英倫翻譯社/ Trsmaster

◎張沛元

Uganda’s parliamentary speaker said she wanted to pass as a "Christmas gift" for Ugandans an anti-gay law, which rights groups have criticized for its draconian penalties against homosexuals.

烏干達的國會議長說，她要通過一項反同志法律，做為送給烏干達人的「耶誕禮物」。該法以其對同性戀者嚴刑峻罰而遭人權團體批評。

The bill had initially proposed the death penalty for gays in the conservative east African country but still presents an array of jail terms for convicted homosexuals, including life imprisonment in certain circumstances.

這個原本提議對這個保守東非國家的同志處以死刑的法案，如今仍會對遭定罪的同性戀者處以各種徒刑，包括在特定情況下處以無期徒刑。

Denounced as "odious" by U.S. President Barack Obama, the bill has left veteran President Yoweri Museveni struggling to balance the demands of the evangelical church on one side and aid donors on the other.

隨著該法案遭美國總統歐巴馬譴責為「可憎」，在位多年的（烏干達）總統約韋里．穆塞維尼不得不想辦法平衡一邊是福音教會、另一邊是援助機構的需求。

Some international donors have threatened to cut aid if the legislation, which is now before a parliamentary committee and was first introduced in parliament in 2009, becomes law.

部分國際援助機構已揚言，倘若該法案順利立法，就削減援助。此一反同志法最早在2009年時致呈國會，如今已送交一個國會委員會。

"Ugandans want that law as a Christmas gift. They have asked for it and we’ll give them that gift," parliament speaker Rebecca Kadaga said. （Reuters）

◎陳成良

Most toddlers can feel a sense of accomplishment when they graduate to the big boy or girl potty, but some people in Japan voluntarily going back to wearing diapers.

大多數兒童在能自己使用廁所時都有成就感，但一些日本人卻自願重新穿上紙尿褲。

Japanese media report the trend of wearing adult diapers is becoming increasingly popular, especially for women looking to save time.

日本媒體報導，穿成人紙尿褲的潮流越來越風行，特別是對那些想省時間的女性來說。

Japanese magazine SPA described the trend in an article titled "The Ultimate Form of Slob." In the article they talk about the masculinization of women who don’t clean their rooms as often as they used to, don’t shave and wear diapers.

日本《SPA》雜誌在一篇題為「懶漢的終極形態」的文章中描述了這一流行趨勢。這篇文章探討了女性的男性化，比如不像以往的女性那樣愛打掃房間，不剃毛，還穿紙尿褲。

One 25-year-old woman, who would only be identified under a pseudonym, has been wearing a diaper to work at a real estate agency almost every day for the last six months. She does it to save time and the trouble of going to the washroom. She doesn’t wear one when she’s with her boyfriend and only wears them under a skirt because pants make it too obvious.

一位不願透露姓名的25歲女性，過去半年幾乎每天都穿紙尿褲在一家房地產仲介公司工作。她這樣做是為了節省時間，也省去了去洗手間的麻煩。她和男朋友在一起時不會穿，而且穿紙尿褲時一定會穿裙子，因為穿褲子會很容易被看出來。

This woman is far from alone. Sales of adult diapers surpassed sales of diapers for babies for the first time in Japan this past May. However, a big part of this is Japan’s quickly aging population, meaning there is an increasing number of people who require the diapers.

Rather than mope around at home, legions of unemployed Spaniards are riding out the economic crisis on some of the best waves in Europe, driving a surf boom on the country’s northern breaks.

與其成天在家裡落寞終日，大批失業的西班牙人乾脆利用全歐最佳的海浪協助他們度過難關，也在西國北部的衝浪勝地掀起一股衝浪熱潮。

With one in four now out of a job in Spain, surf professionals say the number of surfers has jumped these past two to three years on the stretch of rugged coastline from western Galicia to the border with France.

西國目前有4分之1的人失業，衝浪業者表示，自西部加利西亞到法國邊界之間這段崎嶇海岸線的衝浪人口在過去兩三年內暴增。

"I think people are taking their unemployment money and just deciding to surf as much as they can," said Michael Dobos, who runs a surf school in the village of Mundaka, home to some of the continent’s most sought-after waves.

「我想大家都是拿著失業救濟金，決定儘可能地多去衝浪，」在擁有全歐最熱門海浪之一的小村子蒙達卡開設衝浪學校的多伯斯說。

"Since the crisis broke there are three times more people in the water," said Federico Ibazetor, who runs a surf school in nearby Plentzia. "They don’t have work, so they have more time to surf. They are mainly young because it is easier to lay off young people than older ones," he added.

在鄰近的普倫特西亞經營衝浪學校的伊巴澤托也說，「經濟危機爆發後，來衝浪的人多了三倍。」「他們不必工作，所以更有時間衝浪。衝浪的人多半是年輕人，因為年輕人比年長者更容易被解雇，」他說。

For the last two summers schools say classes were not only full, but business continued right up to and past, the mid-Autumn holidays, as cash-strapped families apparently decided to take domestic holidays rather than travel abroad.

這些學校表示，這一兩年夏天的衝浪課不但額滿，而且生意旺季一直持續到八月中的假期以後，因為許多手頭拮据的家庭顯然決定放棄到國外旅行，改留在國內渡假。

◎管淑平

Britain’s top code-breakers say they are stumped by a secret code found on the leg of a dead pigeon.

英國頂尖的密碼破解人員說，他們被一份在死亡信鴿腳上發現的密碼難倒了。

The remains of the bird were found in a chimney in Surrey with a message from World War II attached.

這隻鴿子的屍體是在蘇里郡一座煙囪內被發現的，遺體上附有一份二次世界大戰的訊息。

Experts at the intelligence agency GCHQ have been struggling to decipher the message since they were provided with it.

情報機構「政府通信總部」的專家被交付這份密碼後，始終無法解譯這份訊息。

The message was discovered by David Martin when he was renovating the chimney of his house in Surrey.

這份訊息是大衛．馬丁在整修他蘇里郡住家煙囪時發現的。

Among the rubbish, he found parts of a dead pigeon including a leg. Attached to the leg was a red canister. Inside the canister was a thin piece of paper with the words "Pigeon Service" at the top and 27 handwritten blocks of code.

◎陳維真

An assassin slit the throat of Egypt’s last great pharaoh at the climax of a bitter succession battle, scientists said Monday in a report on a 3,000-year-old royal murder.

科學家週一公布長達3000年之久的王室謀殺案報告，指出埃及最後一位偉大的法老王在激烈的王位繼承爭奪戰高潮中，遭刺客割喉喪命。

Forensic technology suggests Ramses III, a king revered as a god, met his death at the hand of a killer, or killers, sent by his wife and ambitious son, they said.

科學家表示，鑑識技術顯示拉美西斯三世，一位被當作神祇般尊敬的國王，遭妻子與野心勃勃兒子派來的一名或多名殺手暗殺。

And a cadaver known as the "Screaming Mummy" could be that of the son himself, possibly forced to commit suicide after the plot, they added.

他們提到，名為「尖叫木乃伊」的遺骸，或許就是拉美西斯三世的兒子，可能在密謀殺父後被迫自殺。

Computed tomography（CT）imaging of the mummy of Ramses III shows that the pharaoh’s windpipe and major arteries were slashed, inflicting a wound 70 millimetres wide and reaching almost to the spine, the investigators said. The cut severed all the soft tissue on the front of the neck.

調查人員表示，電腦斷層掃描影像顯示，拉美西斯三世的氣管和主動脈遭劃開，出現70公釐寬的傷口，而且幾乎深至脊椎。這一刀割斷拉美西斯三世前頸所有軟組織。

"I have almost no doubt about the fact that Ramses III was killed by this cut in his throat," palaeopathologist Albert Zink of the EURAC Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Italy told AFP.