BBC news 2010-11-21 加文本

2010-11-21 BBC

BBC News with David Legge

Pope Benedict has suggested that the use of condoms could be justified in some exceptional circumstances. David Willey reports from Rome.

The teaching of the Catholic Church is that the use of condoms is sinful because they are a form of artificial contraception. But Pope Benedict said in a series of long interviews last summer with Peter Seewald, a German Catholic journalist, that for a prostitute the use of a condom could be justified because of the intention to reduce the risk of infection. This would be an act of moral responsibility, the Pope said, a first step towards a more moral and a less demeaning attitude towards human sexuality.

Nato says Russia has agreed to begin talks immediately on a European missile defence shield, a project first put forward by Washington that has long caused friction. The Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said there had been successful cooperation.

"The Russia-Nato summit, which has just finished, was held in a very constructive atmosphere. We agree that there are many problems in which we cooperate very successfully. I hope this will continue. A very difficult and tense phase in our relations has been left behind. We have extensive plans. I hope we'll work in all areas including European anti-missile defence and the Russia-Nato council has demonstrated this."

Speaking after talks with Mr Medvedev, the Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Moscow had also agreed to expand the scope of an agreement allowing Nato to transport supplies for Afghanistan across its territory.

President Obama says he remains confident the US will be able to start pulling its troops out of Afghanistan from July next year. Speaking at the summit, he also said he'd received a lot of support from America's allies over the new arms reduction treaty with Moscow.

A major international conference on tobacco control in Uruguay has adopted recommendations to restrict or ban flavouring additives that make cigarettes more appealing to new smokers. Delegates from more than 170 countries who've signed a United Nations tobacco control treaty also recommended that tobacco producers should disclose their products' ingredients to national health authorities. Danny Aeberhard reports.

These guidelines adopted by consensus mark a significant setback for the tobacco industry. A spokesman for the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Tarik Jasarevic, told the BBC the industry had lobbied hard against them. The measures, he said, would now be used by national governments to draw up legislation. But he said there was no specific timetable for them to do so.

Officials in Madagascar say all the mutinous army officers, who had occupied a barracks on the outskirts of the capital Antananarivo, have surrendered after an assault by government forces. Witnesses said about 100 soldiers entered the barracks and gunshots were heard.

World News from the BBC

The latest tests carried out at a mine in New Zealand where 29 men have been trapped since an explosion on Friday show that it's still too dangerous for rescuers to enter. The chief executive of the mining company said a new shaft was being drilled to allow further tests for dangerous gases. He said dangerous gases were still being generated underground.

The authorities in Namibia say a high-ranking police officer has been arrested in connection with a fake bomb, which caused a major security alert in Europe. The officer worked at the police aviation security unit of the airport at the Namibian capital Windhoek. He'll be charged on Monday.

The owners of two coal mines in southwest China have been arrested after a dispute about resources led to violence, in which nine people were killed and nearly 50 injured. Vivien Marsh has the details.

The police have been put on alert in Luxi county in Yunnan province, where a fight over resources has had such deadly consequences. The trouble began, according to state media, when the underground shafts of the two coal mines became connected, whether by crumbling or by deliberate action isn't clear. The police said one of the mine bosses assembled about 80 people, who headed for the other mine armed with steel tubes and knives, but they walked into an ambush. They were shot at, and explosives stored in a shed were detonated as they arrived.

The Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos says the military is trying to confirm whether a senior member of the Farc rebel group was killed in a recent attack. Tests have been carried out on one of four bodies retrieved after military planes bombed a suspected Farc camp.

Israel says the US has given written assurances that it will not ask again for a halt to Israeli settlement construction if Israel accepts a partial 90-day freeze to help revive Middle East peace talks. Israel's National Security Adviser Uzi Arad said the US had also offered to sell Israel 20 new F-35 stealth warplanes.

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