BBC news 2008-05-12 加文本

BBC News with Fiona McDonald

More aid is beginning to trickle through to the survivors of the cyclone in Burma where hundreds of thousands of people urgently need food, water, shelter and medical supplies. But Debbie Stothard who heads the Southeast Asian Human Rights Group ALSEAN in Burma says Burma's military government is still holding up the rescue operation.

We're getting the reports that there’s aid been distributed with the names of military leaders and VIPs plastered all over the aid packages. You know there has people who are very concerned now that the reason the aid workers have been blocked so that the military can deliver aids selectively, and so that they can appropriate the aid and pretend it was from them in the first place.

Meanwhile, two senior campaigners for the Republican presidential candidate in the United States John McCain have resigned over links of the military government in Burma. One of them Douglas Goodyear runs a lobbying firm which has been paid to improve the image of the Burmese authorities. The other D Davenport works for him. James Coomarasamy has more. (Www.hxen.net)

The revelation that two senior members of his campaign had once worked for the Burmese authorities is highly embarrassing for John McCain whose campaign website features a strong condemnation of the military government there. The prominent role of lobbyists in the McCain campaign was already controversial that two of those lobbyists were linked to a special interest currently facing worldwide condemnation should give cause for some reflection within Senator McCain's in the circle.

The Serbia President Boris Tadic has declared victory for his pro-western coalition in the closely contested parliamentary election widely seen as a referendum on the future of his country's integration into the European Union. With votes still being counted, projections suggest the coalition led by Mr. Tadic's Democratic Party is well ahead those still short of a governing majority. The leader of the Serbia Radical Party Tomislav Nikolic has disputed President Tadic’s/ insistence that his party is the only one able to form the next government. But Mr. Tadic is confident that his party will lead the new government.

The main question, who is going to be our coalition partner, and after this, I am going to find who is going to be our candidate for prime minister. Right now, I'm going to negotiate with the possible coalition partners.

The Arab League has decided to send a delegation to Beirut to try to mediate an end to the worst sectarian fighting in Lebanon since a long running civil war ended 18 years ago. The delegation will include the League Secretary General Amr Moussa. He told a news conference in Cairo that the League wanted to save Lebanon. Fighting between the Hezbollah Movement and pro-government gunmen erupted in Beirut last week and then spread to Lebanon’s second city Tripoli.

World News from the BBC.

The Sudanese government says it has driven out the last of Darfur rebel group that had attacked the capital Khartoum on Saturday. Sudan has broken off diplomatic relations with Chad over the incident, accusing Chad of helping the rebels to launch their assault. Both Chad and the rebels denied the accusation. A spokesman for the Sudanese embassy in London Khalid ai-Mubarak explained why Sudan believed Chad was involved in the attack.

Because of past broken promises in agreements and because in the past Chad has openly said that it has bombed parts of Sudan also because a few weeks ago the Justice and Equality Movement was fighting inside in Yemen in order to save the regime of  Idriss Deby in Chad

Zimbabwe's Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa says the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is free to return to the country although he hasn't ruled out the possibility of his arrest. Mr. Tsvangirai is expected to return home within the next few days after announcing he’s prepared to stand in a run-off for Zimbabwe's presidency.

Widespread electricity blackout has hit Gaza after the territory's only power plant was shut down with officials saying it’ll run out of fuel supplied by Israel. Last year the Israeli government authorized curbs on Gaza's fuel to put pressure on Palestinian militants firing rockets into Israel.

Officials in Chile say a computer hacker has published on the internet confidential records belonging to 6 million people in the South American country. The information included identity card numbers and addresses. A Chilean newspaper said the hacker left a message with the records, saying he wanted to demonstrate the poor level of data protection in Chile. The hacker had accused of a number of computer servers, including the military.

BBC News.