BBC news 2010-05-18 加文本

2010-05-18 BBC

BBC News with David Austin.

There's been a cautious international response to the announcement by Iran that it percents some of its low enriched uranium abroad in return for higher-grade nuclear fuel for a research reactor. Tehran hopes the deal will avert new sanctions against Iran. Barbara Plett reports from the United Nations.

The White House said the fuel transfer would be a positive step, but it didn't address the main concern about Iran's nuclear program which is that Tehran continues to enrich uranium despite UN demands that it stop and a higher level than it used to. Washington said it would continue efforts through the Security Council to show Iran that such behavior has consequences, including sanctions. However, it did acknowledge the efforts of Turkey and Brazil in brokering the compromised deal. The White House also said it would proceed enclose consultation with all its partners. Aware, perhaps that the coalition it's built to isolate Iran could fragment over this issue.

The United Nations has appointed a Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres as its new climate chief. She will be in charge of stored international talks on how to counter the effects of greenhouse gases on global warming. Mrs.Figueres was nominated by the Costa Rican government after Yvo de Boer of the Netherlands announced he was stepping down after almost four years in the job.

An influential think tank, the International Crisis Group says tens of thousands of tunnel civilians were killed in the final stages of Sri Lankan Civil War which ended exactly a year ago. From Colombo, here is Charles Haviland.

The International Crisis Group says that from eyewitness' evidence, it believes at least 30,000 civilians were killed and countless others wounded and deprived of food and medicine. It says there should be an independent international inquiry into possible war crimes by both sides. But it comes down most heavily on the government, saying there's evidence that intentionally shelled civilians, hospitals and humanitarian operations. The authorities here, have however repeatedly denied inflicting civilian casualties.

The government of Thailand says it's received an offer of a truce from anti-government protesters in the capital Bangkok. A deadline for the demonstrators to leave their fortified camp had earlier passed with no sign of resolution to the crisis. Lucy Williamson is in Bangkok.

On the brink of war in the Thai capital a faint glimmer of peace, several hours after the government's deadline expired, a senior aid to the Prime Minister Korbsak Sabhavasu confirmed he'd been caught by a protest leader with a fresh offer of negotiations. Mr. Sabhavasu hasn't ruled it out, but he said the protestors must first stop attacking the troops, ringing their encampment. The question now is whether the protest leaders will agree and whether there will be able to control the increasing divided groups aligned with them. At least 37 people have died in clashes since last Thursday.

World News from the BBC.

Officials in central India say at least 35 people, most of them civilians were killed when suspected Maoist rebels detonated a landmine under a passenger bus. The attack took place in the state of Chhattisgarh which has witnessed fierce fighting between the Maoist and government forces.

A study published in the United States says the gap in wealth between white and black Americans more than quadrupled between 1984 and 2007. The Institute on Assets and Social Policy said that even when African American had a good education and well paying jobs, they could not achieve the wealth of their white pairs in the workforce. Here is Nicolas Rusher .

There's no doubt that the US is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. But according to this study, not everyone is getting anyone near fair share. There has always been a big discrepancy, but in the 23 years caught by the study white families have grown even further richer than black families. The institute's director Thomas Shapiro said that the wealth gap reflected US public policies that benefited those already wealthy, such as facts breaks as well as discriminations in housing, credits and labor markets. He said a U-turn was needed to stop the gap widening even further.

Lawyers acting for an aunt of President Barack Obama say she has been given permission to remain in the United States. Zeituni Onyango a Kenyan half-sister of Mr.Obama's late father first applied for asylum in 2002, but it was turned down. She made another application after her status as an illegal immigrant was made public in a later stage of Mr.Obama's presidential campaign in 2008.

A Greek government minister has left office after it emerged that her husband owed more than six million dollars in unpaid taxes. Angela Gerekou, the Deputy Tourism Minister stepped down following news reports that her husband Tolis Voskopoulos had failed to declare his earnings as a pop singer. The Greek government says tax evasion is one of the reasons for the country's economic crisis.

That's the latest BBC News.