An Airbus A321 crashed as it was about to land in the capital Islamabad, killing all 152 people on board.

The domestic flight from the southern city of Karachi was operated by the private Pakistani airline Airblue, which has a good safety record.

The air was heavy with a deathly smell of petrol, smoke and charred flesh”

There is no word on the cause of the crash. It happened in heavy monsoon rain and poor visibility.

The plane – with 146 passengers and six crew on board – was flying at an extremely low level before crashing into the Margalla hills north of the capital, eyewitnesses said.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani declared Thursday a day of national mourning and ordered flags to fly at half-mast across the country.

Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said 115 bodies had been recovered, but bad weather and difficult terrain had hampered recovery efforts.

Airline response

Passengers’ remains were badly damaged in the crash and DNA tests would be used to identify the victims, he told reporters.

Aamir Ali Ahmed, a senior city government official, told Reuters news agency: “It’s a very difficult operation because of the rain. Most of the bodies are charred.”

Rescue worker Dawar Adnan told Associated Press from the crash site: “I’m seeing only body parts. This is a very horrible scene.”

So far, only 46 bodies have been identified.

Two Americans were among the victims, a US embassy spokesman said, but gave no further details.

Officials say investigators are still looking for the flight data recorder, denying earlier reports that the “black box” had been found.

The BBC’s Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says that many flights on the popular route from Karachi to Islamabad have been cancelled in recent days because of the bad weather.

There are already serious questions being asked about why this plane was allowed to fly, and about whether this tragedy could have been averted, our correspondent adds.

There were also complaints about the response of Airblue.

“We didn’t get information,” says Zulfiqar Qadri, who lost a family member. “They just put a list of dead passengers in our hands.”

Airblue spokesman Raheel Ahmed told reporters that the crash had been “an extremely tragic incident” and the plane had no history of technical problems.

It was leased by Airblue in January 2006 and had accumulated about 34,000 flight hours.

More than 90,000 leaked US military records have been published on the website Wikileaks, reportedly revealing hidden details of the Afghanistan war.

Three major news publications which have been shown the documents say they include unreported killings of Afghan civilians.

The huge cache of classified papers is described as one of the biggest leaks in US military history.

The White House has condemned the leaks as “irresponsible”.

Reports by the UK daily The Guardian, the New York Times and the German weekly Der Spiegel say the leaked papers reveal Nato concerns that neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are helping Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.

The Pakistani ambassador in Washington said the “unprocessed” reports did “not reflect the current onground realities”.

“The United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan are strategic partners and are jointly endeavouring to defeat al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies militarily and politically,” said Husain Haqqani.

The reports also suggest:

• The Taliban has had access to portable heat-seeking missiles to shoot at aircraft.
• A secret US unit of army and navy special forces has been engaged on missions to “capture or kill” top insurgents.
• Many civilian casualties have gone unreported, both as a result of Taliban roadside bombs and Nato missions that went wrong.

The BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall says that although the documents reveal no dramatic new insights, they show the difficulties of the war and the civilan death toll.

The reports offer an unvarnished and grim picture of the Afghan war, she adds.

In a statement, US National Security Adviser Gen James Jones said such classified information “could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security”.

He said the documents covered the period from 2004 to 2009, before President Obama “announced a new strategy with a substantial increase in resources for Afghanistan”.

‘Civilian deaths’

Another US official said that Wikileaks – which specialises in making public untraceable material from “whistleblowers” – was not an objective news outlet and described it as an organisation that opposes US policy in Afghanistan.

But the head of the Foreign Relations Committee in the US Senate said that “however illegally these documents came to light, they raise serious questions about the reality of America’s policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan”.

“Those policies are at a critical stage and these documents may very well underscore the stakes and make the calibrations needed to get the policy right more urgent,” said Democrat Senator John Kerry.

Wikileaks is releasing the set of documents under the title Afghan War Diary. It says is has delayed the release of about 15,000 reports from the archive as part of a “harm minimisation process demanded by our source”.

The Guardian and the New York Times say they had no contact with the original source of the leak, but spent weeks crosschecking the information.

The reports come as Nato says it is investigating reports that as many as 45 civilians died in an air strike in Helmand province on Friday.

Although an initial Nato investigation found no evidence, a BBC journalist visiting Regey village spoke to several people who said they had witnessed the incident.

They said the attack had come in daylight as dozens sheltered from fighting in nearby Joshani.

A Nato spokesman said international forces went to great measures to avoid civilian casualties.

“The safety of the Afghan people is very important to the International Security Assistance Forces,” Lt Col Chris Hughes added.

Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have seen several candidates for the heaviest elementary particle known to science.
If the observations are confirmed, it would be a first for Europe; so far, the top quark particle has only been generated by one lab in the US.
Dr Arnaud Lucotte said the discovery could assist physicists in the hunt for the elusive Higgs boson, or “God particle”.
Details of the top quark candidates were presented at a major particle physics conference in Paris.
The International Conference on High Energy Physics (ICHEP) runs from 22-28 July.
The Large Hadron Collider is operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), based in Geneva.
The LHC is a giant accelerator machine housed in a 27km-long (17 miles) tunnel under the French-Swiss border.
Two beams of proton particles are fired around the giant subterranean “ring” and smashed together at crossing points located around the tunnel.
Giant experiments are located at these crossing points to look for new particles in the sub-atomic wreckage of the collisions.
‘Striking event’
Several possible detections of top quarks have been made recently by the LHC’s Atlas and Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiments.
Atlas has seen nine collision events compatible with the top quark; CMS has observed 3-4 candidate events. But physicists stressed that more data was needed in order to support the conclusive observation of top quark production at the LHC.
The detection of the top quark would represent a small milestone for the European lab, which is making steady progress after the accident which forced it to shut down for 14 months shortly after its “switch on” in 2008.
And top quark physics is not well explained; studying it presents the opportunity to carry out important scientific work at the LHC.
The top quark was first discovered in 1995 by the Tevatron accelerator, operated by Fermilab in Illinois. Since then, the US accelerator has produced the particles in abundance. But they have never been produced outside Fermilab.
In a presentation at ICHEP, particle physicist Tim Christiansen said events observed by the CMS experiment included one “striking” top quark candidate.
Dr Arnaud Lucotte, from the French National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS) told BBC News that the top quark was “well coupled” to the Higgs boson. In other words, there is thought to be a special interaction between these two particles.
Hunting the Higgs
Despite decades trying, particle physicists have so far failed to detect the Higgs. The boson particle is crucial to the current theory which has been devised to explain the interactions of sub-atomic particles, known as the Standard Model.
But rival physicists working at the Tevatron machine now believe the Higgs is within reach of the US accelerator.
They now hope to detect the elusive particle themselves, especially if the Tevatron’s lifetime can be extended by three years until 2014, as is currently being discussed.
If the Higgs boson exists in a form known as the charged Higgs, Dr Lucotte explained, the top quark could be crucial to detecting it.
Elementary particles generated at colliders “decay”, or transform, into other sub-atomic particles, which may or may not be stable.
The close coupling of the charged Higgs to the top quark means that, if the Higgs boson is heavier than the top quark, it might reveal itself by decaying into a top quark and another particle known as a b-quark.
If the Higgs is lighter, then the top quark might decay into a Higgs and a b-quark.
Other physicists envisage a different type of Higgs, one which fits the constraints of the Standard Model.
The top quark might also act as the progenitor for so-called “supersymmetric” particles. These would represent an entirely new class of particles, predicted to exist by theorists, but which have yet to be observed at particle accelerators.

New US sanctions against North Korea will violate a UN statement issued after the sinking of a South Korean warship, Pyongyang has said.
It added that the US and South Korea’s plans to hold joint military exercises posed a major danger to the region.
The new sanctions were announced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a visit to South Korea.
Mrs Clinton has now arrived in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, to attend a regional meeting of foreign ministers.
North Korea: A Secretive State
• Growing apart
• How to pressure North Korea?
• The Korean War armistice
• Q&A: Inter-Korean crisis
Tensions between the two Koreas were raised in March, when the South Korean warship the Cheonan was sunk with the loss of 46 lives.
A multinational investigation team found the ship had been torpedoed by North Korea – a conclusion that Pyongyang rejects.
North Korean official Ri Tong-il, a member of Pyongyang’s delegation at a regional security forum in Hanoi, said the US decision to impose new sanctions – announced on Wednesday – violated a statement from the UN about the sinking that was issued earlier this month.
The UN statement held back from directly blaming North Korea, but condemned the sinking as a threat to regional security.
It called for “appropriate and peaceful measures” against those responsible, and called for direct talks between all parties about tensions in the area.
Ri Tong-il said: “The decision to hold military drills is a major danger for the security of the region”
He also criticised the US-South Korean joint military exercises in the region.
The first manoeuvres, in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) for four days from Sunday, will involve the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington and 20 other ships and submarines, as well as 100 aircraft and 8,000 personnel. Later exercises will take place in the Yellow Sea.
China has objected to any foreign military operations in the Yellow Sea, which is on the western side of the Korean Peninsula. On Wednesday, China expressed “deep concern” over the plans, which the US says are purely defensive in nature.
New sanctions
Speaking in South Korea on Wednesday, Mrs Clinton said the new US sanctions would target Pyongyang’s sale and purchase of arms and import of luxury goods, and would help prevent nuclear proliferation.
She said the measures would increase Washington’s ability to “prevent North Korea’s proliferation, to halt their illicit activities that help fund their weapons programmes, and to discourage further provocative actions”.
The sanctions were not directed at the North Korean people but at the “misguided and malign priorities of their government”, she said.
Mrs Clinton said she expected North Korea to “take certain steps that would acknowledge their responsibility” for the incident and to move towards denuclearisation.
“They know very well that they made commitments over the last years to the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula which they have reneged on and which we expect them to once again adhere to,” she told reporters.
“We are looking for irreversible denuclearisation.”
The announcement came after Mrs Clinton and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates visited the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea, in a show of support for Seoul following the sinking of the Cheonan in March.
North and South Korea technically remain at war because their three-year conflict ended in an armistice in 1953 and no peace treaty was signed. The US has since stationed thousands of troops in South Korea.

Mr Karzai promised the nearly 40 foreign ministers from Nato and other states to take on more responsibility in return for increased security.

Only about 20% of international aid is distributed via the Afghan government.

The US and its allies also want assurances from Mr Karzai to tackle corruption and promote good governance.

Calling the conference – the largest hosted by the country in three decades – a “milestone in deepening international partnership”, Mr Karzai said that despite noteworthy achievements his government and their international supporters had not achieved their goal of establishing good government.

“We face a vicious common enemy that violates every Islamic and international norm to break our unity of effort,” said the Afghan president in his opening remarks.

“They would like nothing better than to create uncertainty, to force our publics to doubt our state power and our determination.”

Call for control

Mr Karzai said he was determined to renew the government with international support, and said the country’s significant mineral wealth justified investment that would generate revenues to spend on rebuilding homes and communities.

He asked the international community to increase to 50% the proportion of foreign aid money that flows through the Afghan government.

In return, Afghan forces would seek to take the lead on security throughout the country by 2014, he said. A board would review which of the 34 provinces are ready for Afghan forces to take the lead on security operations, probably from 2011 onwards.

To allow the withdrawal of some of the 150,000 Nato-led troops in Afghanistan, the army would have 170,000 soldiers by October 2011, and the police 134,000 officers. Up to 36,000 former militants would be reintegrated into the forces.

Mr Karzai also promised to improve Afghanistan’s financial management systems and the collection of taxes, reduce corruption and protect women’s rights. Benchmarks would be established to chart progress every six months.

Speaking after Mr Karzai, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is co-hosting the conference, said aid programmes needed to be “well-coordinated and fully transparent”.

Mr Ban on Monday had urged the Afghan president on Monday to produce a “concrete action plan” and “do more on good governance, particularly fighting against corrupt practices”.

US accountability push

Critics have questioned the proposal to raise the proportion of aid that goes directly to the Afghan government, particularly after recent revelations of large villas in Dubai being funded by corrupt payments siphoned from aid budgets.

On Monday, Hillary Clinton said Washington was “pressing the Afghan government at all levels to be more accountable, to go after corruption”.

She also warned it against trying to make peace with the Taliban, al-Qaeda and other militant groups the US considers irreconcilable.

“We would strongly advise our friends in Afghanistan to deal with those who are committed to a peaceful future where their ideas can compete in the political arena through the ballot box, not through the force of arms,” said Mrs Clinton.

The Taliban have insisted they will fight until all foreign forces leave.

Security forces were out in force in the Afghan capital ahead of the conference, with scores of checkpoints appearing overnight.

Several loud blasts were heard near the diplomatic and government quarter late on Monday, which correspondents said were probably caused by rockets.

Kabul has been shaken by daring Taliban suicide attacks in recent months.

A national peace jirga (meeting) in the city last month was attacked with rockets as it was being opened by Mr Karzai, and the interior minister and head of the intelligence service resigned shortly afterwards.

“We are 100% prepared but this doesn’t mean everything will go exactly to plan,” interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told Reuters this week.

‘Concrete action plan’

Afghanistan has received $36bn (£24bn) in foreign aid – about $1,200 a head – since 2001, but only a small amount of that spending has had any impact, says BBC international development correspondent David Loyn.

According to the World Bank, much has gone on security for a “second civil service” of highly-paid foreign consultants operating outside the Afghan state, and very little has been used to build Afghanistan’s ability to govern itself.

Although it is not a donor conference, new pledges of increased aid have been made in the run-up, with UK Foreign Secretary William Hague saying his country planned to increase its aid to Afghanistan by £200m or 40%.

Mr Hague said the extra money, intended for education and job creation projects, would ultimately support the military effort.

Analysts believe the real significance of the conference lies in its attempt to keep the international community involved in Afghanistan in the light of US President Barack Obama’s decision to begin reducing troop levels in July 2011

Australia will hold a general election on 21 August, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced. Ms Gillard – the country’s first female prime minister – said the snap poll would be “tough and close”.

The governing Labor Party elected her as leader three weeks ago after ousting her predecessor, Kevin Rudd.

The race between Labor and the conservative opposition Liberal Party is expected to focus on the economy, health, climate change and immigration.

“This election is about the choice as to whether we move Australia forward or go back,” Ms Gillard said in a televised address in Canberra.

“Moving forward means moving forward with budget surpluses and a stronger economy.”

She said that it also “means moving forward with stronger protection of our borders and strong plan, a real plan, that takes away from people-smugglers and the products they sell”.

Opposition Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott has dismissed the recent change of the Labor leadership, saying Ms Gillard was committed to the “same dud policies” of her predecessor.

It will be the toughest fight in Ms Gillard’s political life, it thinks the general mass.

Recent opinion polls give Labor a lead over the Liberals and Ms Gillard will be hoping to secure another three-year term, our correspondent adds.

Preparations for a key pressure test of the blown-out Gulf of Mexico oil well are under way, BP has said.
The test, expected to yield information on how to seal the well permanently, is set to begin late on Wednesday and could last up to 48 hours.
BP said valves were being positioned ready to close the cap so that pressure could build up and the well’s strength and integrity be assessed.
The test had earlier been delayed so experts could review the procedure.

US Oil Spill
• Damage assessment
• Which way forward for BP?
• Ways BP has tried to stop the leak
• What we know about the disaster

Scientists and officials feared the testing procedure could irreparably harm the well bore, hindering efforts permanently to seal it.

“There is a tremendous sense of urgency,” said Adm Thad Allen, the US incident commander. But he warned that nobody wants to make “an irreversible mistake”.
It had been expected that with the new containment cap in place BP would start the vital pressure test early on Tuesday.
Following the procedural review, the “well integrity test” will now include seismic, acoustic and temperature monitoring of the well and the surrounding area.
The purpose of testing is to check whether oil will leak out of other areas if valves on the blowout preventer and new cap are closed.
“Upon completion of the tests, the federal government will possess valuable data regarding both the condition of the well – important when action is taken to ultimately kill the well with the relief well efforts – as well as an understanding of our capacity to shut the well in for brief periods if needed to prepare for a hurricane,” the White House said in a statement.
The blown-out well has been spewing oil into Gulf waters since April.
During the test process, BP will monitor the pressure of the oil in the well.
High pressure will mean the oil has been contained inside the wellhead.
But if the tests show there is low pressure, this may indicate that oil is leaking elsewhere in the well.
BP officials said that if the pressure proved to be low, the cap would not be kept shut and ships on the surface of the Gulf would continue collecting oil.
BP has temporarily suspended work on drilling its two relief wells – which offer the only prospect of permanently plugging the leaking well – because of the planned test.
Meanwhile, four senators from New York and New Jersey are pressing the US state department to look into allegations that BP lobbied for the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi while attempting to finalise an oil deal with Libya.
Al-Megrahi, who has terminal prostate cancer, was freed by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill on compassionate grounds in August 2009 after serving eight years.
The 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 killed 270 people, mostly American.
BP has denied specifically lobbying for al-Megrahi’s release, saying it was a matter for the UK and Libyan governments.

The United States is pushing for what would become nuclear wars against Iran and North Korea, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro said in a rare televised interview Monday.
Castro blamed the United States, not North Korea, for the sinking of a South Korean ship that killed 46 sailors. The incident was orchestrated to stir conflict in the region, Castro said.
The former Cuban leader, who is 83, said he was disappointed that China and Russia didn’t veto a U.N. Security Council resolution for additional sanctions against Iran for its alleged illegal nuclear program.
Iran, he said, has been building up for a confrontation for 30 years. If the United States attacks Iran, it will meet a resistance unlike anything it faced in Iraq, Castro said.
“A war there can’t avoid becoming nuclear,” Castro said.
One subject Castro did not mention during the hour-long appearance was Monday’s release of political prisoners.
Castro spoke on Cuban TV on a show called “Roundtable.” He appeared in a dark blue tracksuit worn over a plaid shirt and sat on a swivel chair that he shifted at points during the interview.
His remarks were based on a column published Monday of a possible nuclear war involving the United States and Iran, sparked by conflict over that country’s nuclear activities.
News of Castro’s television appearance appeared to resonate with some residents in the Cuban capital.
“[It's] extraordinary because we want to feel him, hear him, see him, because we haven’t seen him in a long time,” said Havana resident Ruben Morrejon Fernandez.
Monday’s appearance was the second Castro sighting in the past few days. Three photographs of Castro surfaced Saturday on a pro-government blog, which claimed the photos were taken last Wednesday.
The set of three photos appear to show the ailing Castro meeting with people during “a surprise visit” at the National Center of Scientific Investigations in Havana, according to a blog published by columnist Rosa C. Baez.
An additional five photos — appearing to be from the same event — were published Saturday by the state-run media site Cubadebate.
Castro has been largely out of sight since undergoing emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006. He ceded power to younger brother Raul Castro in February 2008.
The elder Castro’s appearance follows last week’s announcement of the largest release of Cuban political prisoners in more than a decade.
Cuba’s Roman Catholic Church also announced Monday the names of the three more political prisoners set to be freed. They were identified as: Jesus Mustafa Felipe, Omar Rodriguez Saludes and Antonio R. Diaz Sanchez.
The first prisoners to be released are expected to arrive in Madrid on Tuesday, a Spanish Foreign Ministry spokesman told CNN on Monday.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos met with Cuban President Raul Castro and Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega last week, after which the prisoner release was announced.
The 52 political prisoners Cuba plans to free are the remainder of 75 dissidents jailed during a government crackdown on political opposition in March 2003.
They represent roughly one-third of all known political prisoners left on the island, according to Cuba’s unofficial Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation.

At least 64 people, including an American, have been killed in twin blasts in the Ugandan capital Kampala. Another 65 people were injured by the blasts, which police said went off at a rugby club and a restaurant as football fans watched the World Cup final.
“These bombs were definitely targeting World Cup crowds,” Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura said.
Somali militants have in the past threatened to attack Kampala; Ugandan troops are deployed in Mogadishu.
About 5,000 African Union troops from Uganda and Burundi are based in Mogadishu to protect the fragile interim government.
The Amisom force is engaged in frequent firefights with Islamist insurgents which control much of southern and central Somalia.
Obama ‘deeply saddened’
Insp General Kayihura said he believed Somalia’s militant group al-Shabab could be behind Sunday evening’s attack. If true, it would be the first time the group has carried out attacks outside Somalia.
In Mogadishu, an al-Shabab commander said he was “happy” with the attacks in Uganda.
But Sheik Yusuf Sheik Issa refused to confirm or deny that al-Shabab was responsible.
He told AP news agency: “Uganda is one of our enemies. Whatever makes them cry, makes us happy. May Allah’s anger be upon those who are against us.”
Insp General Kayihura, speaking at the scene of one blast, said:
“The information we have indicates the people who have attacked the Ethiopian Village were probably targeting expatriates,” he added.
US President Barack Obama said the explosions were “deplorable and cowardly”.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US would work with the Ugandan government “to bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice”.
The US embassy in Kampala has confirmed that one American was among the dead.”
The nationalities of all the fatalities will be released later,” said police spokeswoman Judith Nabakooba.
‘Screaming and running’
At least three Americans, members of a church group from Pennsylvania, were wounded at the Ethiopian restaurant.
One, Kris Sledge, 18, said from his hospital bed: “I remember blacking out, hearing people screaming and running.”
Mr Sledge, of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, who had a bandaged leg and burns on his face, told AP: “I love the place here, but I’m wondering why this happened and who did this. At this point we’re just glad to be alive.”
At the scenes of the two blasts chairs were overturned, and blood and pieces of flesh lay on the floor.

Cuba has agreed to free 52 political prisoners in the largest prisoner release by the communist authorities for decades.
The move follows talks in Havana which involved officials from Spain and the Roman Catholic Church.
Five prisoners are expected to leave jail soon, while the rest will be freed in the next few months.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, who is in Havana, said the move “opens a new era in Cuba”.
Mr Moratinos, who took part in the talks, also expressed hopes that it could help to put “aside differences once and for all on matters of prisoners”.
The Cuban government has been under pressure to free dissidents since a prisoner on hunger strike died in February: a second is said to be close to death.
Cuba has always denied that it has political prisoners, calling them mercenaries paid by the United States to undermine Havana’s rule, says the BBC’s Michael Voss in the capital.
But President Raul Castro has been stung by the strength of international criticism following the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo in February, our correspondent adds.
News of the impending releases received a mixed reaction among human rights activists.

‘Destination Spain’
Agreement to release the prisoners came after talks between Mr Castro and Havana’s Roman Catholic Archbishop, Cardinal Jaime Ortega.
The accord was announced by Church officials in Havana.
Mr Moratinos and his Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodriguez, were also present at the meeting in Havana.
They discussed prisoners and the case of Guillermo Farinas, the dissident who has been refusing food since February while demanding the release of political prisoners.
Cardinal Ortega said five detainees – whose names were not released – would be freed later on Wednesday and the remaining 47 within the next few months.
The five being released would be allowed “shortly to depart for Spain, accompanied by their relatives”, a Church statement said.
The releases will leave 110 political prisoners in Cuban jails, according to a count by the island’s leading human rights group, the Cuban Commission on Human Rights.
Commission spokesman Elizardo Sanchez said he was surprised that the government was releasing so many but he added that the move did “not mean a significant improvement in the terrible situation of human rights that exists in Cuba”.
He argued that “forced exile in Spain” was not the same as unconditional freedom.
But Laura Pollan, leader of the dissident group Ladies in White and wife of jailed dissident Hector Maceda, said her group sensed that Cuba was “at the doors of a… significant change”.
She told the Associated Press news agency that she hoped it would be “a true change, the first steps of a true freedom, of a true democracy”.
The last time Cuba released a significant number of political prisoners was after Pope John Paul II visited in 1998, when 101 were set free.
Twenty years before that, Fidel Castro freed 3,600 political prisoners after meeting Cuban exiles.

‘Facing death’
There was no immediate word from Mr Farinas, 48, who has been fed intravenously in hospital.
Recent news of his condition was reported in Cuban state media, which usually ignore dissident protests.
The official communist party newspaper Granma published an interview with the doctor leading his treatment, Armando Caballero.
Dr Caballero said the patient had gained weight due to intravenous feeding since being moved to hospital on 11 March after collapsing at his home in Santa Clara.
But a blood clot had formed in his neck and he was also suffering from an infection that could make further intravenous feeding impossible, the doctor said on Saturday.