World Briefs

LONDON -A rare Islamic crystal jug mistaken earlier this year for a cheap French claret pitcher is expected to sell for millions of dollars at auction.

The 1,000-year-old rock crystal ewer — one of only seven of its kind known to exist — is the highlight of Christie's Oct. 7 sale of Islamic and Indian art, with an estimated price of at least US$5.3 million.

But in January Lawrences auction house in southwest England identified it as a 19th-century French claret jug and offered it for sale for US$175 to US$350.

After a bidding war, the jug sold for US$385,000, more than 1,000 times the list price.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -Pakistan's prime minister on Thursday backed a harsh rebuke of the U.S. by the Muslim nation's military chief, a sign of a strain in relations seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks forged the two countries' anti-terror alliance.

Pakistan's public show of anger with the U.S.comes amid revelations that President Bush secretly approved new U.S. military raids in that country.

A former intelligence official told The Associated Press that President Bush signed the classified order over the summer. It gives new authority to U.S. special operations forces to target suspected terrorists in the dangerous area along the Afghanistan border.

PARIS -Officials say a fire broke out in the tunnel under the English Channel and caused undersea traffic to be suspended, but all passengers have been evacuated safely.

Eurotunnel, the company that operates the tunnel, says firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze. An official with Eurotunnel's press service says the fire broke out 7 miles from the French side.

The official says 32 people were aboard a shuttle train transporting trucks when the fire broke out, and all were evacuated safely.

Traffic in the undersea tunnel has been suspended and firefighters are examining the site.

HAVANA - CUBA HAS TURNED DOWN U. S. storm relief handouts, but is asking for trade restrictions to be lifted so it can buy American materials to assist in its recovery from Hurricane Ike, officials said Thursday.

"Cuba hasn't asked the United States government to give it anything," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement published in the Communist Party newspaper Granma. "Simply that it lets us buy."

The Foreign Ministry said it has for the second time turned down a U.S. government offer to send a disaster assessment team to the island, insisting that Cuban experts are capable of assessing damage wrought by Ike when it ravaged the island this week.

Cuba says it wants some U.S. trade restrictions lifted instead, so it can buy American roofing and other construction materials to repair homes and the island's damaged electrical grid.