World briefs 10/1/06

Palestinian workers protest delays in salaries

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Thousands of government employees and security officials burned tires, blocked roads and fired shots in the air on Gaza streets Saturday to protest delays in receiving long-awaited salaries. Palestinian Interior Minister Said Siyam ordered security forces to deploy in the streets roday to prevent similar protests. The order authorized the use of "all means of force," said ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal. The Palestinian government on Thursday began paying partial salaries to 165,000 civil servants who haven't received their full wages in months due to an economic embargo on the Palestinian Authority.

U.S., EU don't agree on passenger data transfer

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The United States and the European Union failed to reach a deal on the transfer of air passenger data, putting airlines at risk of huge fines or the loss of landing rights, the EU executive said Saturday. "There is no agreement. There is a legal vacuum as of midnight tonight," said European Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd. "We have to discuss what to do next."

China has new outbreak of bird flu in poultry

BEIJING -- Bird flu is back in China. A new outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu killed 985 chickens in China's northern region of Inner Mongolia, a state news agency reported Saturday. The discovery in a village near the city of Baotou prompted authorities to destroy 8,990 other chickens to prevent the virus from spreading, the Xinhua News Agency said. A laboratory confirmed Friday that the dead birds had the H5N1 strain of the virus, Xinhua said. The strain has killed at least 148 people worldwide since it started ravaging poultry stocks in Asia three years ago, according to World Health Organization figures.

-- From wire reports