NOTEBOOK/WORLD WATCH	MARCH 9, 1998 VOL. 151 NO. 10
	World Watch HE HAGUE Acting on a dispute that has blocked trial of two Libyans accused of blowing up a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, the World Court said that it has jurisdiction to rule on a Libyan complaint. In agreeing to consider Libya's argument that U.N. sanctions--aimed at forcing the suspects' extradition to Britain or the U.S.--should be lifted, the International Court of Justice rejected the American and British view that it has no authority in the matter. Deliberations on that issue--and on where a trial of the Libyans for the deaths of 270 people could be held--may take years. BRUSSELS Seeking a more "constructive" relationship, the E.U. agreed to resume ministerial contacts with Iran. E.U. foreign ministers said that several encouraging developments, including the election last May of President Mohammed Khatami, a moderate cleric, merited a positive response. Last year the E.U. returned ambassadors to Iran, having removed them briefly after a German court blamed Iranian officials for promoting terrorism. Washington has pursued a policy of isolating Iran, but in a notable--albeit unofficial--gathering in Tehran, American Middle East experts met with Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazzi for a foreign-policy discussion. SHKODER Albanian government special forces retook the northern city of Shkoder following an outbreak of violence in which 30 armed men freed 60 prisoners from the local jail and then went on a rampage. No serious injuries were reported. Shkoder is a stronghold of former President Sali Berisha, who was removed from power last July after much of the country descended into anarchy following the collapse of a number of popular pyramid investment schemes. Berisha has denied any role in the unrest. JERUSALEM After vowing he would not step down, , head of Israel's Mossad espionage agency, resigned following publication of an official report on a botched operation last September. The failed "hit" in Amman on a leader of the Palestinian extremist group Hamas humiliated Mossad and strained ties with Jordan. Yatom rejected the inquiry's findings, but then came news of another bungled job. Swiss authorities revealed they had arrested one Mossad agent and were seeking four others after they were caught breaking into an apartment building outside Bern. Israeli reports suggested the agents were attempting to wiretap representatives either of Iran or of Hizballah, the Tehran-supported Lebanese militia. SIRNAC After 14 years of fighting Kurdish P.K.K. separatists--and while still pursuing small groups of the guerrillas militarily--the Turkish army is trying community service in its efforts to win hearts and minds in the country's southeast. The army is providing 12 provinces with computers for schools, medical services and other aid. Soldiers are rebuilding villages and laying telephone and electricity cables. Meanwhile, the military's other foe, the recently banned Refah (Welfare) Party, was reborn as the Virtue Party, recruiting 116 of Refah's 150 Islamist national legislators. DZHIKHASHKARI Gunmen opposed to President Eduard Shevardnadze released their U.N. and local hostages, ending a six-day standoff with Georgian security forces. Most of the dozen or so gunmen surrendered, but the group's leader Gocha Esebua and several others evaded capture. They had been accused of involvement in the Feb. 9 attempt on Shevardnadze's life. Associated with the late President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the kidnappers denied involvement in the assassination plot but called for the release of comrades in custody and direct talks between Gamsakh urdia loyalists and Georgian government officials. PATNA The second round of voting in India's parliamentary elections was marred by more violence as at least 20 people--including a socialist candidate and four of his associates--were killed in eastern Bihar state. Devedranath Dubey, who was allegedly involved in several criminal cases, was contesting a seat in the lower house of Parliament for the Samajwadi Party. Police say he was killed by gunmen dressed in police uniforms. The death toll from election-related violence in India stands at nearly 150. ARUSHA In sometimes tearful testimony before the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Major General Romeo Dallaire of Canada declared that he could have saved hundreds of thousands of people slaughtered in 1994 had he been provided with enough troops and equipment by the U.N. Dallaire, the only U.N. officer scheduled to testify at the war crimes hearings in Arusha, Tanzania, commanded a rump contingent of 450 peacekeepers after the U.N.--and its member countries--withdrew 2,000 troops just as the genocide was getting under way. Dallaire spoke at the trial of Jean-Paul Akayesu, a former Hutu mayor implicated in the deaths of 2,000 Tutsis. POINT PEDRO Tamil separatist guerrillas attacked a 12-ship Sri Lankan navy convoy, sinking two of the vessels transporting troops to the northern Jaffna peninsula, where the guerrillas are fighting for a Tamil homeland. At least 40 soldiers and 19 guerrillas--including several suicide bombers who rammed their explosives-packed boats into the ships--were killed in the assault about 320 km north of the capital, Colombo. YICHANG Chinese authorities began to move 71,000 people from their homes in central Hubei province to allow construction of the world's largest hydro-power project. The Three Gorges Dam, being built on the Yangtze River east of Chongqing, eventually will force the relocation of 1.2 million people. The dam, due to be completed in 2009, will submerge more than 1,084 sq km, including 114 towns, 1,711 villages and two cities in Hubei and Sichuan provinces. AUCKLAND The center of Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, was shut down all week by a catastrophic power blackout that forced many residents to leave town, schools and a university to close, and some businesses to relocate staff as far away as Sydney. Affecting an estimated 70,000 people, the blackout occurred after all four cables delivering electricity to the area failed. Normal power is not expected before March 9. BOGOTA Victor Carranza, who controls more than 50% of the emerald business in Colombia, was arrested, accused of organizing paramilitary squads responsible for massacres of alleged sympathizers with leftist guerrillas. Carranza has faced similar accusations in the past, but the authorities have failed to build a sufficient case against him. He contends he is the victim of a smear campaign. Hundreds of Colombians have been killed in the last year by paramilitary units in areas considered guerrilla strongholds. WASHINGTON Softening its punishment of Colombia, the U.S. lifted two years of financial-aid sanctions against the world's leading cocaine-producing nation. But the State Department continued to decertify Colombia as a reliable ally in its war against drugs--largely because President Ernesto Samper, whom the Clinton administration believes accepted more than $6 million from drug lords during his 1994 election campaign, is still in office. In ending the sanctions, however, the U.S. acknowledged that Colombia's anti-drug forces had made gains--and signaled a willingness to work with Samper's successor after the President leaves office in August. LAS VEGAS Prosecutors withdrew charges against two men accused of possessing anthrax bacteria after tests showed their material was an anthrax vaccine for animals. Fearing a potential terrorist act with a biological substance, the FBI swooped down on Larry Wayne Harris and William Leavitt Jr. in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson after receiving information that the men had intended to test the deadly substance. AMARILLO A jury in the heart of Texas beef country rejected cattlemen's claims that Oprah Winfrey had cost them millions of dollars through comments made on her television show linking American beef production and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (B.S.E.), or "mad cow disease." After five weeks of testimony, the jurors concluded that Ms. Winfrey and her production company did not defame the beef industry in the 1996 broadcast. NEW YORK Two Chinese men were arrested on charges of conspiracy to sell organs taken from the bodies of executed Chinese prisoners. The first such arrests in the U.S., they appear to support allegations by human-rights groups and Chinese dissidents that such a trade--denied by China--exists. The suspects, Chengyong Wang and Xingqi Fu, allegedly told an undercover FBI agent that they could provide body parts at discount rates.
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