英国新闻听力 津巴布韦新总理遭遇车祸（在线收听）

Susan Tsvangirai, the wife of the new Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, has been killed in a car crash. Mr. Tsvangirai was slightly injured. His long-standing rival, President Robert Mugabe, has visited him in hospital. Here's our Southern Africa correspondent Peter Biles.

According to sources in the Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai had been travelling to his rural home. His vehicle is said to have been involved in a collision on a road south of Harare. Mr. Tsvangirai was not seriously hurt, but his wife Susan who was travelling with him was killed. Mr. Tsvangirai was taken to a private hospital in Harare. A few hours later, President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace were seen arriving at the clinic to visit him. The accident comes just two days after Mr. Tsvangirai delivered his maiden speech in Parliament after being sworn in as prime minister in Zimbabwe's new power-sharing government.

Unemployment in the United States has reached its highest level for more than 25 years at 8.1%. The worst losses were in professional and business services, factories, construction, retail and leisure. Speaking to police graduates in Columbus, Ohio, President Obama said he knew that Americans were experiencing the real impact behind the jobless figures.

"Just this morning, we learned that we lost another 651,000 jobs throughout the country in the month of February alone, which brings the total number of jobs lost in this recession to an astounding 4.4 million. I don't need to tell the people of this state what statistics like this mean."

The American Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has met her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Geneva. The discussion is aimed at what she termed resetting the US-Russian relationship after tensions during the Bush administration. She said that they agreed to work towards a new strategic arms reduction agreement and hoped to have a deal by the end of the year. Imogen Foulkes reports from Geneva.

The talks between Hillary Clinton and Sergei Lavrov were brief but clearly very friendly. Both stressed how much they liked each other. They committed themselves to working together on issues which they said were of huge importance to the entire world, arms reduction, combating the spread of nuclear weapons, fighting terrorism. They expect to get a new treaty on reducing their own nuclear stockpiles by the end of this year.

Morocco says it's cut diplomatic ties with Iran. The move follows comments from an Iranian politician Ali Akbar Nateq Nuri in which he questioned the sovereignty of the Gulf state of Bahrain by implying it was an Iranian province. Morocco and other Sunni Muslim countries took offense at the remarks. In the statement, the Moroccan Foreign Ministry said it hadn't received an explanation for the comments from the Iranian authorities.

The UN says it now believes thousands of civilians have been killed and wounded in the fighting in Sri Lanka. However, UN humanitarian officials said there were no verifiable numbers due to a lack of access for relief workers. The Sri Lankan government has described the statement as irresponsible.

The lawyer of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man accused of locking his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathering seven children with her, says his client will plead guilty to most of the charges he is facing. Mr. Fritzl's trial starts in just over a week. Bethany Bell reports from Vienna.

Josef Fritzl's lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, told the Austrian news agency APA that his client expects to spend the rest of his life behind bars. He told APA that Joseph Fritzl would plead guilty to the general charges of deprivation of liberty, rape, incest and coercion but will contest the murder charge. Mr. Mayer said Joseph Fritzl was not a sex monster but he loved his daughter in his own way. He said Mr. Fritzl, whom he described as a deeply disturbed personality, had wanted the family he could be sure of.

The Colombian government has announced that it will release from prison two former left-wing rebels who are now said to be willing to work for peace. The Interior Ministry said the two former FARC guerillas, known as Olivo Saldana and Karina, have renounced violence and will help other former fighters to reintegrate into society. The Colombian authorities have faced criticism in the past over the failure of a similar initiative.

The Irish company Smurfit Kappa has confirmed that the Venezuelan government has seized land it uses to grow trees for cardboard production. President Hugo Chavez has said the plot was taken over as part of what he called his socialist agrarian revolution. The Venezuelan president said the eucalyptus plantation in Lara state was drying up local rivers and the land would now be used to grow corn and beans.

津巴布韦新总理摩根.茨万吉拉伊的妻子苏珊在一场车祸中遇难，茨万吉拉伊先生受了轻伤。他长期的对手穆加贝总统已到医院看望了他。

来自民主改革运动的消息，摩根.茨万吉拉伊这次是前往他在农村的家里，据说他的汽车在哈拉雷的一条路上发生了碰撞。茨万吉拉伊没有受重伤，但是陪他一起出行的妻子苏珊死亡。茨万吉拉伊被送往哈拉雷的一所私人医院，几小时后，人们看到总统穆加贝和妻子格瑞斯前往医院看望他。宣誓任津巴布韦新权利分享政府的总理后，两天前，茨万吉拉伊刚刚在国会发表了他的初次演说。

美国的失业率达到25年多来的最高点，达8.1%。受损失最严重的是专业和商务服务、工厂、建筑业、零售业和娱乐业。在向俄亥俄州哥伦布警察毕业生的讲话中，奥巴马总统说，他知道在失业率上升的背后，美国正在经历着真正的冲击。

“就在今天早上，我们知道仅仅二月份整个国家丢失了651，000份工作，至此这次经济萧条的总失业数字达到惊人的4.4百万，没有必要告诉人们这样的统计数字意味着什么。”

美国国务卿希拉里在日内瓦会见了俄罗斯外长拉夫罗夫，双方讨论的议题是希拉里提出的“恢复俄美关系”，她说双方同意达成一份新的战略性武器削减协议，希望在几年年底达成协定。

希拉里和拉夫罗夫的会谈很简短但很友好，双方强调了对对方的喜欢，并致力于在对全世界有重大意义的问题上协同一致：削减武器、打击核扩散、打击恐怖主义。双方希望年底就削减各自的核储备达成一项新协议。

摩洛哥声称已减少同伊朗的外交联系，此前，伊朗政治家Ali Akbar Nateq Nuri发表评论，他对海湾国家巴林岛的主权提出了质疑，暗示这是伊朗的一个省。摩洛哥和其他逊尼派穆斯林国家对此评论进行反击。摩洛哥外交部表示目前还没有收到伊朗当局对该评论所做的解释。

联合国表示已相信有成千上万人在斯里兰卡的对抗中被杀或受伤，然而，联合国人道主义官员表示，由于救助人员无法进入，还没有得到证实后的数据。斯里兰卡政府认为这一声明很不负责。

澳大利亚人Josef Fritzl被指控将女儿锁于地下室24年之久，并与其生育了7个孩子，他的律师说他对大部分指控感到内疚，对Fritzl的审判开始于仅一周多以前。

Josef Fritzl的律师迈尔告诉澳大利亚新闻机构APA，说他的委托人希望在监狱中度过余生。他告诉APA，Josef Fritzl对被指控的剥夺自由、强奸、乱伦和强迫罪感到内疚，但是不承认有谋杀罪。迈尔说Josef Fritzl不是个性变态，而是以自己的方式爱自己的女儿。他将Josef Fritzl描述为深度的人格混乱，说他想要一个他自己认为正确的家庭。

哥伦比亚政府宣布将释放两名曾经的左翼叛乱分子，据说他们现在愿意为和平事业做事。内政部表示，这两名前FARC游击队员Saldana和Karina已经弃绝暴力行为，愿意帮助其他的好战者融入社会。哥伦比亚官方过去曾因类似的失败尝试而遭受批评。

爱尔兰Smurfit Kappa公司已经得到证实，委内瑞拉政府已经没收了其用于生产厚纸板的树木种植区土地。总统Hugo Chavez说，他们接管的那片土地，是属于他称之为社会主义土地革命的一部分。委内瑞拉总统声称在Lara州的桉树种植，使得当地的河流濒临枯竭，现如今这些土地已被用来种植谷物和豆类。