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;AFP;IVY; 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

;AP;IVY; 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