U.N. chief: Talks in Myanmar fail

In two days of talks with Senior Gen. Than Shwe, 76, the U.N. chief urged the reclusive leader to release Suu Kyi and other political prisoners and embark on democratic reforms ahead of elections scheduled for next year.

But their meetings Friday and yesterday in Naypyitaw, the junta's remote administrative capital, left Ban saying that his diplomatic gambit had produced no immediate results and amounted to "a setback to the international community's efforts to provide a helping hand to Myanmar."

Suu Kyi has been detained by the ruling generals for nearly 14 of the last 20 years and is now on trial charged with violating her house arrest.

The 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate faces five years in prison if convicted in a trial that has sparked global outrage. - AP

Opposition alleges Albania vote fraud

Albania joined NATO in April and has been under intense international pressure to ensure last Sunday's vote was free of the fraud that marred the first six elections held after the Balkan country's communist regime fell in 1990. But the Socialists threatened to hold street protests after election authorities declared late Friday that Prime Minister Sali Berisha's Democrats had won enough seats to form a government.

The country's electoral commission is recounting ballots from some polling stations following complaints about irregularities, and the Socialists insist it cannot declare that the Democrats won 71 seats while recounts are pending. They accuse Berisha of trying to sway the electoral commission. - AP

Darfur abduction of 2 aid workers

John O'Shea, chief executive of GOAL, said the group had not heard from the abductors of Irishwoman Sharon Commins, 32, and her Ugandan colleague, Hilda Kuwuki, 42. The international peacekeeping mission in the region said they were abducted Friday by gunmen in the Kutum area of north Darfur.

A Sudanese government official said yesterday that the kidnappers had not been identified. North Darfur's governor said a search started half an hour after the kidnapping. - AP

Elsewhere:

Protesters clashed with police yesterday at a demonstration against the planned expansion of an airport and U.S. military base in the northern Italian city of Vicenza. The plan would allow the transfer of four U.S. battalions from Germany, raising the number of military personnel in Vicenza to 5,000 from about 2,900.

The wife of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown joined thousands of revelers yesterday in London's annual gay-pride march. Sarah Brown held a red, white, and pink version of the Union Jack as the parade wound through the city center before a rally and concert in Trafalgar Square.