World Watch

• Share

MIDDLE EAST
Despite Fresh Attacks, Talks Still Have a Chance
Israeli and Palestinian security officials met U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni to discuss the plan drawn up last year by CIA director George Tenet, which requires withdrawal to positions held before the start of the Aqsa intifadeh 18 months ago. The two sides failed to reach agreement, and the Israelis called a halt when a bomber killed himself and three others near shops in West Jerusalem, only a day after a similar attack on a bus killed seven. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat condemned the attacks. After Zinni met Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and then met Arafat separately, talks resumed, but without resolution. More talks were planned. If a truce is agreed, Arafat may be able to attend the Arab summit in Beirut this week, when a peace plan backed by Saudi Arabia and other Arab states will be discussed.

GIBRALTAR
Loyalty Cards
Some 20,000 people, over two-thirds of the population, took to the streets of the Rock to protest talks taking place between London and Madrid on the future of the last colony in Europe. Gibraltarians are fiercely loyal to Britain and are fearful that the mother country is about to agree joint sovereignty with Spain over the rock that guards the entrance to the Mediterranean. The Chief Minister, Peter Caruana, told the Union flag-waving crowd, "Gibraltar is not Britain's to give away, nor is it Spain's to take. It is ours."

ITALY
Drive-by Killing
Two men on a motorcycle shot dead government labor law adviser Marco Biagi on the street in the northern city of Bologna, and raised the specter of renewed urban terrorism. The day after Biagi's murder an offshoot of the Red Brigades movement, which was responsible for a wave of killings in the 1970s and 1980s, claimed that they had "executed" the economist and law professor for "regulation of the exploitation of salaried workers."

AFGHANISTAN
War Focus Shifts to Pakistan Border
A surprise attack on U.S. and Afghan troops near the eastern town of Khost — just after officials announced the successful end of a 17-day operation against al-Qaeda and Taliban forces — prompted a rethink of the U.S. military campaign. Although it was not clear who was responsible for the attack, which killed three Afghan soldiers and wounded one American, U.S. commander Frank Hagenbeck said al-Qaeda forces might have to be pursued across the Pakistan border. Britain agreed to supply up to 1,700 troops in addition to its peacekeeping force in Kabul.

SAUDI ARABIA
Improperly Dressed
Interior Minister Prince Nayef defended Saudi religious police after press reports accused the mutaween of causing the deaths of 15 schoolgirls in a fire. The newspaper stories alleged that as the girls, aged between 13 and 17, tried to escape their burning school they were pushed back into the flames by police from the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice because they were not wearing their black robes and headscarves. Prince Nayef claimed the police were there "to ensure that the girls were not subjected to any kind of mistreatment outside the building."

IRAQ
Counterattack
As U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney returned home empty-handed from his support-seeking tour of the Middle East, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein sent out officials to seek backing from Arab countries in case of a possible American attack. Vice chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council Izzat Ibrahim went to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, while Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan and Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz were sent to other regional capitals.

SUDAN
Serious Intent
Anxious to establish its anti-terrorist credentials, Sudan told a U.N. Security Council committee that it had "earnestly complied" with U.S. requests to provide information about suspects and had put in place new procedures to prevent fighters entering the country. To pursue its policy, though, the Khartoum government said it would need international assistance to improve efforts to freeze known terrorists' assets and train counter-terrorist forces.

ZIMBABWE
Mugabe Hangs On
Apparently fatigued by the disputed election that saw President Robert Mugabe re-elected, Zimbabweans largely ignored opposition calls for a three-day general strike. Mugabe was pressured by South Africa and Nigeria to take defeated opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai into a government of national unity as his country was suspended from the Commonwealth for a year. As violence against white farmers and opposition supporters continued, Tsvangirai was taken to court to be charged with plotting Mugabe's assassination.

PAKISTAN
Clampdown
President Pervez Musharraf issued instructions to officials to step up moves against terrorist groups after a grenade attack on a Protestant church in Islamabad's diplomatic enclave during Sunday service killed five worshipers. Pakistan's Information Minister, Nisar Memon, blamed militant Islamic groups, possibly even al-Qaeda operatives. The U.S. ordered the withdrawal of all non-essential personnel from Pakistan.

ANTARCTICA
Now You See It, Now You Don't
An ice shelf 200 m thick, 3,250 sq km in extent and weighing 500 billion tons broke up in less than a month. Though average Antarctic peninsula temperatures have risen by 2.5C in the last 50 years, the eastern Larsen B shelf crumbled into small icebergs far faster than expected. The shelf was a huge extension into the water of the ice sheets covering the land mass. It was one of five that have been shrinking owing to climate change. An iceberg half the size of Cyprus broke off another part of the coast.

CHINA
Labor Troubles
China's efforts to reform its industry brought thousands of workers onto the streets in the rust-belt cities of Daqing and Liaoyang to protest stopped wages and welfare benefits. Hundreds of armed police ringed Liaoyang's government offices and arrested three labor leaders who tried to arrange talks with officials. The whole northeast region is suffering massive unemployment as the state closes down inefficient and outdated factories.

UNITED STATES
Internet Arrests
Police operations in the U.S. and Europe broke up two major Internet pornography rings. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the success of Operation Candyman, which resulted in charges of trading graphic sexual images of children against 86 people, including a police officer, a Catholic priest and a school bus driver. German police uncovered a worldwide Internet pedophile ring, which resulted in arrests of 12 men in 10 countries.

PERU
Shining Path Redux
Just three days before President George W. Bush was due to visit Lima, a car bomb packed with up to 60 kg of dynamite exploded outside the U.S. embassy, killing nine people and injuring 30. Immediate suspicions of responsibility concentrated on the Maoist rebel group Shining Path, which had been quiet for nearly a decade. Bush declared that "no two-bit terrorists" were going to make him put off his trip.