War-torn Afghanistan today pleaded for protective clothing for its staff after the first possible cases of bird flu were detected, as Azerbaijan reported three people killed by the deadly disease.

Hundreds of delegates from across Burma gathered today to draw up a new constitution which the ruling junta says will – at some unspecified point in the far future – pave the way for the first democratically elected government in more than four decades.

The Burmese military government brought detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to the capital Yangon today after it also closed the offices of her party, held key supporters and ordered universities shut across Myanmar.