News In Brief

Pope calls for immediate talks on nuclear arms

Warning ''there is not a day to lose,'' Pope John Paul II appealed to the US and Soviet Union Saturday to resume nuclear arms control talks immediately. The pope spoke at his annual New Year's audience for diplomats accredited to the Vatican. He said the tension between East and West is ''real and heavy with menace.''

''We receive constant evidence of this,'' he added.

The pontiff expressed particular concern over Namibia, the ''tormented Middle East,'' Central America, Afghanistan, Cambodia, and troubled regions of Africa. The pope called for action to improve North-South relationsT andto end war, poverty, injustice, and violations of human rights. He condemned ''torture, disappearances, banishments, forced emigrations of families, and capital punishment resulting from hasty judgments.''