Stewart Macintosh

Pope Francis has suffered a setback in his efforts to reform the Roman Catholic Church's position on gay and divorced people and civil marriages. At the end of a two-week synod, the Vatican failed to get the required 2/3 majority of bishops to back his views on these issues. David Willy reports from Rome. "Pope Francis made a powerful appeal to traditionalists not to lock themselves within the lecture of the law. But the meeting radically revised to provisional document issued at the beginning of the week which had been hailed as a breakthrough by gay rights groups. The Final document says merely that discrimination against gay people is to be avoided. But at least no doubt that the Church totally refuses to recognize the validity of same-sex marriages."

Nepalese officials say 380 people have been rescued from avalanches and blizzards in the Himalayas. Most of them are foreign trekkers with their guides and porters. And many of them are suffering from severe frost-bite. An officials said more than 20 trekkers were still stranded in the Thorung La Pass at an altitude of more than 5,000 meters. Andrew North is in Katmandu.

"These are very high and very remote mountains so it's inevitable that this can be very difficult to mount any kind of search or rescue operation up there. It's bound to take some time. But things have already a lot more confused because there are completing lists of casualties and numbers of rescue that had been drawn out by trekking agencies as well as the Nepalese government. For those who were still unaccounted for, it's possible that they are still up in the mountains safe but out of contact where there of course is no mobile or internet coverage because that's one of the reasons why people go up there in the first place."

The former Cuban president Fidel Castro says his country will send almost 300 more doctors and nurses to help fight Ebola in Africa. He said Cuba was ready to cooperate with the United States in the interests of global peace. Cuba has already sent 165 doctors and nurses to West Africa.

World News from the BBC.

The US commander in charge of airstrikes against the Islamic State militants has said the campaign in Iraq is the coalition's main priority. General L. A. said that raids on IS targets in Syria were being carried out to shape conditions in Iraq. General A's comments came as the Iraqi parliament approved the nominated candidates for the Interior and Defense Ministries, completing the new government that's aimed at combating the rise of Islamic State.

The main opposition group in Mozambique, the former rebel movement Renamo, has said it will not resort to violence whatever the result of this week's elections. The Renamo leader A. D. K. described the process as flawed and said his party was collecting evidence of alleged irregularities such as voter intimidation and ballot stuffing. Preliminary results put the governing Frelimo party in the lead.

One of the men convicted of killing the wife of a British businessman Shrien Dewani during their honeymoon in South Africa has died in prison in Cape Town. From Johannesburg, Noms Maseko.

"O. R. had a rare brain tumour which was removed in 2011. He died at a Cape Town prison earlier today. He was sentenced to life imprisonment after pleading not guilty to the crime. The 27-year-old's death won't have any effect on S. D.'s ongoing trial. He was not expected to testify as he denied any involvement in A. D.'s death. Reports suggested that the state consulted with him but had not lined him up as a witness due to his poor state of health. He was denied medical parole earlier this year."

A controversial giant green inflatable sculpture in one of the most famous squares in Paris has been removed after it was vandalized. The 24-meter-high instillation called 'Tree' was shaped like a Christmas tree with critics claimed it bore a strong resemblance to a giant sex toy. The Artist Paul McCarthy was physically assaulted and the guide wires securing the artwork were cut.

BBC News.