BBC在线收听下载:马杜罗证实委内瑞拉政府代表与美国官员秘密谈判

BBC News. Hello, I'm Jerry Smit.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has confirmed that senior officials from his government have been talking to members of the Trump administration with his permission. It comes after reports suggested a powerful government figure have been negotiating Mr. Maduro's removal from office with Washington. Will Grant reports. In confirming talks with the Trump administration, President Nicolas Maduro appeared to be trying to remove any suggestion that contact was taking place without his knowledge. In a televised address, President Maduro said he hoped to establish a way for President Donald Trump to truly listen to Venezuela in order to normalize and resolve the conflict between the two nations. President Trump, meanwhile, has only confirmed that talks have happened at a very high level without giving further details.

The sovereign council that will oversee Sudan's transition to democracy is taking office. Generals and protest leaders agreed on its final composition late on tuesday, four months after Sudan's longtime ruler President Omar al Bashir was forced from power. The council consists of five military officers and six civilians, two of them women, one from Sudan's Christian minority. Selina Bill is in Khartoum. The council will be headed by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the current leader of the transitional military council. According to the constitutional declaration, the sovereign council will be headed by a military person for twenty-one months. A civilian will then take over for eighteen months until fresh elections are held in 2022.

An Iranian news agency has swiftly corrected its own report that the oil tanker at the centre of a row with the United States is being rented by the elite Revolutionary Guards. ILNA nows says it leased to an Iranian shipping company. It would have been the first time a mainstream Iranian news outlet had established a connection between the Guards and the tanker.

The highest ranking Catholic cleric to be found guilty of child sex abuse Cardinal George Pell has lost his appeal against his conviction in Australia. The former Vatican treasurer was found guilty last December of abusing two boys while as Bishop of Melbourne in the late 1990s. He is serving a six-year jail term. The Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the Cardinal has a right to another appeal. The Holy See acknowledges the court's decision to dismiss Cardinal Pell's appeal. As the proceedings continue to develop, the Holy See recalls that the Cardinal has always maintained his innocence throughout the judicial process and it is his right to appeal to the high court. At this time, the Holy See confirms its closeness to the victims of sexual abuse and its commitment to pursue those members of the clergy who commit such abuse.

World news from the BBC.