BBC news 2008-05-17 加文本

BBC News with John Jason.

The French ambassador to the United Nations Jean-Maurice Ripert has accused the Burmese military government of being on the verge of committing a crime against humanity by not allowing international aid to reach the victims of Cyclone Nargis. Laura Trevelyan reports.(Www.hxen.net)

Burma's ambassador Kyaw Tint Swe interrupted the French UN envoy denouncing the French for sending a warship to Burma. Jean-Maurice Ripert, France's ambassador, told reporters afterwards that it wasn't a warship but a ship carrying 1, 500 tons of food, drugs and medicine for Burma's needy. The ship is carrying small boats which could go into the Irrawaddy Delta and helicopters which can drop food. But the Burmese government hasn't yet given permission for the ship to enter the delta and deliver aid.

Chinese officials say nearly 5 million people have been left homeless by the earthquake that devastated its southwestern regions four days ago. More than 22, 000 people are confirmed dead, as many again are still missing. The first foreign rescue crews have started work near the epicenter of the quake, the first time China has allowed professionals from outside of the country to help with disaster relief. Dan Griffiths reports.

Premier Wen Jiabao and the Chinese President Hu Jintao have both said today that they want the number one priority still to be trying to rescue people from the rubble. But of course we are now four days on from this earthquake. And the chances of dragging many more people out of the rubble alive are receding all the time. When we're talking about that figure of five million homeless, you can see people living in makeshift shelters outside the ruins of their homes. And this is now the major challenge for the government.

Leaders of Lebanon's feuding factions have begun talks in Qatar aimed at ending this week's military confrontation，in which more than 60 people died, were expected to agree on a new government and the reform of electoral law.

The authorities in Zimbabwe have set a date for the presidential run-off election between Robert Mugabe and the leader of the opposition MDC Morgan Tsvangirai. It will be held on June 27th. Mr. Tsvangirai said he would contest the poll although he feared there could be further violence directed against his supporters. But one of President Mugabe's senior colleagues Patrick Chinamasa insisted the ruling party was opposed to the use of force.

We do not condone violence. We have not initiated violence. We have not sponsored any violence. What we know is that there has been overreaction, sometimes, you know, people retaliate when they are attacked. When people are attacked by MDC, thugs and hooligans, what do we expect, they also want to retaliate.

Parliament in Portugal has approved a government proposal to standardize the Portuguese language requiring hundreds of words to be spelled the Brazilian way by removing silent consonants to match pronunciation more closely. The alphabet will expand to 26 letters by adding k, w and y.

World news from the BBC.

United States has announced a resumption of food aid to North Korea. The US government's development agency has pledged to provide half a million tons of food over the next year. Washington said it was now satisfied that the aid would be distributed to those in need, rather than siphoned off by North Korean elites. Pyongyang this week handed American negotiators thousands of documents detailing its past nuclear activities.

President Bush, visiting Saudi Arabia, has again urged the Gulf state to raise its oil output in the hope of reducing record prices. Saudi officials said they were already meeting demand. They say prices have been driven high by international political tension, the weakness of the dollar, and the actions of professional investors.

The US Olympic sprinter Tim Montgomery has been sentenced to three years and ten months in prison for taking part in a multi-million dollar bank fraud and money-laundering plot. Mr. Montgomery who retired in 2005 after receiving a two-year doping ban, once held the world record over 100 meters. Reporting from New York, Matthew Price.

Millions once thought Tim Montgomery as a sporting hero, an Olympic gold medal winner, a world record holder. He has now been sentenced to jail after admitting his part in a multi-million dollar scam. Prosecutors say he had a hand in depositing bogus checks worth $1. 7 million. His former partner Marion Jones, also once a darling of the sports world, is already serving a prison sentence for lying about her knowledge of the fraud affair and her use of performance-enhancing drugs.

The Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has taken the unusual step of posting his annual State of the Nation Address on the Internet after being prevented from delivering it in Parliament. Earlier this week, the President was blocked from the Speaker's chair by supporters of the Prime Minster Yulia Tymoshenko protesting of what they saw as his lack of action against inflation.

And that's the latest BBC news.