BBC news 2008-05-06 加文本

The United States is urging Burma to accept help following a cyclone which is reported to have killed more than 10,000 people. The appeal was made by the First Lady, Laura Bush, who said the U.S. had allocated 250,000 dollars in emergency aid.

“We will work with the UN and other international non-governmental organizations, to provide water, sanitation, food and shelter. More assistance will be forthcoming. The United States stands prepared to provide an assistance team and much-needed supplies to Burma as soon as the Burmese government accepts our offer. The government of Burma should accept this team quickly, as well as other offers of international assistance.”

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the UN would do whatever it could to provide humanitarian help to Burma. The European Union, Japan and India have also offered emergency relief.

The President of China, Hu Jintao, is beginning a state visit to Japan that’s seen as a sign of improving relations between the two countries. It is the first such visit for ten years. Chris Hogg reports.

China’s President Hu Jintao will spend five days in Japan. It will be the longest state visit he has made to a single country. A sign, analysts say, of how important improving Sino-Japanese relations are to the Chinese. China suspended meetings between the two countries’ leaders for five years, when the then-Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made repeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, a place the Chinese believe glorifies militarism. Since Mr Koizumi stepped down, officials on both sides have tried to repair the damage.

American scientists say many tropical insects could face extinction by the end of this century unless they adapt to predicted rising temperatures. They say climate change in the tropics could have secondary effects on plant pollination and food supplies. Here’s our science correspondent Christine McGourty.

The researchers studied data on dozens of insects species from around the world, looking at temperature changes between 1950 and 1990, and how the insects were affected. The aim was to predict how they'd cope in the late 21st century, if temperatures increase as many scientists predict. The results show that insects in countries at higher latitudes, in Britain, for example, should cope best. But the impact could be far worse in the tropics where insects are more sensitive to even small temperature changes.

Police investigating the incestuous kidnapping case in Austria say Josef Fritzl had been planning a dungeon as early as 1978, six years before he locked his daughter Elizabeth up for 24 years as a sex slave. Doctors said her first child born in the dungeon was still in a serious condition. But the rest of the family was improving. Therapists have bought toys and an aquarium for the children and given Elizabeth and her younger sons special sunglasses because their eyes are still sensitive to daylight.

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A former Rwandan minister has gone on trial at the international tribunal in Tanzania for playing what’s been described as a key role in a massacre of thousands of ethnic Tutsi refugees during the genocide in 1994. An estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed during the genocide. Emma Joseph reports.

According to the prosecution, many Tutsi refugees approached Callixte Kalimanzira for help. But instead of saving lives, the former Interior Minister encouraged attackers to massacre them. Christine Graham representing the prosecution described how Mr. Kalimanzira participated in the genocide campaigns in the Butari districts of Rwanda. She said he played a key role in the killing of thousands of Tutsis who sought refuge on a hill at Kibuye in the south of the country. Ms. Graham said the attack by soldiers and Hutu militias lasted several days.

Military officials say ten soldiers from the Iraqi army have been killed by an attacker on a checkpoint in the province of Diala. The US military blamed the killings on al-Qaeda in Iraq, which has recently escalated attacks in the volatile province.

The Egyptian parliament has agreed large increases in the price of fuel in order to finance big public sector pay rises announced last month after three people were killed in food riots. President Mubarak approved the pay rises to combat the soaring price of living in Egypt, but economists say the increased fuel price will add to inflation and offset part of the wage increase.

The Democratic Party candidates for the US president have been campaigning for Tuesday’s primaries in North Carolina and Indiana, which could give a clearer picture of who will win the nomination. Hilary Clinton and Baraka Obama clashed over Senator Clinton’s proposal to suspend a national tax on petrol for the summer. Senator Obama said it was a dishonest plan that offered only symbolic relief. Mrs Clinton responded that Senator Obama attacked her plan because he had no plan of his own.

BBC News.