Vatican City  - Pope Benedict XVI in his Palm Sunday address recalled the deaths of scores of mostly African would-be immigrants in the Mediterranean and also urged all nations to outlaw landmines and cluster bombs.

Speaking to the faithful gathered in St Peter's Square, the pontiff said it was with "great pain" that he remembered the over 230 migrants feared to have drowned when their vessel capsized off Libya a week ago.

"We cannot just accept such tragedies," said Benedict, stressing how the migrants died while "trying to reach Europe".

Vatican City  - The reaction of Belgium's parliament to Pope Benedict XVI's remarks against the use of condoms, is "astonishing" the Vatican's chief spokesman said Friday.

Father Federico Lombardi was commenting on a vote by Belgian lawmakers on Thursday in which they approved a motion which could lead their country's government to lodge an unprecedented, formal protest with the Vatican over the pontiff's remarks.

Rome - Pope Benedict XVI called Tuesday for the Group of 20 big economies meeting in London this week to address global poverty.

In a message to G20 host British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Benedict called on participants to unite in helping the world's poor.

He said his recent visit to Africa earlier this month had emphasized how much "the weak suffer due to a crisis about which they can do nothing."

Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI has ordered an internal investigation a religious order in the wake of revelations that the conservative religious group's late founder had fathered a child.

The decision was announced Tuesday by the Legionnaires of Christ order on it website. It posted a letter written by Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone to the head of the order Father Alvaro Corcuera

London - A top medical research journal Friday urged Pope Benedict XVI to retract his "distorting" comments on the use of condoms in the fight against HIV/AIDS disease during his recent Africa tour.

The Lancet, regarded one of the world's most prestigious medical journals, said the pontiff's remarks were "wildly inaccurate" and could have "devastating consequences."

Paris - The bishop of the French city of Orleans, Monsignor Andre Fort, rekindled a row sparked by Pope Benedict XVI by telling a French radio station on Friday that condoms were ineffective in the prevention of AIDS.

"You know very well, and all the scientists know it: the AIDS virus is infinitely smaller than a sperm. This is proof that the condom is not a 100 per cent guarantie against AIDS," the bishop told Radio France.