THE WORLD FROM BERLIN

‘Nature Has Dealt the Burmese Junta a Devastating Blow’
The cyclone that hit Burma over the weekend has killed tens of thousands and made more than a million homeless. The Burmese government has asked for international help — and the consequences could be remarkable.

Days after Cyclone Nargis devastated the southeast Asian nation of Burma, aid agencies are rushing to help millions of people affected by the storm. The death toll is already more than 22,000, and as towns and villages isolated by the storm are contacted the number of confirmed deaths is expected to rise. The Burmese government says more than a million people are homeless.

Aid officials fear the situation could go from bad to nightmarish if something isn’t done soon. But the aid effort is coming up against one of the most secretive, isolationist regimes in the world. Burma is ruled by a military dictatorship that has regularly used force to suppress democracy activists and monks. Foreign reporters are banned from the country, and aid workers are having a hard time getting in as well.

Burmese government officials have offered an unprecedented level of cooperation, perhaps an indication of the disaster’s scope. “The task is very wide and extensive,” Information Minister Kyaw Hsan told Reuters on Tuesday. “The government needs the co-operation of the people and well-wishers from at home and abroad. We will not hide anything.”

Iran offers nuclear deal but refuses to stop enrichment

• British officials say plan is a ’spoiler’ to west’s proposal
• Breakthrough in deadlock thought to be unlikely

Julian Borger, diplomatic editor
The Guardian,
Thursday May 8 2008

Iran said yesterday that it is to present the international community with a new package of proposals aimed at breaking the diplomatic deadlock over the country’s nuclear programme.

Rasoul Movahedian, Iran’s ambassador in London, told the Guardian: “My government has worked out a new package, a new initiative, which is going to be put forward in the near future to deal with all aspects of our relationship [with the international community].”

He said he was not permitted to give details before the initiative is presented “before the end of next week” to the five permanent members of the UN security council - the US, Britain, France, Russia and China - as well as Germany, who together constitute the “5+1″ group leading nuclear negotiations with Tehran.

However, Movahedian said the initiative would cover the nuclear programme, the security of energy supplies in the Middle East, counter-terrorism and joint efforts to control the drugs trade.

The ambassador said Iran’s proposal would address western concerns that the rapidly developing nuclear project could be used to make weapons, hinting that his government would agree to extensive safeguards required by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

But he insisted that Iran would not surrender the right to enrich uranium, as the security council has demanded.

“My government is going to continue along the enrichment path. We do not accept any preconditions for negotiations,” he said. That continued refusal suggests that the new initiative is unlikely to break the deadlock but may simply add to the war of words over Iran’s programme.

Israel marks its 60th anniversary
Celebrations are under way across Israel to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state.

Israelis thronged Jerusalem’s streets as fireworks opened the celebrations on Wednesday, while an aerial display is planned over Tel Aviv on Thursday.

Israel declared itself an independent state on 14 May 1948, three years after the end of World War II and the death of six million Jews in the Holocaust.

But Palestinians know the foundation day as al-Nakba, or “the Catastrophe”.

The anniversary is calculated according to the Jewish lunar calendar.

The celebrations began at sunset on Wednesday at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl memorial, named after the founder of modern Zionism, where soldiers raised the Israeli flag from half to full mast amid tight security.