This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Janet Gillil and at 40 hours GMT on Friday 30th of December, these are our main stories.

The Chinese government has rejected criticism that its official figures on Covid victims

vastly underestimate the scale of the problem.

A military court in Myanmar has convicted the country's deposed leader

Ungsan Suu Chi of corruption and jailed her for a further seven years.

Brazil is holding three days of mourning to mark the death of the footballer, Pele,

regarded by many as the greatest ever.

Also in this podcast, the financial fallout from the severe winter storm in the US

southwest airlines apologises after around 15,000 passengers are stranded.

They're going to have to write a lot of checks to a lot of customers, a lot of passengers

who missed holidays and who missed work.

So they're going to have to look at their refund policy and then they're going to have to open

their pocketbook.

And Abba confront a member of the UK Eurovision jury over why it awarded no

ploy to their winning song in 1974.

The Chinese government has rejected criticism that its official figures on coronavirus victims

vastly underestimate the scale of the problem.

A government spokesman in Beijing said travel restrictions were unscientific.

China always believes that the pandemic prevention measures of all countries should be scientific

and appropriate and should not affect normal exchanges and cooperation between people.

We also noted that recently health experts from several countries believe that from a scientific

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