse drugs or overeat. He says they might be attempting to increase their dopamine levels to make up for the deficits in their reward system.

The Brookhaven Lab is part of the United States Department of Energy. The National Institutes of Health supported the research. The study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Finally, a psychology professor and a musician have reported that some monkeys can react to music. Or, at least their study shows that music similar to the monkey’s own sounds can affect their feelings and behavior.

But the animals that were studied appeared to care little for music written for people. The results of the experiment were reported in the publication Biology Letters.

A cotton-top tamarin

VOICE TWO:

David Teie is a cellist in the National Symphony in Washington, D.C. He also teaches music at the University of Maryland. He worked on the study with Charles Snowdon, a psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

As part of the project, Mister Teie studied recorded calls of cotton-top tamarin monkeys. The animal is native to South American rainforests. This time, however, the calls came from a colony of monkeys kept at the University of Wisconsin.

Mister Teie developed short musical pieces containing sounds similar to the monkeys’ own expressions. The pieces expressed a sense of safety and happiness. Other pieces suggested unease and a feeling of threat. His thirty-second pieces of monkey music also used sounds about as long as the monkeys’ calls.

VOICE ONE:

Then Charles Snowdon played Mister Teie’s music for the monkeys. The professor wanted to see if the animals could tell the difference between the calming music and the music written to make them uneasy. And, if so, would their behavior show their reactions?

That is exactly what happened. The monkeys reacted calmly when they heard the calming music.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

They demonstrated their quieter feelings by eating and drinking more and moving around less. But the same animals acted uneasy after they heard Mister Tie’s threatening music.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

They demonstrated their fear by moving around more. Their reactions were observed five minutes after they heard the music.

VOICE TWO:

Music is known to affect human emotions, often deeply. Naturally enough, the researchers also wanted to learn if music written for people would interest the monkeys.

Professor Snowdon played calming human music for the animals. They did not seem to show a difference in behavior. But, strangely enough, the monkeys calmed when they heard the heavy metal band Metallica.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by June Simms, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I’m Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

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How to Strike Oil (From Seeds, That Is)

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Small batch presses can be made of low-cost materials. They are not difficult to operate, and are easy to repair. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

From the beginning of human history, people have used oils from seeds and nuts. Most of the time these oils are used as food, especially in cooking. But sometimes they have other uses. For example, oils are used in paint and in cleaning products like soap.

Oil is separated from seeds by using pressure. A machine called a press is often used. Sometimes it is surprising to learn how much oil the seeds contain. Sesame, cotton and sunflower seeds, for example, all contain at least fifty percent oil.

Soybean is an important seed around the world, but it is only twenty percent oil. So chemicals are needed to release oil from soybeans.

The first step in pressing the oil from seeds is to crush the seeds between two stones. The crushed seeds are then put into a cloth bag and the bag is hung up. Some of the oil will flow out of the bag and can be collected.

But some oil will remain in the crushed seeds inside the bag. The easiest way to get the rest of the oil out is to place heavy rocks on the crushed material.

Another method is to place several cloth bags on top of each other in a box. Then a long wooden stick is used to slowly push a heavy cover down on the bags. Great pressure is produced in this way. Much greater pressure can be produced by using a machine, a hydraulic jack. The greater the pressure, the more oil will be produced.

Oil can also be collected with small, hand-operated machines. Small presses are important in areas where electricity or gasoline cannot be used. They are also a good way to test if a local market for oil exists.

Small batch presses can be made of local materials. Their cost is low. They are not difficult to operate. And they are easy to repair. The small presses produce good quality oil. But the work is hard. And getting all the oil from the seeds can be difficult.

If there is a large supply of seeds, then hand-operated presses may not be enough to support a business. Large, powered presses that can operate all day are needed.

Guides to activities like removing oil from seeds and nuts are available from the organization EnterpriseWorks/VITA. These publications can be ordered for a charge at enterpriseworks.org. Click on the News & Resources link.

Transcripts, MP3 and archives of our reports can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on Twitter and YouTube at VOA Learning English. I'm Steve Ember.

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Liberal Democrats Could Complicate Obama's Agenda

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President Barack Obama's political challenges on health care reform and future U.S. involvement in Afghanistan are expected to grow in the weeks ahead. The president's political skills will be put to the test as he deals with a reinvigorated Republican opposition and an increasingly vocal liberal faction in his own Democratic Party disenchanted with his efforts to move to the political center.

President Barack Obama (file photo)

In political terms, President Obama may soon find himself between a rock and a hard place when it comes to the future of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan.

On one hand, congressional Republicans are pressing the president to beef up U.S. forces to ensure a victory over al-Qaida and the Taliban.

"If we abandon Afghanistan, it will return to a safe haven for the Taliban and al-Qaida to plan and execute more attacks on Americans," said Republican House leader, Congressman Boehner of Ohio.

But the president also faces growing concerns from liberal Democrats about what they see as a deepening involvement in Afghanistan.

"I think there are a significant number of people in the country who have, and I don't know the exact percentages, that have questions about deepening our military involvement in Afghanistan," said Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee.

US House of Representatives Minority Leader Rep John Boehner (Ohio) (File photo)

The Obama administration is engaged in a review of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, and worries on the left about the U.S. getting militarily bogged down will be part of the broader political debate in Washington.

Tom DeFrank, a longtime political observer with the New York Daily News and a regular guest on VOA's Issues in the News program, says a decision to send additional U.S. troops could ignite opposition from liberal Democrats in Congress.

"That will alienate a lot of the Democratic left who wanted the U.S. out of Iraq and would like to see us out of Afghanistan as well. It's a real political problem," DeFrank said.

Mr. Obama also faces the potential for liberal discontent on his top domestic priority, enacting health care reform.

The president appealed to lawmakers from both parties to work together on health care during his recent address to a joint session of Congress.

"The time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action," Mr. Obama said.

Many liberal Democrats believed that Mr. Obama's election last year presented the best opportunity yet to pass health care legislation that would include universal insurance coverage for all Americans and the establishment of a government insurance program to compete with private insurance companies.

But the president has run into stiff opposition from conservative Republicans, and even moderate Democrats now believe it is likely that the president will have to settle for a compromise bill that is sure to disappoint his liberal supporters.

"A much diluted bill and one that will leave many of the liberal Democrats unhappy because they thought this was their chance to get sweeping change," said analyst Norman Ornstein.

David Wasserman, an expert with the Cook Political Report in Washington, says the health care debate has put the president in a classic political bind.

"And Obama really has a choice to make here. Does he want to fight a war on the front of liberal Democrats, or does he want to fight a war to win Republican support in the Senate and win conservative Democratic support in the Senate," Wasserman said.

In the end, many experts predict that liberal Democrats will back down in the health care debate in the hope of passing some sort of reform that will help the president and Democrats in next year's midterm congressional elections, and in the next presidential election in 2012.

John Fortier of the American Enterprise Institute spoke on VOA's Encounter program.

"The key votes are probably in the Senate and among conservative Democrats because those are the ones you need to just get you a majority. And there will be grumbling on the left if you want to get something done, but they ultimately need almost all of their party because they are going to get almost no Republicans to come along with them. So I think if they get something done it will be more appealing to the moderate Democrats than to the liberals," Fortier said.

Mr. Obama won last year's election with the help of independent and moderate voters. But recent public opinion polls show him losing support within those groups and many experts say his ability to win back centrist voters could determine whether he will emerge victorious in the health care debate.

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Honduras Presses Brazil Over Refuge to Ousted President

Honduras ousted President Manuel Zelaya speaks at George Washington University's Latin American and Hemispheric Studies Program in Washington, 02 Sep 2009

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The Honduran de facto government is pressing Brazil about its decision to grant refuge to ousted President Manuel Zelaya at its embassy in Tegucigalpa. The Honduran capital, where the ousted leader is seeking to return to power.

Honduran officials asked Brazil's government to respond, within 10 days, to define the status of ousted President Zelaya, who has been living in the Brazilian embassy for nearly a week. Interim officials have criticized Mr. Zelaya for secretly entering the country and using the Brazilian embassy as safe haven to call on his supporters to hold demonstrations.

The de facto government's foreign minister, Carlos Lopez, said Sunday that Brazil's government bears some responsibility for the current situation.

Lopez says someone at the embassy allowed Mr. Zelaya to enter the building, so Brazil is directly responsible.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva rejects what he calls an ultimatum from a coup government. The Brazilian leader has said Mr. Zelaya is welcome to remain in the embassy as long as he likes.

Lopez also announced plans to revoke the diplomatic status of the Brazilian embassy, because the government in Brasilia has refused to recognize the de facto government. But he stressed that officials do not plan to enter the compound to carry out the order to remove the diplomatic seal or seize Mr. Zelaya.

Lopez says Brazil acted first to break relations with the current government in Honduras. He says, now, his officials are taking reciprocal action.

Officials also plan action to revoke the diplomatic status of delegations from Spain, Mexico, Argentina and Venezuela, which do not recognize the current government. Lopez says diplomats from those countries should hand over their credentials in coming days.

Also Sunday, Honduran officials refused entry to four delegates from the Organization of American States who arrived at the airport in Tegucigalpa. A fifth delegate from Chile was allowed to enter on a mission to prepare for the arrival of a high-level group of mediators. OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza condemned the action, saying it was a threat to peace efforts in Honduras.

Foreign Minister Lopez says the OAS delegates had been told, in advance, they would be refused entry to the country. Last week, the de facto government turned down an OAS request to send foreign ministers to mediate an end to the political crisis. Instead, Honduras has backed a visit by Costa Rica's President Oscar Arias to mediate talks between Mr. Zelaya and the de facto government.

Three months ago, the Honduran Supreme Court stripped power from Mr. Zelaya, who was seized by military forces and removed from the country. He is demanding to return to power and finish the remaining four months of his term. The de facto government has rejected the demand, saying Mr. Zelaya is facing 18 criminal charges, including treason.

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New NATO Chief Says America's Allies Stand Firm Against Taliban

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Anders Fogh Rasmussen (file photo)

In his first major speech in the United States, the new head of NATO is expected to respond Monday, to President Obama's concerns that the United States is doing the lion's share of the fighting in Afghanistan. In prepared remarks, Anders Fogh Rasmussen acknowledges more resources are needed to fight the battle against the Taliban. However, he is expected ask the United States to stop downplaying efforts by America's allies.

The new head of NATO is set to defend the international body's contribution to the fight in Afghanistan.

Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama said there was "an almost reflexive anti-Americanism", which was stopping some countries from stepping up to the plate.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen is expected to say that is just not true.

The new NATO head's prepared remarks say he understands Washington's frustration. But he will warn that American downplaying international efforts could prove a self-fulfilling prophecy.

He is expected to say America's allies are not running from the fight. Nine thousand additional non-U.S. troops have joined the battle in Afghanistan in the past 18 months.

The long-drawn-out fight against the Taliban does not have huge popular support in Europe. Already, the Netherlands has set next year as its deadline for a full withdrawal of its troops and Italy has made it known it wants out too.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has rejected calls for a withdrawal deadline for American troops, saying that would be a "strategic mistake".

American accusations that its allies are not pulling their weight hit hard in France. In recent days, four French soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, in two separate accidents.

France has the fourth-largest contingent in Afghanistan, with 3400 troops based around the country.

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For Health of Young People, a Mixed Picture

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Deaths in children under 5 continued to drop last year. But a study calls attention to the great number of preventable deaths in young people age 10 to 24. Transcript of radio broadcast:

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Children eat sugar cane near their home in Kumbali, Malawi earlier this year. UNICEF says the southern African country is among those where the child death rate is improving.

UNICEF says the death rate for children under the age of five has fallen twenty-eight percent since nineteen ninety. Experts credit the drop to improvements in public health measures. These include vaccination campaigns and the use of bed nets chemically treated to kill mosquitoes that spread malaria.

Still, Brian Hansford at the United Nations Children's Fund says more work remains.

BRIAN HANSFORD: "Certainly the good news is that the rate of deaths of children under five years of age continued to decline in two thousand eight. The absolute number of child deaths declined to an estimated eight-point-eight million from twelve-point-five million in nineteen ninety. Compared to nineteen ninety, ten thousand fewer children are dying each day. The bad news is that an annual death total of eight-point-eight million is still a tragedy, and so there's still much to do."

One of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals is to reduce the under-five death rate by two-thirds by two thousand fifteen. One country that could reach this goal is Malawi. In nineteen ninety, there were two hundred twenty-five deaths for every one thousand live births. The estimate for last year was one hundred deaths.

UNICEF spokesman Brian Hansford says pneumonia and diarrhea remain the world's two greatest killers of young children. Ninety-three percent of the deaths happen in Africa and Asia.

A separate new study looked at deaths worldwide in young people age ten to twenty-four. It found that ninety-seven percent happen in low and middle income countries. And two out of every five are the result of injuries and violence.

Professor George Patton at Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, was the lead author.

GEORGE PATTON: "In high income countries such as the United States, the U.K. and Australia, death rates are around forty-five per hundred thousand per year. In sub-Saharan Africa we have the highest death rates in the world, and they are around seven times higher than that."

The study found that worldwide, more than two and a half million people age ten to twenty-four died in two thousand four. Nearly two-thirds were in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.

Conditions related to pregnancy and childbirth were a leading cause of deaths in females. But for both sexes combined, the leading killer in this age group was traffic accidents. Ten percent of all the deaths were blamed on road injuries.

Next came suicide and violence. Also in the top ten causes were infections, including tuberculosis and H.I.V./AIDS, as well as drowning and fire-related deaths. The study appears in the journal The Lancet.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by June Simms. I'm Steve Ember.

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National Parks: An Idea That Began in the US

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The National Park Service supervises almost 400 protected areas of natural or historical importance. Transcript of radio broadcast:

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Shirley Griffith. This week on our program, we look at the subject of a six-part series being shown on public television in the United States. The new film, directed by Ken Burns, is called "The National Parks: America's Best Idea."

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Yellowstone National Park

The United States established its first national park in eighteen seventy-two. Yellowstone, in the western state of Wyoming, was not only the first national park in America. It was the first in the world.

Since then, about one hundred nations have followed that example. They have established over one hundred thousand national parks and protected areas, for the enjoyment of people today and for generations to come.

VOICE TWO:

Last year, almost two hundred seventy-five million people visited the national park system in the United States. Visitors can hike in the woods. Climb mountains. Photograph animals. Explore Civil War battlefields. Go swimming or river-rafting. Ride horses. Or just enjoy a day outdoors with the beauty of nature.

The places under the care of the National Park Service are not all refuges of peace and quiet, however. Some are historic sites in the middle of busy cities.

VOICE ONE:

The National Park Service manages a total of three hundred ninety-one "units," as it calls them. These include national parks, historical sites, monuments, buildings and battlefields. They also include recreation areas, seashores, rivers, trails and parkways. Almost thirty-four million hectares of land in all.

Rules differ from place to place. For example, activities like hunting are not permitted in national parks. But they may be permitted in areas established as national preserves, recreation areas, seashores or lakeshores.

VOICE TWO:

The National Park Service was created in nineteen sixteen. President Woodrow Wilson signed an act making it part of the Interior Department.

The act said the purpose was to "conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."

Congress has the power to establish national parks and other protected areas. But a law called the Antiquities Act gives presidents the power to declare national monuments.

VOICE ONE:

Theodore Roosevelt

An early champion of the national parks was Theodore Roosevelt. He was president at the start of the twentieth century. He was also a distant relation of Franklin Roosevelt, who became president later.

Teddy Roosevelt was a hunter and outdoorsman. As president he signed legislation that established five national parks. And in nineteen hundred and six he signed the Antiquities Act.

It gave presidents the power to declare federally owned landmarks, structures and "other objects of historic or scientific interest" as national monuments. Teddy Roosevelt himself declared eighteen national monuments. Many of the monuments declared by presidents have been named national parks or given other titles by Congress.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The National Park Service has two main jobs. One is to protect the national parks. The other is to help visitors enjoy them. Sometimes these two jobs may seem to conflict. For example, large numbers of visitors can mean large numbers of vehicles that cause pollution and road damage.

Spokesman Jeffrey Olson says the Park Service is taking steps to reduce environmental damage. He points out that some parks operate bus systems so visitors do not drive through protected areas.

This also results in a better visitor experience, he says. People do not have to worry about their vehicles. And those who would have been driving can look at the scenery instead of the road.

VOICE ONE:

But the Park Service does not have control over everything. Jeffrey Olson says climate change is changing the landscape. For example, he says glaciers are melting in Alaska as a result of higher temperatures. And animals that normally live in some national parks have had to search elsewhere for food.

Joshua Tree National Park

Plants, too, are affected. Some areas of Joshua Tree National Park in California, for example, can no longer support the trees that the park is named for.

Jeffrey Olson says experts do not know what will take the place of the plants and animals that are lost, or how wildlife will survive in a changed environment.

VOICE TWO:

For the Park Service, another problem has been money. But Congress has put more into the budget of the national park system in the past three years. That has made it possible for the Park Service to hire three thousand seasonal workers. And Jeffrey Olson says federal stimulus money this year has made it possible to fix roads and complete maintenance projects.

Money also comes from the National Park Foundation. Congress established the foundation in nineteen sixty-seven to raise private support for the park system.

VOICE ONE:

Some national parks charge visitors a small entrance fee, from five dollars to twenty-five dollars a car. Each entrance fee is good for seven days. Eighty percent of the money stays with the park. Twenty percent is put into a shared fund for use throughout the park system.

Mount Rainier National Park

The first park to charge a visitor fee was Mount Rainier in the northwestern state of Washington in nineteen hundred and eight. It was also the first park where visitors could enter with their cars.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Today the United States has fifty-eight national parks.

Celebrating its one hundredth anniversary this year is Zion National Park, in the western state of Utah. It was established as Mukuntuweap National Monument by President William Taft.

Zion National Park has desert canyons and huge freestanding arches of red, pink and white rock. It also has a river, forests and other environments.

Zion is the eighth most visited national park. Almost three million people visited the park last year. Buses take visitors to areas where they can go on paths into the wilderness.

VOICE ONE:

One easy hike takes visitors two kilometers to a clear pool of water and waterfalls. A more difficult hike is eight kilometers long and not for those afraid of heights. It ends at the top of a rock high above Zion Canyon.

One of the largest mountains in the park is called the Sentinel. Three mountains standing next to each other are called the Three Patriarchs -- Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. A visiting Christian minister gave the mountains these biblical names in nineteen sixteen.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is celebrating its seventy-fifth anniversary this year. The park is located in areas of two southeastern states, Tennessee and North Carolina. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is America's most visited national park. More than nine million people went there last year.

The Great Smoky Mountains are part of the Blue Ridge and southern Appalachian mountains. A blue-gray haze from natural and now manmade sources hangs over them like smoke.

The park has more than one thousand kilometers of trails. Visitors can camp, fish, ride bicycles or drive through the park. There are more than one thousand six hundred kinds of flowering plants. The Park Service says the park has more kinds of flowering plants than any other national park in North America.

It also has animals including deer, elk and more than one thousand five hundred bears.

VOICE ONE:

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was created by local citizens who wanted to protect the area. But they needed money to buy the land from farmers and other owners. The money came from the legislatures of Tennessee and North Carolina. It also came from individuals and groups including the Laura Spellman Rockefeller Foundation.

In nineteen thirty-four, Tennessee and North Carolina gave the federal government more than three hundred thousand hectares of land for the park.

The official dedication did not take place until nineteen forty, when President Franklin Roosevelt spoke at a ceremony in the park. The ceremony took place at the Rockefeller Monument, on the borderline between the two states that provided the land.

Earlier this month, officials rededicated the park at a ceremony held on that same spot. One of the guests was Dolly Parton. The country singer grew up in the Great Smoky Mountains, and wrote a fund-raising CD for the seventy-fifth anniversary. We leave you with Dolly Parton and a song called "My Mountains, My Home."

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Shirley Griffith.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Steve Ember. For links to national park Web sites, and for transcripts and podcasts of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA.

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World Powers Step Up Pressure on Iran

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Top Obama administration officials say Iran will come under extreme pressure to disclose its nuclear intentions when envoys from Tehran sit down on Thursday in Geneva with representatives of the United States and other world powers.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Iran will have to prove without a doubt that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. "We don't believe that they can present convincing evidence it is only for peaceful purposes. But we are going to put them to the test on October 1," she said.

She says the fact that Iran sought to hide the construction of a second uranium enrichment plant calls Tehran's claims into question.

Clinton told the CBS television program, "Face the Nation" that the world is looking for hard evidence from Iran. "Words are not enough," she said. "They are going to have to come and demonstrate clearly to the international community what they are up to."

The secretary of state acknowledged that some of the current sanctions in place on Iran are porous. She said discussions are underway on how to make them broader and deeper.

In a series of Sunday morning television interviews, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates downplayed the notion of military action. He told ABC's "This Week" program he favors tough sanctions, if diplomacy fails. "Their economic problems are difficult enough that I think that severe sanctions would have the potential of bringing them to change their policies," he said.

On the "Fox News Sunday" program, California Democrat Diane Feinstein - Chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - said Iran has a big choice to make. "I think this is the moment of decision for Iran," she said. "Iran can either make itself a pariah or it can recognize that it has much more to gain by eliminating any potential military aspect of a nuclear program."

Appearing on the same program, Missouri Republican Senator Kit Bond said that the time for enhanced sanctions is now. He said he has not seen anything that would convince him that Iran is about to change its behavior. And he pointed to Tehran's decision to test missiles on Sunday as a dramatic example. "Today's action in firing the missiles is really a poke in the eye to those who think that diplomatic efforts and agreements and inspections are going to change the way that Iran is going," he said.

An initial Iranian test on Sunday involved short-range missiles. A long-range missile test is expected on Monday.

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