VOA慢速英語: 地中海移民死亡事件責(zé)任在船長

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Officials have blamed the Tunisian captain of a fishing boat for causing thedeaths of hundreds of migrants. They say the migrants were locked insidewhen their boat overturned in the Mediterranean Sea over the weekend.

Prosecutors said on Tuesday that 27-year-old Mohammed Ali Malek wasarrested on suspicion of killing many people. The prosecutors said the captainmistakenly turned his overloaded boat into a merchant ship that was comingto its rescue.

Only 28 survivors have been brought to Italy from the hundreds ofBangladeshi migrants on board the boat. Most of the migrants were Africanand Bangladeshi. Police have said as many as 950 people may have died. Itappears to be the worst disaster ever among migrants fleeing across theMediterranean Sea to Europe.

The lead prosecutor said so few people survived because most of themigrants on board had been locked in the lower levels of the fishing boat.Many of the passengers were women and children.

Tunisian captain Mohammed Ali Malek, one of the survivors of the boat that overturned off the coasts of Libya Saturday, waits to disembark from Italian Coast Guard ship Bruno Gregoretti, at Catania Harbor, Italy, April 20, 2015.

South Africa to deploy army to prevent attacks on foreigners

South Africa’s defense minister says the government will deploy soldiers toprevent further violence, after a series of attacks on foreigners inJohannesburg and Durban. Seven people have been killed.

The attacks began in early April. They have occurred in poor areas ofJohannesburg and Durban. South Africa’s defense minister announcedTuesday that soldiers will join with police to stop the attacks on foreigners.

Immigrants from African nations including Congo, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria,Somalia and Zimbabwe have been among the targets of the attacks. Manyhave sought shelter in temporary camps. Some African embassies say manycitizens are trying to return to their home countries.

Egypt’s Morsi sentenced to 20 years in prison

An Egyptian court sentenced former President Mohamed Morsi to 20 years inprison Tuesday. He was sentenced in connection with the killings ofprotesters near the presidential palace in Cairo in 2012.

It is the first sentence in several cases against Mohamed Morsi.

The former president escaped a possible death penalty. The court ruled that he and 12 other Muslim Brotherhood leaders and supporters were guilty ofintimidation and violence, but not murder.

Morsi was the country's first democratically elected president. He promisedcitizens a brighter future for Egypt, after the popular uprising that ended thelong rule of Hosni Mubarak.

CPJ releases list of most-censored countries

Eritrea and North Korea were named the most-censored countries in theworld by the Committee to Protect Journalists . On Tuesday, the pressfreedom group, based in New York City, released this year’s list of the 10countries that restrict their news media the most.

Other countries on the list are Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Azerbaijan, Vietnam,Iran, China, Burma and Cuba.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the list is based onresearch of punishment of journalists and repressive laws used against them. The group also considers limits on Internet access.

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Words in the News

prosecutor - n. a lawyer who represents the side in a court case thataccuses a person of a crime and who tries to prove that the person is guilty

merchant - adj. used for or involved in trading goods

intimidation - n. the act of making (someone) afraid

uprising - n a usually violent effort by many people to change the governmentor leader of a country

censor - v. to examine books, newspapers, movies, letters, etc., in order toremove things that a government considers harmful to society