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financial strength to work for a wide range of companies, from small businesses to major corporations. what can we do for you? >> and now "bbc world news. >> the burmese pro-democracy leader, suu kyi arbg, tells the bbc she still aims for a peaceful revolution. british couple released by somali pirates after 13 months will soon be on their way home. europe's debt crisis flares once again. e.u. and i.m.f. auditors are in athens today to asells the greek deficit reduction plan. welcome to "bbc world news." i'm peter dobbie. also in the next 30 minutes -- the world's largest annual pilgrimage is underway in saudi arabia. millions of muslims ascend the mount. and the retirement about to come to an end after just one week.

>> burma's leader aung san suu kyi has told the bbc she wants to see a peaceful revolution in her country. she believes democracy will come to burma. she's already announced she had willing to meet the army, that prisoned her the last 20 years. the senior u.s. diplomat in burma told this channel his country wants to see a process of reconciliation. the bbc's alistair reports from bangkok. >> a week ago, they were afraid to speak her name. now they're shouting it in the streets. few would have imagined these scenes would have been possible, even a few days ago. she spoke of unity, of bringing the opposition together to work

hand in hand with all democrat i can forces. it may look like change is coming, but power is not in the hands of the people. it is still firmly in the grips of the military. they let this happen. on the frings. crowd as a view, the secret police took photographs. cataloguing, recording, documenting who their opponents are. amid the excitement around the freeing of their figurehead, it's easy to forget their personal sacrifices, years separated from her family. >> of course the images are very, very, very clear cut and very vivid in my mind and in my heart, so although on one hand i could say i missed them terribly. on the other, i can also say i don't miss them at all because they were always with me. >> there will be plenty more of

these meetings to come with foreign diplomats to talk about what pressure will help her cause with pro-democracy parties in an either to bring the opposition together. and at some point perhaps a meeting with the generals who run this country. only then might there be real progress. >> i just spoke to our correspondent who was filming her first tv interview since her release. he says she was clear, she wanted the real democracy in burma. >> she made it absolutely clear to me that she was looking for what she called a peaceful revolution. i checked it out with her that she was happy for me to say that, because obviously the military government here is going to be looking at everything she says very carefully with an eye perhaps to punishing her yet again. but she was -- she was happy

with that line. and her approach is that she will do absolutely everything to negotiate with the government here, but that at some stage democracy would come to burma. and i said to her, well, would she be the president of a new democratic burma, and she said she has no idea what the time scale of this change would be, so she couldn't know what her part in it would be. but nevertheless, the thing that matters was that it would come at some stage. >> ok, talking about democracy, that doesn't seem to square with the idea of the military maintaining the role that they've had there for so long now. >> no, her line is that the military must hand over power in a peaceable, orderly, and correct way, and that's the purpose of what it's all about. i asked her, did that mean she

wanted a velvet revolution. and although she liked the idea, the expression of a velvet revolution, her idea is simply that it must be done in negotiation with the generals and that they must lay down their power rather than necessarily having it taken away from them. >> john simpson in burma there. a british couple are enjoying their first day of freedom today after more than a year held captive by somali pirates. paul and rachel chandler are now in kenya recovering from their ordeal. though the british government has insisted it did not pay a ransom, some money is believed to have been handed over. well, with the latest from nairobi, here's our east africa correspondent, will ross. >> out of somalia, paul and rachel chandler in nairobi and, at long last, able to make their own plans. rewind the clock to october last year, and the chandlers were on the trip of a lifetime, sailing around the world in

their own yacht. they were suddenly seized by pirates in the indian ocean. finally, after 13 months, they were released and drven to a relatively safe town. looking thin but in good health and spirits, they enjoyed breakfast with the somali elders, some of whom played a part in securing their release. the couple was clearly keen to leave the dangers of somali as fast as possible, but there was one more dangerous journey ahead. paul and rachel chandler were flown to the capital mogadishu, one of the most violent places on the planet. they were driven through these bombed out streets in armored vehicles and got a glimpse of the war that has allowed the piracy to flourish. at a meeting with the prime minister, rachel chandler talked of her release. >> i'm happy to be alive, happy to be free, happy to be here and desperate to see our family and friends.

>> the pirates received several hundred thousand dollars before the chandlers were set free. their ordeal is over, but more than 500 hostages are left behind. without peace on the mainland, there's little chance of ending the luke raumb piracy business of somalia. will ross, bbc news, nairobi. >> ok, we'll get more on that story in just a second. aaron joins us, tracking what's going on with the greek economy. new figures out, and it's worse than we thought it was. >> the eurozone debt problems have surfaced once again. big focus last weekend, over the weekend on our island, but also, we know that the e.u. commission and the i.m.f. are heading to greece basically just to do a progress report, if you will, on the austerity measures for greece before they lend them another 10 billion euros for that emergency bailout figure. but hot off the press, the greek figures, they had to revise the 2009 buppingt deficit. it actually -- the budget deficit reached almost 15.5% of

gross domestic product. earlier this year it was higher. and greece's debt in 20089, offer the end of last year, soared at 126.8% of g.d.p. it is an eye-watering number. it's staggering. and again, a lot higher. they thought it was about 115%, actually 126% higher. on that -- on the other issue of the eurozone, a lot of movement and talks between want e.u. and the irish government. you know, last week we saw the irish bonds, the price absolutely soaring. that also pushed higher the other weaker economies in the euro, the likes of spain and portugal as an example. the e.u. basically are trying to get ireland to take an emergency bailout now. the irish government is going no, no, take it, the irish are going, no, we don't want it. they're well funded till 2011, but the e.u. wants them to take this because it is at the

moment island problems are a thorn in the e.u.'s side, if you will, and it's destabilizing the rest of the eurozone, so some big problems. but we'll talk more on this on the world business report in 20 minutes' time. >> aaron, thanks very much. an airplane belonging to qantas was returned to sydney following technical problems today. it's the second safety incident in two weeks, but it involves a different bolt on a different type of plane. an electrical problem in a cockpit instrument. qantas tries to maintain its image as one of the most safest airlines. againee's presidential election runoff is still too close to call with most of the votes counted. the veteran opposition leader is thought to be slightly behind the former prime minister. the poll is supposed to end nearly two years of military rule. after many delays, voter registration in january's referendum on the possible independence of southern sudan

has now begun. it follows a frame work agreement on sunday that resolved most of the outstanding disagreements between the north and the south. a huge fire in a shanghai high rise building has killed at least eight people and injured more than 90 tv pictures. it showed plumes of thick smoke billowing across the city. the building in one of the most densely populated destructs of shanghai was under renovation when the fire started. in sports news, the emperor is back, and it's not ho, ho, ho. just a week ago, we were saying, oh, he's retiring. oh, no, he's not. >> you didn't really believe he was going to? you even asked me, do you really think it's going to -- >> fat chance, grandpa, i think were the exact words. >> he really wants to run at the london olympics, because what he doesn't have is an olympic marathon gold medal. he has two 10,000 meter gold medals, 1996 lent and sydney

2000. it was sunday at the new york marathon he pulled out halfway through the race. he was almost tearful. he set the world record at the berlin marathon, by the way. here he is under the gate, the only man ever in history to run under two hours and four minutes. and he wasn't running in ethiopia. local officials asked him, are you going to run? yes, i'm coming back. we don't know exactly when he'll be back competitively, but he is not retiring. he's unretiring, he's not retired. >> now, i have to say, when we were off air in our last half-hour, walking around. there's a man walking around here, and he's absolutely huge. >> well, it was our producer who is a big boxing fanatic who did this interview with david hayes, who, on sday night in manchester, in the third round, he defended his wba heavyweight belt, and now it's a question of which klitschko is he going to fight. vitaly and vladimir hold all the belts, and they want to see a reunion fakes fight.

maybe americans will again become interested in heavyweight boxing. at the moment, they're not particularly worried. so hayes has been off, when are you going to fight one of the klitschkos? >> when the weather's good enough to do t. it's an open-air stadium. in my opinion, i believe wembley stadium would be the right venue for such an event. so whenever the weather -- whenever the weather is good -- >> may, june? >> may, june, something like that. when it's sunny outside in london, i'd love that fight to happen. i believe it can happen. and i believe it will happen. >> which one? >> i'm not there. >> which belt do they hold? which one of the klitschkos would leak to take him on, do we know? >> i was really worried you were going to ask me that question. what does that say there? >> i don't know. >> i've literally written the wbc. there are so many heavyweight belts, honestly. so vitaly holds the wbc. that means that vladimir holds the wbo, and there are others.

but, you know, there are only certain ones that are respected. the ibf is another one that he holds. if he held all of those, it would be the undisputed world champion. >> that would be huge. you're watching "bbc world news." still to come on this channel -- a record-breaking yacht trip for a russian crew as they cross the ar it can. -- as they cross the arctic. to look at space, telescopes usually point up towards the sky, of course. but a handful of devices tried to capture particles bombarding the planet. if detected, they could unravel the secrets of how our universe was formed billions of years ago. we visited one such telescope located underwater in the world's deepest and oldest lake , a lake in siberia. >> floating in the deep, dark abyss of the lake, this is one

of the most unusual telescopes on the planet. it has to be deep underwater to shield out all but its targeted particles, high-energy neutrons, which come from the most exotic corners of the cosmos. it is brought up on

>> it's shedding more light on how the universe came to be. >> well, that's one of the few tours such as that one that you

just watched, you can get headline online with our one-minute news summary. it's on our website, bbc.com/news. there's analysis on the day's top stories from our correspondents worldwide, including that first day of freedom for aung san suu kyi in burma. we have sections of video, audio, and background graphics pages as well, plus, of course, you can have your say. you can drop us an email at bbc.com. >> this is "bbc world news." i'm peter dobbie. these are the headlines stories. the burmese pro-democracy leader aung san suu kyi has told the bbc her aim is for a peaceful revolution. and greece's budget deficit is significantly bigger than had been declared, according to figures just published by the european union. back now to our main story, the events in burma surrounding aung san suu kyi. the senior u.s. diplomat in

burma is the u.s. affair, larry dinger. he was among a group of diplomats who met her on sunday. earlier, he told me the u.s. wants to see a process of national reconciliation. >> i think we've been pretty clear about that. democracy is really necessary. it is all of the major players to be talking seriously to each other about the major issues that have divided them for so long and that need to be resolved. >> and how will you help aung san suu kyi plot a course from where she is now to, i'm assuming, the united states sees her as potentially the burmese president? >> i don't think it's for the united states to determine her course or burma's course. from our perspective, it's for the burmese people to work that out. and the role that perhaps we

can best play is toen courage all sides, various players in the democratic community, the ethnic groups, the government to work through their issues. and the to extent we can be helpful, we gladly will be. a what you you talk about working through their issues, that's to -- with all due respect to you -- that's to surely undersell it. yesterday one of the discussions that came out about this program will have your say on this network was the idea that it's difficult to underplay how hated, how despised the military junta is in burma. i'm assuming here the united states is not anticipating a situation where the military ruler simply retired and allow this process to run its course. >> well, again, from my perspective, and i believe from washington's perspective, it is

exactly how the various players will need to be for them to decide. it was abundantly clear yesterday, i thought, there's no doubt there are difficult issues. they need to be worked through. and there's no doubt that somehow a process of reconciliation needs to take place. i don't believe it's the united states to in some way demand going about it, but we should encourage efforts to have that happen. >> that was larry dinger there, the u.s. in charge of affairs. let's get more on another of our top stories. the brit, couple who've been freed by somali pirates. joining me now is a somali community leader here in london who raised funds toward the chapped hers' release. just looking in on your country, people might think, well, we've tan our eye off that particular place because

there are events going on in africa, but you also think, what's going on? it would appear an awful lot of thoroughly bad people are getting very, very wealthy because they're taking people hostage. >> i think what's important to recognize is that there hasn't been a government in somali suspects 19 the 2 -- since 1992. although taments have been made, none of them have actually been able to manage the country or control the country or control the activities of individuals or communities. so anybody in somalia is really a law unto themselves. it's like going back to the wild west. and the whole issue of the piracy has escalated to such a level that it's now big business. and anybody who tries to stop it is going to come across a lot of problems. >> so how does the outside world deal with that necessity?

on the one hand, you have a failed state, which presumably will carry on failing because nobody wants to get involved with that militarily or otherwise. and on the on the other hand, you've got people saying, whoa, we can make lots of money if we take people hostage. >> i think the international community has to lemmingt mize and to help -- legitimize and to help stabilize somalia and the government, because otherwise the situation is not going to go away and it will only get worse. >> legitimize, how so? >> there are certain mechanisms in place, i.e., in the north, there is land which is fairly stable and has an army. in the south, you have the transitional government which is in place. but they don't have the form or any manpower to control the

government, control on the ground the people. so they need to be helped to give a sense of normalcy to the area. >> ok, we have to leave it there, many thanks. nearly three million muslims have arrived for the annual hajj pilgrimage in saudi arabia. monday is the culmination of the event when pilgrims worship at the flames of. stay with the live pictures, and we'll talk to our correspondent at mount arafat. so today is the most significant day of the five days. >> absolutely. and just to show you how significant this is, peter, i'm just going to let the pictures speak for themselves. if i just let my cameraman show you the amount and the volume of the crowds that have gathered at the flames of

arafat, those people to climb mount arafat, it's overwhelming. the pilgrims have just finished the noon players and are basically halfway through the day. they stay here until sunset. and what they do is they just sit through, trying to keep a little bit hydrated. i mean, they brave the heat, they brave the sun. some of them are camped out, somehow been camping out on tops of buildings just to avoid the crowds. but all with one aim, which is to spend the day in prayers and asking for forgiveness. of course, the significance of that day is what happened on the same day 1,400 or over 1,400 years ago when the prophet gave his last speech to his followers and said that my teachings to you are done and now it's time for you to basically carry my message on. people come here year after year to relive that moment. >> thanks very much. >> thank you. >> they battled against stormy

waters and picked their way through this can ice am a russian yacht crew is back on dry land today after setting a new record for around the world voyage. >> returning to st. petersburg after completing their record-breaking voyage, a grueling challenge this young crew are never likely to forget. they spend 109 days at sea sailing more than 9,000 nautical miles in some of the world's most dangerous waters. getting across the arctic ocean was never going to be plain sailing. heavy ice flows constantly blocking the path of peter i, an expansef water where ships can be ice-bound for days. >> when we first saw the ice, we were pointing financingers at it, look, it's he's. but that was a small piece of ice floating in the ocean. then we had three or four weeks when there were no signs of water around us up to the horizon.

>> the crew managed to park apart through the ice all the way through the northeast and northwest passages without any assistance from ice breakers, and along the way, time to enjoy their arctic experience and to catch a glimpse of dolphins. peter i has become the first ship to go the shortest and most dangerous route around the world in one navigation season. the crew was greeted in st. peters brg by family and friends and are gven a baked pig, a traditional russian dish, to celebrate. >> we do not believe that we have returned home finally. it was as much a long trip, and an ex-decision was not an easy one. >> tired but happy, this record-breaking yacht crew will be relieved to have their feet firmly back on dry land. >> you can get your head linse online with our one-minute news

summary. watch the news unfold at.com. you can also click on the icon and drop us an email or you will have your say at bbc.com. >> hello and welcome. >> see the news unfold, get the top stories from around the globe and click to play video reports. go to bbc.com/news to experience the in-depth, expert reporting of "bbc world news" online. >> funding was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. and union bank.

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