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BBC News with Nick Kelly

President Obama has announced his support for India's bid for a permanent place on the United Nations Security Council. He was addressing the Indian parliament.

"The just and sustainable international order that America seeks includes a United Nations that is efficient, effective, credible and legitimate. That is why I can say today in the years ahead, I look forward to a reformed United Nations Security Council that includes India as a permanent member."

The proposal has been strongly criticised by Pakistan which said India's conduct towards its neighbours and its actions concerning the disputed region of Kashmir discredited the bid. Correspondents say the US gesture of support will delight India which has been lobbying for a permanent seat for years.

Doctors in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince say an outbreak of cholera has reached the city although there has been no official confirmation. The Haitian government says more than 540 people have died of cholera, and around 8,000 people have been treated in hospital. This report from our correspondent in Haiti, Laura Trevelyan.

Cholera may not officially have arrived in Port-au-Prince, but we've been told by one leading specialist medical agency that clinically the disease is here. That agency has seen 30 to 50 suspected cases in their hospitals in the city. And in a crowded slum of Cite Soleil, a doctor working there has told the BBC she, too, is seeing patients with all the symptoms of cholera. Cholera is transmitted by infected faeces and contaminated water. In the slums and in the earthquake survivor camps of Port-au-Prince, people live in crowded insanitary conditions where the disease can spread quickly.

The United States has introduced new measures to tighten security on air cargo following the recent discovery of two parcel bombs on inbound flights. In a statement, the US Secretary of State for Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said the ban on air cargo from Yemen would continue and be extended to cargo originating in Somalia. Several European countries introduced similar measures last week.

Washington has described as "deeply disappointing" an Israeli announcement that it will build more than 1,000 housing units for Jewish settlers in occupied East Jerusalem. The US State Department said the move was counter-productive. From Jerusalem, Wyre Davies.

Israel has been urged by many foreign governments, including the United States, to resume a partial building freeze in settlements on the occupied West Bank and to maintain an unofficial status quo in East Jerusalem in order to help the faltering peace process with the Palestinians. The news that more than 1,000 new Jewish homes have been approved in East Jerusalem could cast a shadow over a visit to the United States by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Palestinian officials have described the move as a sign of bad faith.

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Officials in Iraq say a car bomb

in the country's second city Basra has killed at least 10 people and injured many others. The explosion ripped through a crowded shopping street in the Qibla district at the busiest time of the day. Iraqi politicians are currently intensifying their efforts to end a political deadlock that's lasted eight months.

The lawyer leading the US government's inquiry into the causes of April's huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico says his panel agreed with about 90% of BP's own investigation, which put much of the blame for the disaster on its drilling partners. The chief counsel Fred Bartlit made his comments at the opening of a final two-day hearing into the accident.

Fred Bartlit said he and his colleagues had yet to uncover a single instance in which anyone involved with the Deepwater Horizon made a conscious decision to put dollars before safety. Mr Bartlit also said his panel agreed with about 90% of BP's own inquiry. That inquiry put much of the blame for what happened on the oil company's drilling partners. The White House commission hasn't finished its work and isn't due to report for another two months, so it's too early for anyone to feel they've been let off the hook.

Pope Benedict has called a meeting of Roman Catholic cardinals to discuss the Church's response to cases of sexual abuse by the clergy. The unprecedented meeting will take place at the Vatican on 19 November, a day before the Pope is due to create 24 new cardinals.

And the Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador who won this year's Tour de France but then failed a drugs test is one step closer to a ban. World cycling's governing body said on Monday it was asking the Spanish federation to take disciplinary action against him. Contador won his third Tour de France, the sport's most prestigious race, in July but tested positive for the banned substance clenbuterol which can enhance performance. He says it was the result of eating contaminated meat. Cycling has battled for years with doping allegations.

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