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BBC News with Chris Barrow.
Cuba says it's killed four people and injured six others who were travelling in a U.S.-registered speedboat off the Cuban coast. Havana said the Coast Guard approached the speedboat to identify the passengers but those on board opened fire. The U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Department of Homeland Security and Coast Guard were working to get more information. "We're gonna have our own information on this and we're gonna figure out exactly what happened and there are a number of things that could have happened here. I'm not even going to speculate as to what it could have been. It's a wide range of things. Suffice it to say it is highly unusual to see shootouts in open sea like that. It's not something that happens every day, it's something frankly that hasn't happened with Cuba in a very long time. But we're gonna find out, we're not gonna base our conclusions on what they've told us." The United States says it will ease its ban on Venezuelan oil exports to Cuba as Washington's blockade leads to a worsening crisis on the Caribbean island. The Treasury Department said it would allow transactions that support the Cuban people for commercial and humanitarian use. Two former Brazilian lawmakers have been sentenced to more than 76 years in jail each for ordering the killing of a prominent Rio de Janeiro politician and activist. Marielle Franco, a black lesbian activist, grew up in one of Rio's favelas and was critical of Rio's powerful militias. Brazil's Supreme Court voted to convict the brothers Chiquinho and Domingos Brazão of ordering the killing. Speaking outside court, Ms. Franco's daughter, Luyara Franco, gave her reaction to the sentences. "Today was a day full of pressure peaks and anxieties, of reliving and listening to some statements. And I think I wanted to thank but also highlight the courage of our families, because if we got here today it was because for eight years we continued to echo the question who ordered Marielle's murder? And today we leave here with the answer." Britain has insisted it's not pausing the transfer of sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius despite a government minister announcing it was. The Foreign Office minister told Parliament the deal was on hold to allow more time for talks with the United States. President Trump has urged Britain not to give away the island of Diego Garcia, which is home to an important U.S.-U.K. military base. Tom Bateman is in Washington. Because this has been a political football, the Mauritius deal in the United Kingdom, with opposition parties opposing, the government handing sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, you've now had the U.K. government effectively sort of appear to vacillate today over whether or not it's gonna suspend ratifying this treaty and this deal. The latest seems to be they say it's full steam ahead, they're gonna go ahead with this deal, whatever President Trump says, but you still have this basically being used now as a political football, in my view, really over the issue of U.K. support for any strikes on Iran. BBC News. The Spanish government has published 150 documents related to a failed coup 45 years ago which threatened to overturn its new democracy. One shows six members of the intelligence services were involved in planning the coup attempt. The coup failed after King Juan Carlos voiced his opposition to it in a national televised address. The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has ordered the army and police to protect critical energy infrastructure after accusing Ukraine of plotting to disrupt it. More details from Nick Thorpe in Budapest. The idea of war-torn Ukraine physically threatening Hungary, its small western neighbor, sounds far-fetched. But Viktor Orbán insists that is the case. After a meeting of the Hungarian Defense Council on Wednesday, he announced that troops, military equipment and police were being reinforced around critical energy structures because "Ukraine is preparing further actions," as he put it. Mr. Orbán's critics say he's stepping up the war of words with Ukraine in order to convince the public that Hungary is under attack in the run-up to the parliamentary election on the 12th of April. A humanoid robot has conducted the Danish National Symphony Orchestra at a performance in Copenhagen. The Danish Technological Institute says the new maestro is among the most advanced types of robots available. Trained by a human conductor, it's taken part in the orchestra series of cyberphoria concerts designed to explore the boundaries between human and machine. In European football, Spanish giants Real Madrid have secured their passage to the last 16 of the men's Champions League in the playoffs. They beat Benfica 2-1 to progress 3-1 on aggregate. The holders, Paris Saint-Germain, are also through, edging past Monaco 5-4 on aggregate after a 2-all draw in the second leg. That's the latest world news from the BBC. |