NOTEBOOK/WORLD WATCH	JANUARY 26, 1998 VOL. 151 NO. 4
	World Watch Paris Nineteen of the Council of Europe's 40 member states signed a protocol banning human cloning. Since the successful cloning of an adult sheep in Britain last year, governments have scrambled to address the legal and ethical questions that the technology raises, and an American scientist, Richard Seed, raised hackles when he said he intended to clone human adults. Signatory states pledged to make human cloning a punishable offense. Bonn Jewish Holocaust survivors living in poverty in Eastern Europe will receive monthly pensions. After a year of negotiations with the Jewish Claims Conference, the German government agreed to establish in 1999 a fund of $110 million that will provide for monthly pensions of $140 to an estimated 18,000 Jewish victims of the Nazis in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Eligible are Jews who survived concentration camps or ghettos and have not been compensated by Germany as yet. Holocaust survivors who lived in the West after World War II received substantial compensation from the German government, but those in communist countries were barred because of Cold War politics. Vukovar The U.N. handed back the last sliver of secessionist Serb territory to Croatia after two years of transitional authority that helped end the 4 1/2-year war in the country. The territory, Eastern Slavonia, was the scene of brutal fighting at the beginning of the war when Yugoslav artillery troops across the border in Serbia joined rebels in nearly destroying the city of Vukovar. U.S. and U.N. officials remain concerned about Croatia's future treatment of Serbs in the region. Podgorica Montenegro, the minority partner in the Yugoslav federation, fell prey to Balkanization when supporters of Momir Bulatovic staged violent protests on the eve of President-elect Milo Djukanovic's inauguration. The demonstrations triggered a stern warning from the U.S. ambassador in Belgrade, Robert Gelbard, who said his country was "deeply offended by the absolutely outrageous behavior by outgoing President Bulatovic" and held Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic "responsible for not restraining his colleague." Ankara Ending months of expectation, the Turkish Constitutional Court banned the Refah (Welfare) Party on a 9-2 vote, citing the Islamist organization's "activities against secularism." Necmettin Erbakan, the party chairman and former Prime Minister, was banned from running for parliament for any political party or founding any new party for five years--as were five other Refah deputies. Commented Abdullah Gul, the party's vice chairman, "The closing of Refah casts a dark shadow on Turkish democracy"--a view that has won some support in the E.U. and among other of Turkey's Western allies. Jerusalem The Israeli government delivered a double slap to its Palestinian partner in spelling out its terms for the future of the peace process. First, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet issued a 43-point ultimatum to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, detailing measures required of him before Israel would honor its commitment to expand Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank. Then, in outlining which territory Israel meant to keep in any final peace settlement, the government carved out for itself most of the West Bank, all of which the Palestinians hope to eventually control. Arafat warned that should the peace process rupture, "all options are open." The Israeli declarations complicated efforts by U.S. President Bill Clinton to revive negotiations through separate meetings this week with Netanyahu and Arafat. Baghdad Iraq again blocked a U.N. weapons inspection team because the majority of its members were American and British nationals and the team leader, Scott Ritter, was a "hyena" and a U.S. spy. The U.N. reaffirmed its right to select inspectors based on competence and condemned the action as a "clear violation" of its resolutions. The team--which had been pursuing allegations of Iraqi tests of chemical and biological agents on humans, based on photographs discovered in a 1995 search--left Baghdad with a pledge to return. Algiers After initially rejecting a junior-level European peace delegation concerned about the worsening slaughter in Algeria, the government relented and will permit an upgraded, cabinet-level E.U. delegation to visit this week. Robin Cook, Foreign Secretary of Britain, which holds the E.U. presidency, said the mission would look into how Europe can "help end the terrorism and demonstrate the strong feelings of the peoples of Europe" toward the suffering of Algerians--about 75,000 of whom been massacred since 1992. Garissa More rain and the worst flooding in decades have hampered efforts to fight a deadly outbreak of Rift Valley fever in northeastern Kenya and southern Somalia. The rare virus, which causes uncontrollable bleeding, has killed at least 400 people since last month and decimated livestock herds. Doctors warned that desperate people may feel they have no option but to eat infected meat. Grozny At the bidding of Chechnya's President Aslan Maskhadov, Acting Prime Minister Shamil Basaev formed a new government. Basaev was the infamous leader of a Chechen guerrilla raid on the Budyonnovsk hospital in southern Russia in June 1995. The new cabinet--to many Russian observers more radical in its Islamic and secessionist policies--includes Basaev's brother, Shirvani, as fuel and energy minister. Russian Prosecutor-General Yuri Skuratov said Basaev remains a wanted man. Lahore Gunmen massacred 28 minority Shi'ite Muslims as they knelt in prayer at a religious service in a Lahore cemetery. The killings sparked outbreaks of further violence in the Punjabi provincial capital. A Sunni Muslim group, Warriors of Jhangvi, claimed responsibility for the slaughter. A Shi'ite leader, Shaheen Haider of the Tehrik-i-Jafria party, was shot and killed in Faisalabad. Zhangjiakou Amid falling snow and sub-freezing temperatures, more than 540,000 people in northern China were made homeless by a strong earthquake. The tremor, measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale, killed at least 50 people in Zhangbei and Shangyi counties in northern Hebei province, injured more than 10,000 and destroyed over 100,000 mud and brick houses. The Red Cross Society of China appealed for $1.2 million in international aid, while Chinese troops rushed quilts, coats, food, tents and medicine to the stricken areas. Tokyo Japan's Fair Trade Commission has opened an investigation into Microsoft Corp.'s Tokyo operations, suspecting the company of trying to restrict the sale of Japanese-made computer software that competes with Microsoft products. The action came as Microsoft is enmeshed in a fight with U.S. anti-trust authorities over the sale of its Internet Explorer software, a component of Microsoft's market-dominating Windows 95 operating system. Lima Peruvian Ministry of Health officials fired two doctors and are investigating others as thousands of women reported that they had undergone unwanted sterilizations. The operations, they say, often were performed with inadequate care as doctors sought to fill quotas established under the government's family planning program. According to women's groups, some health workers promised food, clothing and free medical care to rural people if they agreed to undergo tubal ligations. Several women are suing the government, as are the families of six who died after surgical complications. Ocosingo Twenty-two Mexican policemen are under indictment in the state of Chiapas following the shooting death of a woman and bullet injuries to her baby daughter and a teenage boy during a protest march in the town of Ocosingo. The casualties occurred when police opened fire on a crowd of several thousand people following a demonstration against the Dec. 22 massacre of 45 peasants in the village of Acteal and in support of a peace accord with Zapatista guerrillas. After some homeward-bound protesters threw stones, the police responded with tear gas, then resorted to gunfire. Montreal A million Quebec and Ontario residents are still without electricity in the wake of a freakish five-day ice storm that crushed trees and crumpled electricity transmission towers. Officials say that power will not be fully restored until the end of the month. With damage estimates running up to $2 billion, the storm is the costliest in Canadian history. Similar conditions were reported in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and New York state.
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