Uzbekistan Tensions remained high in this town on the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border as Tashkent struggled to quell unrest in the wake of a crackdown that has sparked unprecedented Western criticism of the authoritarian Uzbek regime. Afghanistan Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned reports of abuse of detainees in US military custody in Afghanistan before leaving for Washington to meet with US President George W. Bush. Azerbaijan Some 45 protestors were arrested here as police dispersed an opposition demonstration by 500 people who defied a protest ban to rally for free elections in Azerbaijan, police said. Iraq Sunni Arabs closed their mosques for three days to protest a spate of killings in which three of their clerics died, as Iraqis reacted with shock to intimate jail photos of ousted president Saddam Hussein. France After 10 solid days of glitz and glamour, the 58th Cannes film festival will award the Palme d'Or prize for best picture with a French thriller on racial tensions widely tipped to win. US The "war on terror" is advancing but not yet won, US President George W. Bush said. Afghanistan Afghan officials were working feverishly for the release of a kidnapped Italian aid worker, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said, as the woman's suspected abductor said she was still alive. Jordan OPEC president Sheikh Ahmed Fahd al-Sabah vowed at a World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting that the cartel will respond to new forces in the fast-changing oil market by the end of the year. Ethiopia Ethiopia's foreign donors appealed for calm as the first preliminary returns from last weekend's hotly contested elections showed the opposition more than doubling its parliamentary seats.