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Riding High
DENMARK The center-right coalition of Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen won a second four-year term in office, securing the support of 94 of 179 parliamentary seats in snap elections. Rasmussen, who called the poll to capitalize on his government's popularity, campaigned on a platform

Spanish Bombs SPAIN Does the Basque terrorist group ETA really want peace talks? Last week ETA detonated a car bomb outside a Madrid convention center hours before the opening of ARCO, Spain's international contemporary art fair. The bomb, which injured 43, was the third since Arnaldo Otegi, leader of the Batasuna party — ETA's political wing — indicated a willingness to talk to Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's government. In January Otegi had offered the group's support if Zapatero opted to become "the Spanish Tony Blair," a reference to the British PM's efforts to secure a Northern Ireland peace deal. Zapatero said he was willing to listen to Batasuna, but only once "the noise of guns and bombs comes to an end." And then boom — first in Gexto near Bilbao on Jan. 18, then in a hotel near Alicante on Jan. 30, then last week. "It looks as if ETA is impeding Batasuna's political moves," says Patxi Zabaleta, leader of Basque nationalist group Aralar and a former defense lawyer for ETA prisoners. But Batasuna refuses to criticize its armed brethren. The attack "responds to the perverse logic of this conflict and it shows that a solution is needed," says Pernando Barrena, a Batasuna spokesman. Alberto Surio, political commentator at San Sebastián's daily El Diario Vasco, says the attacks show that the terrorists "want to negotiate from a position of strength, to establish their own conditions." But bombs, alas, won't lead to negotiations; that would really be perverse logic. MARIANA ELIANO/AP In Madrid last week, an ETA blast targeted a major art fair

of restricting immigration and capping taxation.

Dimmer Glimmer
CHECHNYA Rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov's declaration of a unilateral truce earlier this month brought a ray of hope in the brutal 10-year war with Russia. Maskhadov said he wanted to start peace talks with the Kremlin and involve the international community in negotiating an end to the fighting. Thus far, Russian President Vladimir Putin has remained silent, sparking fears of fresh terrorist attacks when the truce expires Feb. 22.

Unconstitutional Crisis
TOGO Demonstrators protesting new President Faure Gnassingbe's assumption of power clashed with police on the streets of Lome, as a government delegation headed for Niger for talks with the Economic Community of West African States. ECOWAS called Gnassingbe's army-backed installation — after the Feb. 5 death of his father, who ruled for 38 years — tantamount to a coup, and threatened Togo with sanctions.

Second Time Around
THAILAND Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra became the country's first Premier to be re-elected, as his Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party scored a landslide victory in the general election. TRT won 70% of the popular vote, and 375 plus of parliament's 500 seats. However, Thaksin's party fared badly in three mainly Muslim southern provinces, failing to win any of the 11 seats up for grabs.

A Week of Water
PAKISTAN President Pervez Musharraf promised compensation for victims of the floods that killed at least 278 people nationwide, including 135 known to have died when a dam burst in the southern coastal province of Balochistan. The rain and snowstorms that battered the country last week left tens of thousands of people homeless.

MEANWHILE IN SCOTLAND ...
In-Law of the Land The Scottish executive announced plans to allow men to marry their former mothers-in-law, by revising centuries-old legislation based on the Old Testament injunction that if a man slept with his wife's mother, all three should be burned alive. The new legislation will also permit women to marry ex-fathers-in-law. It's not clear how many Scots want to pursue such unions; the ban remains in force in England and Wales.