LONDON. Blair will quit next year. Former press secretary Prime minister Tony Blair will resign in just over a year, his former press secretary, Alastair Campbell, was quoted as saying. Asked when Blair planned to quit, Campbell said: ?A year and a bit?, according to The Spectator magazine.He was responding to a question from Boris Johnson, an MP for the main opposition Conservative Party, the weekly periodical said.Johnson is a former editor of The Spectator.At a Group of Eight (G8) summit in Russia, which ended Monday, Blair said he was looking forward to attending next year?s meeting ? an indication that he planned to serve at least one more year.The British leader, in his third consecutive term in office, has pledged to step down before the next general election, due by May 2010 at the latest, but has never publicly set a precise exit date.

TEHRAN. Iran vows response to nuke package on August 22 Iran yesterday promised to formally respond on August 22 to a Western package of incentives aimed at resolving the international standoff over its nuclear programThe package of incentives requires a logical time to study it ... August 22 has been set for declaring (our) views,? said a statement issued by the Supreme National Security Council, Iran?s top security decision-making body.

NIGERIA. Hopes fade for survivors of Nigerian building collapse. Nigerian rescuers battled with shovels and picks to save people trapped for a second day beneath the rubble of a collapsed building here as the Red Cross said the death toll stood at 20.Hopes were fading that anyone could survive another night trapped in the debris as rains fell on the area and shortages of equipment hampered diggers at Nigeria?s latest collapsed residential tower, relief workers said. Local media quoted an unidentified Red Cross official as saying 43 bodies had been recovered from the site at the Ebute-Metta district of Lagos, but Maigira said he could not immediately confirm this toll.

BEIJING. Man sets self on fire in China?s Tiananmen . A Chinese farmer set himself on fire in Beijing?s central Tiananmen Square yesterday and was being treated in hospital, a human rights group said. Tiananmen Square, the symbolic political heart of China and the site of the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy protesters, is a magnet for protest and security there is tight. Yesterday?s incident happened at 9 a.m. (0100 GMT) and the flames were soon extinguished, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said in a statement. It added the farmer?s motive was unclear.

JAKARTA. International test confirms 42nd bird flu human death. An international test has confirmed a 44-year-old Indonesian man who died this month had bird flu, a senior health ministry official said yesterday. The man, a fried chicken vendor in east Jakarta, died on July 12. His death brought to 42 the number of Indonesians killed by the bird flu virus, which has claimed at least 132 lives worldwide since it re-emerged in east Asia in 2003.