BBC在线收听下载:意大利工会举行罢工

音频与PDF文档打包下载

BBC news 2012-03-29

BBC News with Marion Marshall

The Vatican says Pope Benedict has met the former President of Cuba, Fidel Castro, who led the 1959 revolution which made Cuba officially atheist. The meeting between the Pope and Mr Castro was described by the Vatican as "animated and cordial". Earlier, up to 300,000 people attended a Mass celebrated in Revolution Square in Havana, from where Sarah Rainsford reports.

Pope Benedict was greeted in Revolution Square by a vast crowd shouting and waving as he toured the plaza in his Popemobile. There were groups of Catholics from their parishes, plenty of Cubans just curious and others, including students who said they had been told to be there. He used his homily during Mass to deliver what's become the theme of this visit, urging Cuba along the path to renewal and change. The Pope praised progress on freedom of religion here, but he called for more, including religious teaching in universities and schools.

The United States says President Assad of Syria has already reneged on his promise to accept the UN-Arab League peace plan. Yesterday, Damascus said it approved the plan, but the State Department spokeswoman in Washington, Victoria Nuland, said no action had been taken.

"Certainly we have not seen the promises that Assad made implemented. The joint special envoy is continuing his work; his technical team continues its work in Syria. We will have the Friends of the Syrian People meeting this weekend. So it's incumbent on all of us to keep the pressure on Assad to meet the commitment that he's made, and that's our intention over the next few days."

The plan, brokered by Kofi Annan, calls for a UN-monitored end to the fighting, the pull-out of government troops from opposition cities and humanitarian access.

The discovery of eight fossilised foot bones in Ethiopia 3.4 million years old has given scientists a rare insight into the evolution of humans and their ability to walk. Jonathan Amos reports.

The eight small bones of a right foot unearthed in the Afar region of central Ethiopia are an important discovery. Scientists know of one human ancestor that lived in this location 3.4 million years ago: the creature famously dubbed "Lucy", whose skeleton displayed a clear preference to walk upright - a key marker of what it is to be human. But researchers tell the journal Nature these new bones are not from Lucy. They are more primitive with a big toe that could grasp branches in a tree. Nonetheless, they too show an ability to walk upright on occasions albeit with a different gait.

The deposed President of Mali, Amadou Toumani Toure, says he's safe and in the capital Bamako. He didn't give his precise location, but said he isn't being held by the soldiers who staged last week's coup. Mr Toure's whereabouts hadn't been known previously. Thousands of people marched through the streets of Bamako today in support of the coup, chanting slogans against the West African regional grouping Ecowas.

World News from the BBC

Mobile phone charges for use abroad are set to fall drastically across Europe following a deal between the European Parliament and EU governments. Until now, there's been no limit to the amount you can be charged, and especially people using their phones for downloading data have often faced enormous bills. Chris Morris reports.

We've all heard horrid stories of people returning from a trip abroad with an enormous mobile bill. Under the new deal, a cap of 70 euro cents per megabyte will be set, which will fall to 20 cents by 2014. The cost of making and receiving mobile phone calls or sending texts will also come down sharply. Europe's big mobile providers aren't desperately happy they will lose revenue. And the EU is also introducing greater competition, allowing consumers to sign up with one provider for domestic calls and data, and another one when they are abroad all on the same number.

Prosecutors in Chile say they'll seek murder charges against four suspected neo-Nazis accused of brutally attacking and killing a young gay man. Hundreds of people in the Chilean capital Santiago attended a vigil for the man Daniel Zamudio, who died 25 days after the assault in which his attackers carved swastikas into his body.

Doctors treating the former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva say his throat cancer is in complete remission. A statement by doctors said there was no longer any sign of a visible tumour in his larynx. Earlier this month, Lula was released from the hospital in Sao Paulo following treatment for a lung infection, common in patients who've received chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

One of Italy's biggest engineering unions has announced a national strike in protest at plans to make it easier to sack workers. The action is likely to coincide with other unions' plans for a general strike. The Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti says his overhaul of labour laws will stimulate growth and job creation.

BBC News