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ANPAu..r..
ATW-health-flu-China
Bird flu crisis escalates in China
JP/12/ATW

Bird flu crisis
escalates in China

CHINA: China was struggling to contain an escalation of the
bird flu crisis on Thursday after reporting at least one person
had died from the H5N1 virus, with other human cases suspected
and two more outbreaks.

The Ministry of Agriculture reported two new outbreaks of bird
flu, one in Xinjiang in the far northwest and the other in the
central province of Hubei.

The latest reports bring to 13 the number of outbreaks, across
six provinces and regions, confirmed in China over the past
month.

The fresh outbreaks followed confirmation on Wednesday night
of the nation's first known human cases of bird flu.

The World Health Organization (WHO), which sent an
investigation team to the family's village, confirmed the
findings and said more human cases were likely in China, although
not a huge number.

Other cases of H5N1 crossing from birds into humans in China
were also being investigated on Thursday. -- AFP

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ANPAu..r..
ATW-Germany-UN-Security Council
German seat on U.N. Security Council an 'illusion,' Merkel
adviser says
JP/12/ATW

UN Council seat
'illusion': Govt

GERMANY: Germany's hopes of winning a seat on the UN Security
Council are an "illusion," an EU diplomat tapped to advise the
new coalition government in Berlin said in comments published on
Thursday.

Christoph Heusgen's remark was an indication that conservative
Chancellor-designate Angela Merkel may ease back from outgoing
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's effort to secure a permanent
German seat.

"That is currently an illusion -- the Europeans must cooperate
better in the Security Council," Heusgen was quoted as saying in
the German news weekly Die Zeit.

Merkel has chosen Heusgen, until now a close aide to European
Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, to become her new
foreign and security policy adviser once parliament elects her as
chancellor on Tuesday.

The appointment could make the 50-year-old an influential
counterweight to the designated foreign minister, Frank Walter
Steinmeier, a Social Democrat who served as Schroeder's chief of
staff.

In their coalition agreement, Merkel's conservatives and the
Social Democrats say UN reform without changes in the Security
Council would be "incomplete" and that Germany remains "ready" to
take up a seat.

But they also say: "In that perspective, we continue to seek a
permanent seat for the EU." -- AP