Today in history

　　1991: US bombers strike civiliansinBaghdad

　　England haveHundreds of Iraqi civilians have been killedandwounded in Baghdad by American bombers.Iraqi foreign ministerTariqAziz said: This was a criminal, pre-meditated, plannedattackagainst civilians.Local reports say two laser-guidedprecisionbombs hit an air-raid shelter in the middle class districtofAmiriya, five miles from the centre of the Iraqi capital.So far235bodies have been recovered, 12 hours after the attacks at 0445GMTand 0450 GMT.Continuing fires and intense heat in thebunkercomplex - which includes a school, mosque and supermarket -havehampered rescue efforts and 300 people are still thought tobetrapped inside.Many of the victims are thought to be womenandchildren.White House spokesperson Martin Fitzwater said the lossofcivilian life was truly tragic, but described the bunker asawell-known military target.We dont know why civilians wereatthis location. We do know that Saddam Hussein does not shareoursanctity for human life, he continued.One Americanintelligenceofficer said the bunker had been transmitting militarysignalsuntil the moment the bombs hit.Another US spokesperson inRiyadh,Saudi Arabia, suggested Saddam had deliberately created ahumanshield - a tactic he has used before - to inflameinternationalopinion against allied air strikes.The Baghdad sheltermanagersaid: We didnt have a single military man in the shelter.It isallocated to civilians.According to intelligence sourcestheshelter was built during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s with a10to 15-foot thick concrete ceiling, reinforced with steel,designedto withstand electro-magnetic pulses from athermo-nuclearblast.Both sides are investigating the incident -caught on cameraby US planes.Tariq Aziz has called on the UN -meeting tonight - tocondemn the hideous crime. A spokesman for UNSecretary-GeneralJavier Perez de Cuellar expressed dismay at such alarge loss ofcivilian life.Nikita Khrushchev astonished hiscomrades bydenouncing Stalins regime

　　1956: Khrushchev lashes out at Stalin

　　Artificially 1969:The The Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev,hasdenounced Joseph Stalin as a brutal despot.In a sensationalspeechto the 20th Congress of the Communist Party Mr Khrushchevpainted agraphic picture of a regime of suspicion, fear, andterror builtup under the former dictator who died three yearsago.He said hewanted to break the Stalin cult that has heldSoviet citizens inits thrall for 30 years.The prime ministerdescribed the purgesduring the period of 1936-38.He implied thatone of Stalins mosttrusted aides Kirov had been assassinated in1934 at the leadersbehest.Stalin then initiated a series of trialsof mrs of thepolitburo and had some executed for Kirovs murder,includingZinoviev, Kamenev and Rykov.Stalin meted out humiliationandpersecution to those officers and mrs of the Politburo whofellfrom favour, said Mr Khrushchev.He revealed that in 1937 and1938,98 out of the 139 mrs of the Central Committee were shotonStalins orders.The leader also criticised Stalins foreignpolicyduring World War II. As an ally of Adolf Hitler, Stalinrefused tobelieve Germany would invade Russia - despite warningsfrom WinstonChurchill and Sir Stafford Cripps, the BritishAmbassador inMoscow, amongst others.When the attack was launched,Stalin orderedthe Red Army not to retaliate saying the raid wasmerelyindiscipline on the part of some of Hitlers units.MrKhrushchevalso condemned Stalins autobiography as an odious bookin whichStalin refers to himself as the workers genius-leaderand a shyand modest person.He also accused Stalin of violentnationalismand anti-Semitism.He revealed that in his last will andtestamentLenin advised against the retention of Stalin as generalsecretaryof the Communist Party.He said the information he had justdivulgedshould only be made known to the public by degrees.Youunderstand,comrades, that we could not spread this information tothe peopleat once, he said. It could be done either suddenly orgradually,and I think it would be more correct to doitgradually.Vocabulary:

　　sanctity

　　: the quality of being holy（圣洁） (编辑:赵露)