One of Italy's biggest engineering unions has announced a national strike in protest at plans to make it easier to sack workers. The action is likely to coincide with other unions' plans for a general strike. The Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti says his
overhaul
of labour laws will stimulate growth and job creation.
BBC News
第二页:中英双语听力稿
The Vatican says Pope Benedict has met the former President of Cuba, Fidel Castro, who led the 1959 revolution which made Cuba officially atheist. The meeting between the Pope and Mr Castro was described by the Vatican as "animated and cordial". Earlier, up to 300,000 people attended a Mass celebrated in Revolution Square in Havana, from where Sarah Rainsford reports.
梵蒂冈称班尼迪克教皇会见了古巴总统卡斯特罗,卡斯特罗领导了古巴1959年的革命,从此使古巴正式成为无神论国家。据悉,教皇和卡斯特罗的会面“活泼又热情”。早些时候,30万民众在哈瓦那革命广场参加了弥撒,Sarah Rainsford在哈瓦那报道。
Pope Benedict was greeted in Revolution Square by a vast crowd shouting and waving as he toured the plaza in his Popemobile. There were groups of Catholics from their parishes, plenty of Cubans just curious and others, including students who said they had been told to be there. He used his homily during Mass to deliver what's become the theme of this visit, urging Cuba along the path to renewal and change. The Pope praised progress on freedom of religion here, but he called for more, including religious teaching in universities and schools.