Agence France Presse: A senior Japanese official said yesterday that 2005 would be fair for a base year in a new deal on slashing greenhouse gases, suggesting the Kyoto Protocol was slanted towards the European position. The unusually blunt remarks came a week before the latest round of negotiations was due to start in Bangkok on drafting a successor to the Kyoto treaty. The treaty requires major developed nations to slash emissions blamed for global warming by an average of 5% from 1990 levels …