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BBC news 2016-05-02

BBC news with Iain Purdon.

Civil defense workers in the Syrian city of Aleppo now say at least 55 people were killed by government airstrikes that hit a hospital on Wednesday night. The group known as the White Helmets were still digging through the rubble 24 hours after the bomb struck. More than 200 people are reported to have died in Aleppo in the past week as a result of rebel shelling as well as government airstrikes. Sam Taylor of the charity Doctors without Borders says their report. “This is not the first time. This is the 7th time that a Doctors without Borders supported hospital has been attacked this year alone. And there are many more hospitals that SMF doesn't support. So these continuing attacks on medical structures is horrific.”

The American vice president Joe Biden has lent his support to Iraq’s beleaguered government during a brief unannounced trip to Bagdad, his first in five years. The White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the visit was a good indication of the United States' continued support for efforts by the Prime MinisterHaider al-Abadi to unify Iraq to confront the Islamic state group. “There are two critical priorities that Prime Minister al-Abadi has identified. The first is obviously the fight on the ground that Iraqi forces are waging against ISIL inside of Iraq. The second priority that Prime Minister al-Abadi has identified is pursuing a set of political reforms to fight corruption.”

Iran has called on the United Nations to press the United States to release all frozen Iranian assets in US banks in line with last year's nuclear sanctions deal. It's been incensed since the US Supreme Court ruled last week that frozen Iranian assets worth more than two billion dollars must be handed over to relatives of people killed in attacks blamed on groups backed by Tehran. 

The Former Speaker of the US House of Representatives John Boehner has described the presidential hopeful Ted Cruz as Lucifer or the Devil in the flesh. Mr. Boehner, a fellow Republican, said he wouldn't back Mr. Cruz if he became the party's nominee for the White House. From New York, Nick Bryant. “Up until his resignation last year, John Boehner was the most powerful Republican in America. And the former House Speaker was in expansive mood. They said he got along almost with everyone and had Democratic and Republican friends, but that he'd never worked with the more miserable 'son of a bitch' as he put it in his life. Ted Cruz has said the Boehner's outspoken comments offered proof of his outsider status. He's cast himself throughout as the scourge of Washington establishment.”

The British foreign secretary Philip Hammond is in Cuba, the first such visitsince 1970’s. Trade is expected to play a big part in Mr. Hammond's trip. The BBC correspondent in Havana says western European governments want to position themselves to take a good slice of Cuba's slowly opening economy before the Americans move in. World news from the BBC.

The Supreme Court in Colombia has formally legalized same sex marriage making it the fourth country in Latin America to authorize it. Gay couples in Colombia were already allowed to form civil unions and had many benefits of marriage including inheritance, pensions and health benefits, but the symbolically important right to marry had so far been denied them.

More than 20 police officers have been injured in France in clashes with protestors opposed to planned labor reforms. Some of the worst violence was in Paris. Clashes also erupted in Nante, Lyon, Marseille and Toulouse. France's powerful CGT union says the labor reform bill which should be debated in parliament next week will let employers bypass regulations on basic workers' rights.

The Appeals court in Burkina Faso has thrown out an international arrest warrant for the former president Blaise Compaore. A military tribunal had brought charges against him in connection with the assassination of President Thomas Sankara during the coup 30 years ago that brought Mr. Compaore to power. The court said the tribunal had committed procedural errors when issuing the warrants.

And finally construction workers in Southern Spain have uncovered a huge horde of ancient Rome coins while conducting maintenance on water pipes. The many thousands of bronze coins were found in 19 jars near Seville. James Read reports.“The Romans ruled Spain for serval centuries and left a rich archaeological heritage, but local experts say this discovery is pretty much unique not least because of its scale. The hoard of bronze coins weigh a total of 600 kilograms. Most show little sign of wear and tear suggesting they were never in circulation. They bear the inscriptions of the emperors Maximian and Constantine who ruled Rome more than 1600 years ago. Archeologists think they may have been stored to pay soldiers or civil servants and were perhaps forgotten during a period of violent unrest.” BBC news.