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President Castro has urged the U.S. to end a five decades old economic embargo, saying it's done huge damage to Cuba. The embargo could only be lifted with the approval of Congress, which is controlled by the Republicans. They have traditionally opposed any such a move. President Obama said isolation had clearly failed and it did not serve anyone's interest to continue to push Cuba towards collapse. But the House Speaker John Boehner said relations should not be normalized until Cubans enjoyed freedom.
卡斯特罗总统敦促美国终结50多年的经济禁运，称这已对古巴造成巨大伤害。禁运措施只有经过共和党控制的国会批准才能取消，共和党传统上是反对此举的。奥巴马总统称孤立措施显然已经失败，未能满足任何人的利益，只能让古巴进一步走向崩溃。但众议院议长约翰•博纳称，除非古巴人能享受自由，否则不会将两国关系正常化。
Shortly before the statements by the two presidents, an American government contractor detained by the Cuban authorities five years ago, Alan Gross, landed in the U.S. Mr. Gross, who is in poor health, had been sentenced for importing banned satellite technology to Cuba. He welcomed the beginning of the new era in relations between the two countries. “To me, Cubans, or at least most of them, are incredibly kind, generous and talented. It pains me to see them treated so unjustly as a consequence of two governments' mutually belligerent policies. Five and a half decades of history shows us that such belligerence inhibits better judgment. Two wrongs never make a right.” Havana has also frees an unnamed American intelligence officer who'd been in jail in Cuba for nearly twenty years. In exchange, Washington has released three high profile Cuban prisoners, part of the group known as the Cuban Five, who were serving lengthy sentences for espionage.
就在两位总统发表声明的不久前，5年前被古巴当局拘留的美国政府承包商艾伦•格罗斯回到美国。格罗斯目前健康状况不佳，他因向古巴进口被禁的卫星科技而判刑，他对两国关系开始新时代而表示欢迎。
“在我看来，古巴人，或者至少大多数古巴人，都是非常善良、慷慨和有才能的。看到他们因为两国政府彼此之间相斗的政策而受到不公平的待遇，我感到很痛心。55年的历史让我们明白，这种好斗行为只会抑制更明智的判断，两个错误不等于一个正确。”
哈瓦那还释放了一名姓名未知的美国情报人员，他已在古巴被囚禁近20年。作为交换，华盛顿释放了三名重要的古巴囚犯，他们是“古巴五人”组织的成员，因间谍行为被判长期徒刑。
Schools, businesses and markets across northwest Pakistan have been closed in mourning for the more than 140 victims of the Taliban massacre in Peshawar. The Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif promised to rid his country of terrorism following the killings.
巴基斯坦西北部的学校、企业和市场纷纷关闭，来哀悼白沙瓦地区在塔利班大屠杀中丧生的140多名遇难者。总统纳瓦兹•谢里夫承诺在此次事件后努力将恐怖主义从本国铲除掉。
You are listening to world news coming to you from the BBC.
There are reports from Syria that more than 230 bodies have been found in a mass grave in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour. A British-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, believes that the dead were members of the same tribe and that they were killed by militants loyal to the Islamic State group. Alan Johnston reports. “The monitoring group says all the dead in this mass grave were from the tribe called the Ali Sheitat. Its members have stood up to the Islamic State after it seized their area. But IS crushed its display of resistance with great brutality. Back in August, there were reports of many killings and the severed heads of tribe’s men had been left in public view on the streets. The monitoring group believes that the discovery of this mass grave brings the tribe's losses to more than 900.”
来自叙利亚的报道称在该国东部代尔祖尔省一处大坟墓中发现230多具尸体，总部在英国的叙利亚人权观察组织人为死者来自同一个部落，是被效忠于IS组织的武装分子杀害的。艾伦•约翰斯顿报道。
“该观察组织称这个大坟墓中所有的死者都来自名为Ali Sheitat的部落，IS占领了该地区后，其部落成员起来反对该组织。但IS用残忍的手段镇压了其抵抗活动。在8月份，有报道称这里发生多次杀戮事件，部落男子被砍掉的头在大街公众场合可见。该观察组织认为发现这个大坟墓后，这个部落的被杀人数已经达到900多。”
The U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says he is leaving today for West Africa to visit the countries affected by the Ebola outbreak. He will travel to Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Mali
联合国秘书长潘基文称今天将前往西非视察受埃博拉疫情影响的国家，他将访问几内亚、利比里亚、塞拉利昂和马里。
Pope Francis has received an unusual gift on his 78th birthday, the sight of crowds of people dancing the tango in St. Peter's Square in Rome. More from David Willey. “The loudspeakers, which normally broadcast hymns and prayers, spilled out his favorite tango tunes. Hundreds of couples weaved their way across the cobble stones to the slinky rhythms of the sensual Argentinian dance. It's our birthday present to the Pope, said one woman. When he was a teenager, Pope Francis used to love to dance the tango, his assistant told one of his biographers. The future Pope even worked briefly as a dancer of a nightclub.” And that's the BBC News.
教皇弗朗西斯78岁生日收到不寻常的礼物，就是观看罗马圣彼特广场上的人群跳探戈舞。戴维•威利报道。
“通常只播放赞美诗和祈祷的大喇叭现在传出教皇最爱的探戈舞曲，数百对夫妇在感性的阿根廷探戈旋律中踩着鹅卵石翩翩起舞。一名妇女说，这是我们给教皇的生日礼物。当方济各教皇还是少年时，他就很喜欢跳探戈舞，他的助手这样对他的传记作者说。教皇年轻时还在一家夜总会短暂做过舞者。”
