BBC 新闻 2007-03-28 加文本

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BBC World News with Charles Carroll.

The United States Senate has voted to set a target date of next March for withdrawing American combat troops from Iraq. The Senate narrowly rejected an attempt to remove specific timings for the withdrawal from a bill on funding the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. From Washington, James Westhead reports.

The vote is a significant victory for Democrats pushing for withdrawal of troops from Iraq. The House of Representatives has already passed a similar emergency funding bill, which also sets a timetable for bringing soldiers home. Republicans were trying to strike similar language out of the legislation as it passed through the Senate. But now in a close vote of 50 senators to 48, the attempt has been defeated, leaving in a target date of withdrawing all combat troops by next March. A final vote on the whole bill will take place later this week.

In Iraq itself, police say about 80 people have been killed in the latest violence. The heaviest loss of life was in the northern town of Talafa. Earlier another bomb exploded near the western city of Ramadi killing at least 10 people. From Baghdad, Andrew North reports.

Talafa is a remote town near the Syrian border. The first blast there was caused by a suicide attacker, police say, using a truck laden with explosives. There are reports he tricked his way into a protected market area full of shoppers at the time. Minutes later another truck bomb went off in another busy market. Talafa exemplifies US-led forces' difficulties in subduing insurgent attacks. A year ago, President Bush was holding it up as a success story, naming it as a place where security had improved because of US operations.

The Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi has won a vote in parliament on funding for Italian peacekeeping troops in Afghanistan, a month after he briefly stepped down after losing a similar vote. Christian Fraser reports from Rome.

The leader of the opposition, Silvio Berlusconi, has criticized the prime minister for refusing to consider changes to the rules of engagement for Italian troops. And he's also expressed his concerns at the way in which the government negotiated the release of an Italian journalist in Afghanistan—a deal in which 5 Taliban prisoners were released. Yet when it came to the vote, the centre-right opposition was divided. While Silvio Berlusconi and his party abstained, it seems the majority of the Christian Democrat senators on the right voted with the government if only to show solidarity with the Italian troops.

A high-ranking Iraqi officer has said he doesn't know whether a British naval party detained by Iran last Friday was in Iraqi or Iranian waters. Brigadier General Hakim Jassim, the commander of Iraqi territorial waters, said British forces did not usually operate in the area concerned and Iraqi officials were surprised to see them there. Iraq has previously maintained, along with Britain and the United States, that the 15 naval personnel were seized in Iraqi waters.

The International Organization for Migration says it has returned 34 boys to their homes in Ivory Coast after they were promised highly paid contracts in European football and taken abroad. But instead of ending up in Rome, Madrid or London, the boys found themselves in neighbouring Mali where they were held against their will.

A senior United Nations official has called for countries that have carried out acts of torture to be forced to make reparations to their victims. The UN special investigator on torture, Manfred Nowak, said that many victims required costly rehabilitation, which the countries responsible were obliged to pay for under international treaties.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin has paid lavish tribute to the internationally renowned cellist and conductor, Mr. Mstislav Rostropovich, on his 80th birthday. At a gala dinner held in his honour at the Kremlin on Tuesday, Mr. Rostropovich spoke briefly of his happiness on the occasion. Mr. Putin lauded Mr. Rostropovich's brilliant musical career and described him as an uncompromising fighter for democracy.
"Dear Slava, we wish you a happy birthday with all our hearts and soul! We not only know and remember and love your birthday, but we will do everything to be worthy of your friendship. And on this day of celebration, I would like to announce that I have signed a decree awarding Mr. Rostropovich one of Russia's highest honours—the Order for Services to the Fatherland, First Class."

Vatican officials say Pope John Paul II will move a step closer to sainthood next week when the Vatican is presented with evidence of what's been described as the miraculous cure of a French nun who is said to have been cured of Parkinson's disease. The nun, so far unnamed, suffered from the same disease as John Paul himself. She will be in Rome for the second anniversary of his death when the file is handed over to a Vatican body to determine whether the late pope can be beatified.

BBC News.

Vocabulary
Beatify: v. if the Roman Catholic church beatifies someone who has died, it says officially that they are a holy or special person （罗马天主教）为（死者）行宣福礼