英语听力精选进阶版 7516（在线收听）

The European Union has welcomed the vote in the Greek parliament in favour of a controversial austerity package. The EU said it was a vital step back from what it called the "very grave scenario of default". The German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was a positive development.

"It is an important step on the one hand for Greece's future, but also for the stability of the euro as a whole. With this, Greece has shown that it is prepared to take a difficult path which, I am aware, will also mean sacrifices for many people. But I think it is the path that seems reasonable for the future of Greece."

But in the streets of Athens, police fought running battles with hundreds of youths protesting against the proposed cuts. The measures were demanded by international creditors.

The French government has confirmed reports that it has dropped some 40 tonnes of weapons to the Libyan rebels fighting Colonel Gaddafi's forces in the mountains southwest of the capital Tripoli. France said the decision was taken unilaterally. Some analysts said the move might contravene the United Nations Security Council embargo on all arms supplies to Libya.

The authorities in Moldova say they've arrested six people and seized a quantity of enriched uranium. Mark Lobel reports.

The seized uranium, which can be used to arm nuclear weapons, is valued at nearly $29m. An interior ministry official said it came from Russia and the six men were trying to sell at least a kilo of uranium-235 to a Muslim national of an unnamed African country. The prosecutor said the investigators had received help from authorities in Germany, Ukraine and the United States.

Three men convicted in 2009 of plotting to blow up synagogues in New York City have been sentenced to 25 years in prison. The three men have been found guilty of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. They were arrested in 2009 after they planted fake remote-controlled bombs near synagogues given to them by undercover FBI agents. From New York, Laura Trevelyan.

Lawyers for James Cromitie, David Williams and Onta Williams argued that the men deserved to be sentenced leniently because they'd been encouraged by a paid FBI informant posing as an Islamic extremist. The sentencing judge did say that the government created acts of terrorism out of Cromitie's fantasies and then made those fantasies come true. But Judge Colleen McMahon said she could not condemn the defendants enough. A motivation for wanting to blow up synagogues was she said hatred of Jews.

Venezuela has suspended a regional summit scheduled for next week, adding to speculation about the health of the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The foreign ministry said in a statement that the meeting had been postponed because the president was still recovering from an operation. Mr Chavez left Venezuela three weeks ago for Cuba.

World News from the BBC

Reports from Yemen say dozens of people have died in heavy fighting near the rebel-held southern city of Zinjibar. Officials say at least 26 soldiers and 14 militants died in an intense battle at a football stadium near the city.

Police in the Belarusian capital Minsk have detained at least 100 people trying to reach the main square to protest against the government. Around 3,000 people took part in the demonstration. Oleg Boldyrev reports.

Belarusian capital Minsk just saw another mass gathering of people who call themselves "the revolution via social network". It's a nearly silent gathering - people don't do anything, just clap their hands together, but this did not stop the police from detaining people, doing it pretty brutally. We saw 20, 25 people being thrown into the police buses by plain-clothes policemen. Human rights observers who are monitoring the situation all around say at least 120 people were packed into the police buses.

European astronomers have announced a discovery which they believe could offer a big advance in our understanding of the early Universe. They say that after a painstaking search they've discovered the oldest-known quasar in an intensely energetic galaxy with a super-sized black hole at its centre that formed just 770 million years after the birth of the cosmos. The discovery reveals a period known as the ionisation era when ultraviolet light from early stars cleared the clouds of hydrogen, which at the time veiled the Universe.

Tennis now, and the six-times Wimbledon champion Roger Federer has been knocked out in the quarter-finals, despite being two sets up against the Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. It's the first time Federer has lost a two-set lead in his Grand Slam career. Tsonga, who's seeded 12, will now play the No. 2 seed Novak Djokovic. The British No. 1, Andy Murray, won his quarter-final. He's facing the defending champion Rafael Nadal from Spain, who won his match against the American Mardy Fish.