World in brief

Blair faces questions on relations with U.S.

LONDON - Facing hostile questioning in parliament, Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledged on Tuesday some friction in his close relationship with President Bush and the political problems the friendship causes at home.

Blair used his sharpest language yet in the longstanding disagreement over the Bush administration's detentions at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying they "must end."

During a two-and-a-half hour session before a House of Commons committee, Blair was grilled about his relationship with Bush, and he defended the alliance in the war against terror, insisting it was in Britain's best interest.

"I am not daft about the politics of it. I can see, particularly in my own political family, it is a problem from time to time," said Blair, who has faced intense criticism within his Labour Party.

"I don't think this country should ever let itself be ashamed of its relationship with the United States of America or believe that Britain is America's poodle."

Blair acknowledged two key differences with Bush: Washington's refusal to sign the Kyoto protocol on climate change; and the detention of four Britons at Guantanamo Bay.

"Guantanamo Bay is an anomaly that at some point has got to be brought to an end," Blair said.

Blair suggested the U.S. position was softening on the Kyoto protocol, and that Washington accepted the scientific arguments.

"I do not think we should give up on the dialogue with the United States," the prime minister said. "I think they accept the science. The question is what do you do about it? That is in itself a significant change that we need to build upon."

BEIJING - China and Thailand reported new outbreaks of bird flu, the highly contagious disease that health experts fear could sicken humans.

Thailand's Deputy Africulture Minister Newin Chidchob on Wednesday said fresh outbreaks of bird flu were confirmed in two central provinces where thousands of chickens died recently.

"The result of lab tests in Ayuthaya and Prathumthani provinces have confirmed the existence of bird flu H5N1 virus," Newin Chidchob said.

The outbreak in China was the first report of the avian illness since China declared it had "stamped out" the disease nearly four months ago. Tests at a farm in the southeastern province of Anhui have confirmed chickens died of bird flu, the government said on state-run television.

Avian influenza is caused by a flu virus that normally infects only birds. In people, the symptoms of the H5N1 bird flu range from those typical of the flu - fever, cough, sore throat and muscle aches - to eye infections, pneumonia, acute breathing problems, and other severe and life-threatening complications.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan and U.N. officials failed Tuesday to agree on a date for national elections, further muddying the timetable for the oft-delayed vote designed to anchor Afghanistan's recovery from decades of war.

A vote for president looks likely in late September or October, despite a string of attacks on election workers and voters that have been blamed on Taliban militants.

But Afghan officials say worries about logistics and intimidation by warlords could yet push the election of a 249-seat parliament - a far more difficult vote to organize - into next year.

President Hamid Karzai and members of the U.N.-sponsored electoral commission emerged from a meeting at the presidential palace in Kabul without a final deal.

Karzai is expected to defeat a half-dozen challengers for the top job, securing a five-year-term - and perhaps giving President Bush a foreign policy success before he faces the American electorate in November.

MILOSEVIC TRIAL: The U.N. tribunal ruled that former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is fit to stand trial, but he may not be healthy enough to continue defending himself against charges of war crimes and genocide. The judges ordered Milosevic, 62, to undergo a new medical examination by an independent cardiologist and postponed hearings in his case until July 14.

AUSTRIA: President Thomas Klestil, who brought calm to an office frayed by controversy surrounding his predecessor's past in the Nazi army, died Tuesday of multiple organ failure. He was 71. His second six-year term was to end Thursday.

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