BBC Words in the News 14/04 with transcript video

The research team were astonished by the speed with which fruit flies are able to change direction in mid-flight when faced with a threat.

Like fighter aircraft, they pitch, roll and regain stability, and all in five-thousandths of a second. High speed video shows that this complex and abrupt manoeuvre involves very subtle changes in the insect’s wing beat that are barely discernible.

It’s a mystery how a creature with a brain the size of a grain of salt is able to process visual information and translate it into precise muscular movements so quickly and precisely.

But according to the research team, it does help to explain why flies are so difficult to swat.

It wasn’t much of a homecoming: family and friends on the dockside. The crews waved back and then unloaded their cargo of whale meat. It could be the last one for some time from the waters off the Antarctic.

Japan has cancelled next year’s hunt after the International Court of Justice said it was illegal. Australia and New Zealand convinced the judges that Japan was not catching whales for scientific research, as it had claimed – to get round a worldwide ban on whaling.

Those welcoming home the flotilla were glum. One official bowed in apology. “People don’t understand Japanese ways,” said this man.

The captain from one of the returning ships said he hoped he’d someday return to the Antarctic. But next year will be the first time in 25 years that Japan has not hunted whales in the Southern Ocean.

ZunZuneo was popular here in Cuba. The service provided news – on sport and culture in particular – straight to subscribers‘ mobile telephones. But users had no idea they were signing up to a programme created in the United States.

Funded by the US government development agency USAID, ZunZuneo targeted young Cubans in particular. Ultimately, the goal was to send political messages via the network, aimed at provoking a ‘Cuban Spring’.

But users told the BBC that the service ended abruptly over a year ago, before they received any kind of political content. Confirming that the project did indeed exist, the White House called ZunZuneo a ‘development’ programme, intended to help the ‘free flow’ of information.

But the US has a long history of trying to provoke regime change in Havana: starting with assassination plots against Fidel Castro – then a trade embargo – and more recently, high-tech projects like this one.

The two suspects were carrying fake bond certificates with a face value of some four trillion dollars, and were allegedly hoping to open a line of credit at the Vatican bank. This bank – called the Institute for Religious Works – runs thousands of private accounts held by cardinals, bishops and religious orders all over the world, as well as administering the Holy See’s own local payroll.

It’s been the subject of enquiries into alleged money laundering. The Vatican, a sovereign state, has been tightening up its international banking procedures after criticism by a European regulatory watchdog body that it’s been used as an offshore fiscal haven by unauthorised individuals.

Pope Francis has ordered a complete overhaul of the bank and has set up a detailed enquiry into the transparency of its transactions. Last year the Vatican, for the first time, agreed to cooperate closely with Italian authorities trying to combat any fraudulent use of the bank.

Previously, the Vatican had claimed diplomatic immunity for Vatican bank officials. Pope Francis sacked two of its former directors – both Italians – who now face possible trial on money laundering charges in an Italian court.