BBC News with Fiona MacDonald
The Vatican has strongly criticized the United Nations report accusing it pursuing policies which allow priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children. The UN Committee said the Roman Catholic Church must immediately remove all known and suspected abusers and refer them to the civil authorities. Our Rome correspondent Alan Johnston has this report.
The UN Committee could hardly be more scathing. Its report implied a complete failure on the part of the Vatican to tackle all the sex abuse scandal. It alleged that there were cover-up since strategies that worsen the problem. But the Vatican has complained that the report can negative attitude towards its work to address the issue. It argues that it now has a substantial program in place designed to keep children safe when they come into contact with the church. And the Vatican has strongly objected to the report's criticism of its attitude towards matters like abortion, contraception and homosexuality.
The Panama Canal authority says works on a project to widen the important shipping route has been suspended because of the dispute over rising costs. The head of the Spanish company leading the consortium has denied work stopped and said the company is willing to continue its negotiations.
The Panama Canal is marking its centenary later this year. But there is little reason for celebration today. Just over a month ago, the building consortium led by the Spanish company Sacyr gave the Panamanian authorities a deadline to pay $1.6b in added cost to the project. Panama refused and blamed the building companies for the increased construction bill. Thousands of jobs are now at risk, and the impact would be felt across the region when many ports have invested heavily expecting greater demand following the widening of the Canal. And the report from Leonardo Rucha.
The Israeli authorities have approved the construction of more than 500 new apartments in disputed East Jerusalem. Contractors are expected to start building in three neighborhoods. Palestinian officials said the decision undermined the already fragile US-brokered peace negotiations.
One of the largest chains of pharmacies in the United States CVS Caremark has said will it stop selling all tobacco products by October. CVS Caremark chief executive Larry Merlo says cigarettes had no place alongside health care. Here's Rajini Vaidyanathan.
This is all about their positioning as a company, and now CVS is also to expand its health care offering and offer much more in items of vaccinations and even anti-smoking program, so more than just picking up new medicines and the CEO of the company said offering that in expanding the health care service that they provide was incompatible with selling cigarettes and other tobacco products, so that's why they decided to do that because it doesn't really fitting their long-term business strategy.
World News from the BBC.
Security forces in the Russian region of Dagestan have shot dead an Islamist militant during a house siege in the town of Izberbash. Thirty-year-old Dzhamaldin Mirzayev is thought to have organized suicide bombings in the southwestern city of Vogolgrad in December. He's thought to have trained the 2 suicide bombers who killed 34 people.
The former footballer David Beckham has launched a new Major League Soccer team based in Miami. Mr. Beckham's team has been created by a deal involving his investment group and the US Professional Soccer League. If local officials approve an agreement on the location of a stadium in Florida later this year, it's understood the team could start playing in 2016. David Beckham says he's very exited about the challenge.
“To be standing here, you know being an owner of a team, it's a dream, you know it's a dream and it's great. I think it's impersonally a great example for kids. you know I've had the career life, I've worked hard, I've done a lot of great things in my career. Now, I'm set here and I'm a owner of a team.”
Hungary has agreed terms with Russia on a loan to finance the expansion of Hungary's only nuclear power plant. Moscow will lend $13.5bn for the construction of two new reactors more than doubling the capacity of the plant in the southern city of Paks. Left-wing opposition parties have promised a referendum on the deal if they win elections in April. On Monday, Greenpeace protesters took over the Liberty Statue in the capital Budapest.
The pips, the hourly markers, as listeners to the BBC world service can hear the top of most hours are 90 years old today. The 6 pips have changed little since they were first heard in 1924. They were controlled by two mechanical clocks at the Royal Greenwich Observatory in southeast London. Hence their official name，the Greenwich Time Signal. The only difference is that back then,all of pips were of reniform length, while now the last one is elongated.