2010-06-28 BBC
BBC News with David Austin.
Pope Benedict has intervened directly in a row over police raids on Roman Catholic Church properties in Belgium on Thursday. The raids were part of an investigation into child sex abuse. The Pope called the police's conduct "deplorable" and said the autonomy of the church must be respected. However, the Belgium justice minister said police procedures were followed correctly. Reporting from Rome, David Willey.
The Pope expressed his displeasure at what he called "surprising and deplorable police tactics". Last Thursday, police raided the building where Belgium bishops were meeting to discuss, among other matters, the pedophile priest crisis in their country. The bishops weren't allowed to leave for 9 hours. They had to surrender their mobile telephones while police took away several hundred confidential files. Earlier, the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone had called the raid "unheard of, even in communist countries".
The Chief of the British army General Sir David Richards says talks could begin soon with the Taliban in Afghanistan. General Richards told the BBC that this was his private view. He said if a dialogue did begin, it would probably be through a third party.
"If you look at any counter-insurgency campaign throughout history, there's always a point at which you start to negotiate with each other, probably through proxies in the first instance, and I don't know when that will happen. From my own, and this is a purely private view, I think there's no reason why we shouldn't be looking at that sort of thing pretty soon."
The CIA has confirmed that a big security contract in Afghanistan has been awarded to the controversial American firm previously known as Blackwater. It said Xe Services, as the company is now called, had won a 100-million-dollar deal to protect American consulates. David Willis reports from Washington.
The contract was announced just over a week ago. It runs initially for a year, but could be extended to 18 months. Blackwater, which recently changed its name to Xe Services in an attempt to rehabilitate its image, saw off competition from two other American security companies to land the contract. In a rare television interview, the CIA director Leon Penatta said the organization had come to rely on such companies to provide security for forward basis, and since Xe appeared to have, in his words, “shaped up their act” and its bid was lower than everyone else's, there was little choice but to award them the contract.
The interim leader of Kyrgyzstan says voters have approved a new constitution in a referendum. Roza Otunbayeva said the country had now embarked on a path towards true democracy. The proposed constitution devolves more power to parliament.
In the Football World Cup second round in South Africa, Germany have beaten England by four goals to one. The Germans now are through to the quarter-finals where they will face Argentina. The South American team reached the last 8 by beating Mexico 3-1.
World News from the BBC.
In Canada, leaders of the world's 20 biggest economies have completed the second and final day of deliberations on the state of the global economy. A draft closing statement proposes that the richest members should halve their government borrowing by the year 2013. Here is our economics editor Stephanie Flanders.
As is usually the case on these occasions, the leaders will be signing up to a target they came here already pledged to achieve. The government of every major G20 country had already signed up to that timetable for the deficit long before arriving in Toronto. With last week's tough budget, Britain is on course to halve its deficit by 2012, let alone 2013. But as the US Treasury Secretary made clear in his remarks yesterday, the argument in this summit is not just about the balance between growth and cuts; the bigger issue for the US is where the world's growth is going to come from in the next few years.
The people of Guinea have voted in their first free presidential elections since independence from France 52 years ago. The country's military leader General Sekouba Konate, who wasn't standing, said he hoped the best that the 24 candidates would win. Tens of thousands of expatriate Guineans were able to cast their votes in other countries across West Africa.
A report by the United Nations has criticised Egypt, saying repressive policies are preventing young people from taking part fully in social and political life. The Human Development Report, which focused on Egypt's nearly 20 million young adults, said there should be a margin of freedom and less censorship.
The Mexican singer Sergio Vega has been shot dead only hours after he denied reports that he'd been murdered. He told an Internet site he'd increased his security measures in light of a growing number of attacks on Mexican musicians, especially those playing songs which celebrate the lives of drug barons. Gunmen opened fire on Mr Vega while he was travelling to a concert in northwest Mexico.
That's the latest BBC News.