BBC在线收听下载:奥巴马访问古巴 称其为历史性机遇

BBC news 2016-03-22

Hello, I am Marion Marshall with the BBC news.

President Obama has described his landmark visit to Havana as a historic opportunity. Addressing the staff at the US embassy at the start of a three-day trip, Mr Obama said he hoped future generations would see such a visit as entirely natural. This is a historic visit and an extraordinary opportunity to engage directly with Cuban people, and to forge new agreements and commercial deals, to build new ties between our two peoples, and for me, to lay out my vision for a future that's brighter than our past. Mr Obama is the first sitting US president to set foot on Cuban soil in 88 years. Will Grant was at the airport in Havana when he arrived. Just as president Obama arrives, the heavens opened but it's gonna take more than a little rain to dampen the expectations, dampen the spirits of Cuban people who are desperate to see him on Cuban soil. And with that, president Obama emerged from Airforce One with Michelle off his side. Under the umbrella behind him, his daughters, Sasha and Malia, who've come as this's family trip to but of course, one of the most historic visits that he would make as a president, one of the most important moments in the US-Cuba relationship. The president and his families have toured capital's old town where only a few hundred people turned out to greet him. Mr Obama also visited Cuba's baroque Cathedral, where he was greeted by the archbishop who helped facilitated secret US-Cuba talks in 2014. Mr Obama will meet the Cuban president Raul Castro on Monday for talks, the two leaders say, will include trade and political reform. From Havana, Barbara Plett-Usher has more on the Cuban government's perspective on the visit. Though on the one hand, they have made it clear that they want to be opening up to the US. They want the relationships to be restored. They would like to see the embargo fully lifted which is not the case because congress has to do that but they have clearly made a decision to move in this direction. But on the other hand, the US is a historic enemy. There is a lot of suspicion of its actions. They have in the past tried to topple the government, tried to undermine the government. And in fact, the government here has kind of defined its legitimacy in opposition to the US.

The Turkish authorities have postponed a match between Istanbul's two main football teams for security reasons a day after the city was hit by a suicide bomb attack. Fans of Galatasaray and Fenerbahce who are beginning to fill the stadium booed when the decision was announced. Officials say Saturday's bombing which killed four people was carried out by a Turkish national with links to the IS group.

Aviation crash investigators in Russia say the two flight-recorders recovered from the airliners which crashed while landing at the southern city Rostov-on-Don on Saturday are badly damaged. Officials said it was not immediately clear what information could be gained from them.

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The Belgium foreign minster Didier Reynders has said that at least 30 people in Belgium and France were involved in the terror attacks in Paris last November. And he's sure there could be more. His remarks echo those of the French president Francois Hollande who said the Jihadist network was much larger than originally suspected. The Belgium authorities say they're taking seriously claims by the detained suspect Salah Abdeslam that he was planning more attacks. Mr Reynders said weapons had been seized during the operation to arrest him. The first comments coming from Salah Abdeslam yesterday was that he wanted to go to the Stade de France in Paris and he also was to start bombing, but he stopped. We don't know why but he stopped. And the next informations are that he was ready to restart something from Brussels.

Police have fired tear gas at opposition supporters in Congo-Brazzaville after the close of voting in the presidential election. Opposition groups are reported to have been denied access to the counting of ballots. The vote is expected to give Denis Sassou Nguesso a further 7 years in office.

Hundreds of Israelis of Ethiopian origin have held a protest against the recent cancellation of government plans to allow thousands of Ethiopians to migrate to Israel. The protesters reached the office of the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, chanting 'Stop the discrimination, Stop the racism.' Last year, the cabinet approved a plan to allow the migration of some 9000 Ethiopians who're descents of Ethiopian jews who've converted to Christianity.

Hundreds of migrants have continued to arrive in Greece despite new agreement between European Union and Turkey designed to discourage them from crossing the Aegean Sea. A Greek official said the number of arrivals in the past 24 hours reached almost 900 people. At least 2 children are known to have drowned.

BBC world service news.