Marian Marshall

　　The former Cuban leader Fidel Castro has warned of the dangers of nuclear war, in his first speech to the Cuban national assembly for four 4 years. Mr. Castro, who ceded power to his brother Raul after he had a stomach surgery in 2006, claimed that the United States was planning to attack Iran and North Korea. Michael Voss reports from Havana.

　　It was an assured solid performance. Mr. Castro’s voice was stronger than at any time since he'd re-emerged into the public eye about a month ago. There was no mention in the speech of Cuban politics or the changes that his brother is pushing through. It appears he’s found a new mission in later life - to save the world from nuclear destruction.

　　The Columbian president-elect Juan Manuel Santos has been sworn in at a ceremony in the capital Bogotá. More than 100 international delegations attended the inauguration, including the left wing President of Ecuador and the Foreign Minister of Venezuela. Both countries broke off relations with Mr. Santos’ predecessor Alvaro Uribe.

　　Officials in Pakistan say 2 dams across the Indus are in danger of breaking under the pressure of flood water surging downstream through the southern province of Sindh. And they say the next 24 hours are crucial for the safety of more than 400,000 people. Earlier, 200,000 people were urged to evacuate their homes after two smaller dams broke. Meanwhile the Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has faced protests in Britain about his decision to continue a visit rather than return to deal with the flooding in Pakistan. Demonstrators calling on him to go home gathered in the city of Birmingham in the English midlands where Mr. Zardari made a speech to hundreds of members of his Pakistan People’s Party. Rajini Vaidyanathan reports.

　　The President talked about trade and terror, but very little of his address mentioned the floods in Pakistan, a reason many say he should never have made the trip here in the first place. On Wednesday, the President was heckled by an elderly man, who threw a shoe in his direction. The man was subsequently removed by police. But the majority of the 1,700 people who came to see the president cheered and applauded the fact he’d visited Birmingham.

　　An Austrian bishop has described the love parade music festival in which 21 people died as a sinful event. About 500 people were also injured during a stampede of the festival in the German city of Duisburg last month. The Roman Catholic Bishop of Salzburg, Andreas Laun published his views on a religious website. Jason Cafrey reports.

　　Bishop Andreas Laun has called the event an invitation to sin. Compassion with the victims is one thing, Bishop Laun wrote, another, he says, is the conclusion that the love parade and taking part in it were a rebellion against creation and God’s order, although, the Bishop was careful to point out, that the dead should not be viewed as God’s punishment.

　　World News from the BBC.

　　At least 14 people have been killed in an explosion in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. The exact cause of the blast is unclear, but some reports say it happened in a power generator. More than a hundred people were taken to hospital.

　　An investigation is under the way in northeastern Afghanistan into the shooting dead of ten medical workers whose convoy was ambushed in the Province of Badakhshan. Two of those killed were Afghans, 6 were American, and the others were German and British. Police blamed armed robbers. But a Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the foreigners were killed because they were preaching Christianity.

　　Based on our information, yesterday at around 8 in the morning, one of our patrols encountered a group of ten foreigners in the Kuran Wa Munjan district of Badakhshan. Our Mujahadin warned them to stop but they kept running, so our Mujahadin opened fire and killed them. The documents we found on them were materials for proselytizing Christianity and Bibles which were translated into Dari.

　　Those allegations were denied by the Christian charity which employed the medical workers, the International Assistance Mission.

　　Rescue workers in Chile are trying to reach 34 miners who are trapped in a copper mine before they run out of air. The workers were cut off two days ago when the main access tunnel collapsed. Officials hope the miners were able to reach an underground shelter with oxygen, food and water.

　　The central African state of Malawi has a new flag. Gone is the sun rising. The new flag shows the sun fully risen. President Bingu Wa Mutharika argued that the fully risen sun was appropriate since it indicated that Malawi had developed and was not still developing, as it had been when it was a British colony. The opposition and the human rights groups said that there was no compelling reason to redesign the flag which should not be changed without a national debate.

　　BBC news.

　　古巴前总统菲尔·卡斯特罗在四年来向古巴国民大会发表的首次讲话中警告了发生核战争的危险。2006年，卡斯特罗胃部接受了手术之后让位于他的弟弟罗尔·卡斯特罗。他声称，美国正在计划袭击伊朗和朝鲜。Michael Voss在哈瓦那报道。

　　这无疑是非常强硬的表现。自一个月前重新出现在公众视野，卡斯特罗的态度比以往更加强烈。在他的讲话中，他没有提到古巴政治或他的弟弟正在推行的变革。似乎他的余生发现了新的任务——拯救世界免于被核战争毁坏。

　　哥伦比亚当选总统桑托斯(Juan Manuel Santos)在首都波哥大宣誓就职。100多个国际代表团参加了就职仪式，包括厄瓜多尔左翼总统和委内瑞拉外交部长。两国均与桑托斯的前任乌里韦断绝了关系。

　　巴基斯坦官员表示，由于不断上升的洪水经过南部信德省流入下游的压力，印度河上两座大坝面临崩塌的风险。他们表示，未来的24小时对于超过400,000人的安全来说非常重要。此前，两座较小的大坝决堤之后，已有200,000人被迫从家中疏散。同时，由于决定继续进行访问，而不是回国应对洪水危机，巴基斯坦总统扎尔达里在英国遭遇抗议。扎尔达里在英国内地城市伯明翰向数百名巴基斯坦人民党成员发表讲话，抗议者在这里聚集，要求他立即回国。Rajini Vaidyanathan报道。

　　这位总统讲到了贸易和恐怖主义，但是他的讲话中几乎没有提到巴基斯坦洪水问题，这导致许多人说，他一开始就不应该进行这次访问。周三，扎尔达里受到一名老者的强烈质问，这名老人还向总统扔了一只鞋子。这名男子随后被警方带走。但是来自探望总统的1,700人中的大多数对总统访问伯明翰表示欢迎。

　　德国“爱的游行”(Love Parade)音乐会发生踩踏事件，造成21人死亡。一名奥地利主教描述了这场音乐会。上月在杜伊斯堡举行的这场音乐会还造成大约500人受伤。萨尔斯堡罗马天主教堂主教Andreas Laun在一个宗教网站上发表了自己的观点。Jason Cafrey报道。

　　Andreas Laun主教称这次事件是对犯罪的引诱。对受害者的同情是一回事，然而，Andreas Laun主教谨慎地指出，爱的游行的参加这场盛会违反了造物主和上帝的秩序是另外一回事。死者不应该被视为上帝的惩罚。

　　BBC世界新闻。

　　在伊拉克南部城市巴士拉发生爆炸事件，造成至少14人死亡。爆炸发生的具体原因还未查明，但是一些报道称爆炸发生在一个发电机内。超过100人被送往医院。

　　在阿富汗东北部城市巴达赫尚，医疗工作者的队伍受到伏击，10名医疗工作者被枪杀，目前正在对事件进行调查。遇难者中包括2名阿富汗人，6名美国人，另外2人为德国人和英国人。警方谴责这次事件是由于武装抢劫。但是塔利班发言人Zabiullah Mujahid声称这些外国人被杀是由于他们宣扬基督教思想。

　　据我们得到的消息，昨天上午大约八点钟，我们的一名巡逻人员在巴达赫尚Kuran Wa Munjan地区遇到了十名外国人。我们的Mujahadin警告他们停下来，但是他们继续向前跑，所以我们的Mujahadin开枪将他们击毙。我们在他们身上发现的资料都是宣传基督教的材料和翻译为达里语的圣经。

　　雇佣这些医疗工作者的基督教慈善机构，国际援助任务组织否认了这些指控。

　　智利救援工作者正努力争取在空气消耗完之前找到被困在铜矿中的34名矿工。两天前，主要通道坍塌，这些工人与外界的联系被切断。官员希望这些矿工能够到达拥有氧气，食物和水的地下庇护所。

　　中非国家马拉维更换了新的国旗。被更换的国旗是图案是正在升起的太阳。新的图案是已经完全升起的太阳。总统宾古·瓦·穆塔里卡(Bingu wa Mutharika) 辩称，更换为完全升起的太阳是恰当的，因为这意味着马拉维已经是发达国家，而不是英国殖民地时期的还在发展中。反对派和人权组织表示，在不经全国辩论的情况下更换国旗不具有说服力。

　　BBC新闻。