Snowmail: Burma positive?

With Sir John Holmes, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator, due in Rangoon in the next few hours, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has just announced he'll be flying in for talks later in the week. Previously the shadowy ruler of the country, Than Shwe, was not even picking up the phone when he called.

Channel 4 News has spoken to British foreign minister Lord Malloch-Brown - the first british minister in Rangoon in decades. He told us "We are on the verge of something very important" in terms of the willingness of the Burmese government to accept help from their neighbours. He believes Burma will accept a Asian-led UN partnership to deliver and monitor aid on the ground.

But is it all far too late? Lives are being lost now, and while aid workers we've spoken to on the ground say it's really encouraging, the plight of the people remains desperate.

Latest from Sichuan

Keme Nzerem has the latest from Sichuan province after a weekend of violent aftershocks, landslides and, still, a few incredible rescues. Also dramatic images of a village destroyed when half a mountainside collapsed in the aftermath of the 7.9 magnitude quake. And an emotional President Hu Jintao rallies his people in a echo of George W Bush after 9/11 - grabbing a bullhorn and imploring rescue workers to keep up their efforts.

The death toll, though, rises again to 32,000, but with the expectation that this will increase to 50,000.

Indy's back

Three years ago it was Star Wars Episode III. Now George Lucas is back at the Cannes film festival (as producer this time) with the world premiere of another revival of a much loved and rather old box office franchise of the Generation X era: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, directed by Steven Spielberg. Is it any good? Does it matter? And why are we all so glad to have Indy back again? Nicholas Glass has got the first critical reaction from the screening.

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