World Watch

MIDDLE EAST
As Israel Makes War, Bush Calls for Peace
In the middle ages a church was a place of sanctuary. In the Middle East today, one has become a battle scene. After more than 200 Palestinians fled into the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, said to be the site of Jesus' birth, Israeli soldiers laid siege for four days, peppering the 1,500-year-old building with bullets and, according to those trapped inside, blowing off the rear door. Elsewhere Israeli forces rolled into the West Bank towns of Hebron, Nablus and Jenin and continued to confine Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in his compound in Ramallah. As the fighting worsened President George W. Bush, the United Nations and European Union leaders called on Israel to end its retaliation for a suicide attack that killed 26 people at a Passover celebration a week earlier. Bush continued his criticism of Arafat for not reining in "terrorist networks," but also called on Israel to withdraw from Palestinian territories and halt settlement activity. Bush also announced that he would be sending Secretary of State Colin Powell to the region to take over where U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni had failed, in trying to arrange peace negotiations. Though it gave a positive response to Bush's new intervention and allowed Zinni to visit Arafat at his headquarters, Israel kept its stranglehold on the West Bank towns.

FRANCE
Synagogue Arson
A series of attacks on Jewish places of worship, cemeteries and shops in France and Belgium was blamed on the worsening Middle East crisis. After a firebomb attack on a Marseilles synagogue, similar assaults were made in Lyons and Montpellier. Near Strasbourg, a bomb was found in a cemetery where arsonists had earlier damaged a pavilion. In the Belgian cities of Brussels and Antwerp, synagogues were also attacked. Prime Minister Lionel Jospin warned that the "passions that flare up in the Middle East must not flare up" in France, home to 4 million Muslims and around 700,000 Jews.

IRELAND
The State Steps In
The Dublin government ordered a state enquiry into the activities of a Catholic priest, Father Sean Fortune, who committed suicide in 1999 facing sex-abuse charges. The decision follows the resignation of Fortune's bishop, Brendan Comiskey, who recently admitted that he had not done enough to protect children in his diocese.

BRITAIN
Out of the Bubble
Eight months ago Rhys Evans was on the verge of death. Born without a gene vital to the development of an immune system, a condition called severe combined immuno-deficiency disorder, he survived a series of infections thanks to antibiotics and intensive care. Doctors at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children decided to test a therapy previously used only in France. They treated stem cells taken from Rhys' defective bone marrow with the gene needed to create immune cells, which was carried by a harmless retrovirus. Now 18 months old, Rhys is leading a normal life.

MOLDOVA
Language Protest
The streets of the capital Chisinau thronged with demonstrators demanding the resignation of communist President Vladimir Voronin and new parliamentary elections. The protests were sparked in January by the re-introduction of compulsory Russian-language lessons in a country where most of the population speaks Romanian. The demonstrations grew after the disappearance, in suspicious circumstances, of opposition journalist and Parliament deputy Vlad Cubreacov.

RUSSIA
Communists Out
The pro-Kremlin majority in the Duma stripped the Communist faction and its allies of the chairmanships of eight top Duma committees. In protest, the left-wing oppo-sition gave up control of the three committees they still kept. The parliament has scheduled a vote for April 19 on a draft appeal to have the Communist Party banned altogether.

ALGERIA
Surprise Attack
As government troops carried out a sweep for insurgents in mountainous country in the northwestern Saida region, they were ambushed by the very people they were searching for. In the most lethal attack this year of the 10-year insurgency that has claimed more than 120,000 lives, 20 soldiers were left dead as well as one member of a civilian self-defense group. The assailants were thought to be members of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), avenging the recent arrest of 150 suspected gspc supporters.

PAKISTAN
Preventive Measures
Pakistani authorities arrested more than 75 people suspected of links with al-Qaeda. At least 21 were members of the outlawed Harkat-ul-Mujahideen Islamic militant group, believed to have received training at Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan. As the country's major Islamic parties called on the government to end military cooperation with the U.S., the police raids captured some 14 foreigners, including Saudis, Libyans and Syrians.

AFGHANISTAN
Roundup
As the first 600 members of the new Afghan multi-ethnic National Guard completed their training, the need for it became apparent. The government ordered the arrest of more than 200 political opponents. The detainees, said to be supporters of the anti-Western warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, were accused of conspiring to mount a terror campaign against the government of interim leader Hamid Karzai.

INDIA
To Lower the Flames of Hatred
With 817 people already dead in the worst intercommunal strife in a decade, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee belatedly visited the western state of Gujarat. The violence began in Godhra a month ago when a Muslim mob set fire to a train, killing 60 Hindu activists, provoking revenge attacks of murder, arson and looting. On the eve of the visit five Muslims died when their homes near Ahmedabad were torched. Vajpayee told victims that the failure of the local administration to prevent the violence would be investigated.

NORTH KOREA
Diplomatic Overture
A visit to Pyongyang by a South Korean delegation led by envoy Lim Dong Won produced a limited improvement in relations. After initial accusations that Seoul and Washington were plotting together to invade, the North's tone mellowed and it offered to resume dialogue with the U.S. By extending his visit by a day, Lim also came away with agreement on further family reunions and more economic talks.

CANADA
More Murders
Police conducting an "inch-by-inch" search of a pig farm 32 km from Vancouver turned up more evidence in the murder case against Robert Pickton, who was already facing a double murder charge. The new evidence enabled police to bring an additional three counts of first-degree murder against Pickton, who is so far the only person charged in relation to the disappearances of up to 50 women from the east end area of downtown Vancouver since 1983.

UNITED STATES
Rules for the Rest
Disarmament and human-rights experts warned that U.S. rejection or disregard of treaties is undermining efforts in the rest of the world to strengthen international laws. The Institute for Energy and Environmental Research and the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy cited international agreements on nuclear testing and proliferation, land-mine bans, climate change and women's and children's rights in their report.