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BBC news 2012-07-17

BBC News with Jonathan Izard

Fighting in Syria appears to be moving closer to the center of the capital Damascus. In the past two days, there have been clashes between government forces and rebel fighters in much of the southern area of the city. This report by Jim Muir.

The sound of heavy machine gun exchanges echoed around the Midan district on the southern approaches to Damascus city center. Unverified video posted by activists on the internet showed a car completely engulfed in flames in a street in Midan, saying it had been full of security forces or pro-regime militia. Other video footage showed large numbers of security forces and armored vehicles in the adjacent district of Nahaitia – the first time such combat forces have been deployed close to the city center. Many people there have been hearing the sounds of battle for the first time since the uprising began 16 months ago. Earlier, Russia said Western efforts to get Moscow to change its policy on Syria amounted to blackmail .

Health regulators in America have approved the first drug shown to help reduce the risk of HIV infection. The drug, Truvada, can be used by those at high risk of infection, such as anyone who may engage in sexual activity with HIV-infected partners. The US Food and Drug Administration stressed that the drug should be used as a part of comprehensive HIV-prevention plan. Studies showed the drug reduced the risk of contracting HIV by up to 75%.

The UN Navy says it opened fire on a small motorboat which was deliberately and rapidly approaching one of its vessels off the coast of United Arab Emirates. It said crew on the USNS Rappahannock had repeatedly warned those on the motorboat to turn away before opening fire. Paul Adams reports from Washington.

The Navy says that members of a security team aboard the Rappahannock opened fire on a small motor vessel after it disregarded warnings and rapidly approached. The incident took place near Jebel Ali, a port in Dubai. Early reports quoting Emirati officials suggested that one person was killed in the incident, but the Navy statement makes no mention of this. The Rappahannock is a tanker in the Gulf to support elements of the US 5th Fleet. Earlier this month, the US increased its presence in the area following threats by Iran to close the Gulf. It's not known whether this incident is in any way related.

The Finnish electricity company TVO says its next generation nuclear power station is facing another major delay. Correspondents say it's a blow to hopes that the design would help revive the nuclear industry. Rob Broomby reports.

The Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant has run over budget, and it's now five years behind schedule. The Finns are now looking for compensation from Areva– the French firm that designed the new European Pressurised Water Reactor or EPR. But this is more at stake for the French designers at Areva than company pride. EPR is the big hope for a so-called third generation of reactors. It carries the aspirations of an industry rattled by the shockwaves of the Japanese nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima.

World News from the BBC

The trade union representing Spanish miners says that the remaining seven miners who have been hold up in shafts deep underground in protest of the government cuts are abandoning the strike due to health concerns. The seven have spent 50 days underground. Three of the initial ten miners who started the strike were forced to abandon it in June for health reasons. The union said the opposition to the government's austerity measures would continue.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which seeks to bring surviving Nazi war criminals to justice , has urged Hungary to act against its most wanted suspect after a British newspaper reported finding him in Budapest. The Sun newspaper says its reporters confronted Laszlo Csatary in the doorway of his flat and tried to ask him about his past, but he shut the door on them, protesting his innocence. Now aged 97, he's accused of assisting in the murder of nearly 16,000 Jews in what is now the Slovakian city of Kosice. After the war, he escaped to Canada.

John Lord, one of the founders of the heavy rock group Deep Purple, has died. He was 71 and had been suffering from cancer. He co-wrote the band's most famous song Smoke On The Water, which has one of the best-known openings in rock music. Here's our arts reporter Vincent Dowd.

John Lord was born in the English Midlands in 1941. As a child, he played classical music, but increasingly, what he loved was American blues. As a young man, Lord played in jazz groups and trained to be an actor. In 1968, he was taken on as keyboard player in Deep Purple, a heavy metal group. Lord's obvious musical skills contributed much to the band. The line-up of Deep Purple changed over the years; and John Lord also contributed two other groups. But he was one of the chief architects of the heavy metal sound of the late 1960s and 1970s.

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