感谢大耳朵网友“香水瓶”\“pearlf”提供的听力原文



BBC News with Punet Godusy.

A major new arms control agreement which bans the use and stockpiling of cluster munitions has been signed in the Irish capital Dublin. More than 100 countries have agreed to ban cluster bombs -- weapons that explode into tiny bomblets. They have be blamed for killing hundreds of civilians often years after being used in batter. Thomas Nash of the campaign group Cluster Munitions Coalition said this was a very important agreement.

"This is an incredibly positive document. It's going to set a new norm, a new standard of international behavior that will say cluster munitions are unacceptable, they will be stigmatized, and it will also say that the use of explosive force in areas is also beginning to be unacceptable for, for the international community. So it's a hugely significant document and the Irish have done a, a brilliant job in pulling it so quickly."

Some of the major users of cluster bombs, however, won't be signing. The United States, Russia, China and Israel were upset from the Dublin meeting.

The Mexican government says the army will be deployed on the streets of Mexico for at least another two years in a fight against the country's drug gangs. About 25,000 troops have been involved in the battle with cartels for more than a year. Duncan Kennedy reports from Mexico City.

The government does never put a timeline on the use of Mexico's regular army in the fight against the cartels. The army's been deployed from more than a year. Now according to Medina-Mora, Mexico's Attorney General, it will be at least another two years before the army can withdraw. Mr. Mora said he saw no quick end to the violence which has let nearly 14,00 people dead so far this year.

A former member of George Bush's inner circle has accused the president of relying on political propaganda rather than the truth to sell the war in Iraq to the American people. In the new memoir, Scott McClellan, a former White House press secretary, said President Bush rushed into an unnecessary war. Jack Izzard reports.

Two years after he resigned, Mr. McClellan has written a stinging critic of the Bush administration. He accused the president of veering terribly off course and botching the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina, perhaps most damning of all. He claims that President Bush run a political propaganda campaign to persuade Americans' support to invade Iraq / description of president's personal qualities, charm, wit and enormous political skills. But over all, it is a visual attack on the administration.

The first American court-martial to arise from the killing of civilians in the northern Iraqi city of Haditha three years ago is underway in California. Lieutenant Andrew Grayson is accused of abstructing justice. It's the first case to come to trial in the biggest US criminal prosecution involving civilian deaths in Iraq. It's alleged that 24 people were killed in 2005 in revenge for a roadside bombing in which an American marine died.

You are listening to the World News from the BBC.

The Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has called on the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to stand down. Mr. Olmert is currently battling allegations of corruption. Mr. Barak said he could not remain his prime minister while also facing a police investigation.

Farmers groups in Argentina have stepped up their protests against new export taxes banning all exports of grain and beef for almost a week. It's the latest escalation of a two-month confrontation with Presidnet Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, which has already caused rice and food shortages across Argentina. The farmers say that the tax increases are crippling them. But President Fernandez insists that the money is needed to redistribute the wealth to the poor.

A special assembly in Nepal has voted to abolish the monarchy after more than two centuries in power. King Gyanendra has now fifteen days to leave his palace in central Kathmandu. The much-heralded decision was delayed for many hours while members of the assembly aruged over an interim plan for a presidential system for Nepal. There was no immediate raction to decision from the King himself.

Scientists in the United States have taught monkeys to control a robotic arm through electrics implanted in their brains. The research has hoped that such a system may eventually allow paralyzed patients to operate artificial limbs with their minds. Here's our science reporter Paul Rinco.

Researches from the University of Pittsburgh have built a complex robotic arm completed with joints and the claw that works much like a human hands, then they run tiny electrics from the artificial limbs and implanted them into monkeys' brain. Using food as a reward, the scientists managed to train the monkeys to control the robo-timbs using only the power of minds. Within a few days, the animals were using the false limb to feed themselves with marshmallows, chunks of fruit and other treats.

That report was by Paul Rinco and it's the latest BBC News.