cartographer
Martin Waldseemueller, the man credited with naming the Americas. The 500-year-old document was found inside an unrelated book in a university library in Munich. Beth McLeod reports.
The small map, printed in clear black ink on yellowing paper shows the world divided into 12 segments. The three segments to the right-hand side show a boomerang-shaped landmass called America – very different to the familiar outlands of northern South America that we know today. It's likely that Waldseemueller used information from accounts of early trans-Atlantic voyages. But
intriguingly
, he decided to name the new land after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci rather than Christopher Columbus.
BBC News
第二页:中英双语听力稿
Pakistan has confirmed that it intends to reopen transit routes to Nato forces in Afghanistan closed last November following an American airstrike. It agreed to reopen the supply lines after the American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton apologized for the attack. Aleem Maqbool reports from Islamabad.
巴基斯坦表示将重开驻阿富汗北约部队的中转路线,这条路线在去年11月美国空袭后关闭。之所以同意重新开启这条供给线,是因为美国国务卿希拉里就袭击一事表示了道歉。阿里姆·马克波尔在伊斯坦布尔报道。
For months, the governments in both Pakistan and the US were looking for a formula to reopen Nato supply routes without either side looking like a loser. Pakistan had been under considerable pressure from Washington since it decided to shut the routes after the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a Nato raid. It has now got an apology for that incident, but opponents here will still talk of their government caving in, particularly after all the talk of how much Pakistan will charge for each Nato truck ultimately came to nothing. It's been announced there will be no transit fees.