Worldwatch

Remember. But Keep Out
Sixty years after the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, Germany still seeks atonement. Berlin's astonishing Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, an undulating graveyard of 2,711 concrete slabs, opens in May. But just as the government prepares to mark the Jan. 27 Auschwitz anniversary with a ceremony in the Reichstag, it is also drafting plans to curb immigration of East European Jews. Germany opened its doors to them in 1991 as a gesture of reparation. At the time, fewer than 30,000 Jews lived in the country and many of their communities were on the verge of dying out. Since then, nearly 200,000 Jews have arrived, most of them from the former Soviet Union. The majority do not speak German and only half have joined a local synagogue. Even the Jewish community complains of being overrun.

But the idea of quotas sticks in the craw. Says Charlotte Knobloch, vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany: "Despite all the difficulties, it is a stroke of luck that Jews are returning to Germany." Claudia Roth, co-chairwoman of the Greens, takes a harder line. "We are going to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and then we tell the Jews that want to come here: You are

MEANWHILE IN BRITAIN... Abandoning Ship P&O finally pulled the plug on a scheduled 103-day world cruise by its flagship Aurora after the vessel spent 11 days shuttling mostly between the English port city of Southampton and the Isle of Wight while engineers tried to fix an engine problem. The company's offer of a full refund seemed unlikely to BRAND X PICTURES/GETTY. MANIPULATION BY GARETH BURGESS console the 1,750 passengers who had paid up to $79,000 to flee the British winter. But some memories of the fiasco might be blunted by P&O's provision of free drinks while it tried to make the 76,000-ton luxury liner seaworthy. The drinks tally for the truncated trip came to 12,800 beers, 12,600 bottles of wine and 9,800 cocktails

unwanted," she says. "That is shameful." Germany's Jews accept that changes must be made, but insist they be consulted. For now, policymakers and the Jewish community have agreed to lower the volume and jointly honor the 6 million dead. — By William Boston

Temporary Sanity
SPAIN Spanish AIDS campaigners were surprised and delighted when Father Juan Antonio Martínez Camino, secretary-general of the Spanish Catholic Church's Episcopal Conference, appeared to reverse Church policy by approving the use of condoms to combat the spread of the disease. But less than 24 hours later — following reports that Camino had received a sharp rebuke from the Vatican — the Episcopal Conference issued a statement denying any change.

Wave of Inaction
FRANCE Schools and government offices across the country closed as teachers and civil servants went on strike, climaxing a three-day series of walkouts by public-sector workers protesting job cuts and pay freezes. Rail services were disrupted mid-week; on Thursday, tens of thousands of demonstrators brought Paris, Marseilles and other city centers to a standstill.

Snap Judgement
DENMARK Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen called early parliamentary elections for Feb. 8, nine months ahead of the deadline. Opinion polls suggest that Rasmussen's center-right alliance, which has been a staunch ally of the U.S-led war in Iraq, will be returned to power.

Glimmer of Hope
MIDDLE EAST Palestinian police began patrolling the border between Gaza and Israel after new Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ordered his security services to stop rocket attacks on Israel. Israeli officials approved the deployment when they resumed contact with Abbas' administration a week after breaking it off. The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, one of the militant groups responsible for the attacks, reportedly lent its support to Abbas' call for a cease-fire.

In from the Cold
AFGHANISTAN As part of an initiative to end the Taliban insurgency, the U.S. military released 81 suspected members of the group from its detention center at Bagram air base north of Kabul. Afghan authorities have offered low-ranking Taliban an amnesty in the hope of inducing them to lay down their arms.