World Watch

INDIA Time-Out from Tension on the Kashmiri Line
Fears of imminent war between India and Pakistan eased slightly, despite more than a week of artillery-fire exchanges across the "line of control" dividing Kashmir, after an impatient India reportedly gave Pakistan two months to rein in Islamic militants and Kashmiri separatists or face attack. The two countries — nuclear powers that have clashed over Kashmir for decades — have mobilized about a million troops along their common border. The European Union's external affairs Commissioner, Chris Patten, was the first of a series of foreign diplomats to arrive in the region in an effort to calm tensions. Pakistani officials urged restraint, saying the country was doing its best to control extremism. At week's end, Pakistan successfully test-fired a medium-range surface-to-surface missile, in what India termed "missile antics."

EUROPEAN UNION Just Passing Through
After two weeks of negotiations among European countries, 13 Palestinians exiled in the deal to end the siege of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity began settling into their new homes across the Continent. Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Portugal accepted some of the men, who are seen as heroes by Palestinians but are wanted by Israel. Europe is only a temporary stop, said Mohammed Wardiyan, who is in Greece: "We will return."

FRANCE Breaking Camp
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said closure of the Sangatte refugee center is "an objective" but set no date and did not say where its 1,500 residents might go. The camp near the mouth of the Channel Tunnel is a base for asylum-seekers trying to hop trains to Britain. French rail security catches some 300 would-be stowaways nightly.

KOSOVO Pushing the Limits
The U.N. quashed an attempt by Kosovo's semi-autonomous assembly to redraw the border with Macedonia. Legislators had challenged a border treaty signed last year by Skopje and Belgrade. But U.N. officials said the move was beyond the assembly's authority. Kosovo remains a province of Yugoslavia under U.N. administration.

TURKEY A Sickly Example
With Turkey's economy already in intensive care, the last thing Ankara needed was for Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit to go in too. Ecevit's second hospitalization in two weeks left the markets jittery and led Economy Minister Kemal Dervis to call for early elections. Members of the ruling coalition rejected the idea, fearful that a poll would shake political and economic stability, not solidify it, as Dervis has argued.

ISRAEL A Split in the Ranks
Ariel Sharon's government suffered a blow when legislators from two coalition parties — United Torah Judaism and Shas — rebelled, helping to defeat a budget bill that would cut welfare payments to pay for higher defense spending resulting from the conflict with the Palestinians. The Prime Minister fired ministers from the two parties, won a revote and got plaudits for his hard-line position. But with his razor-thin majority in the Knesset, votes will count more than praise.



ZIMBABWE Editor-in-Chief
Days after Robert Mugabe warned that he would not tolerate any protests against his re-election, police charged Geoffrey Nyarota, the editor of the country's only private daily, with publishing falsehoods. In April, the Daily News ran a piece about a woman who was allegedly beheaded by ZANU-PF partisans. The newspaper later apologized for the unverified report. The article's author had already been arrested, as had a reporter for Britain's Guardian, which ran a similar story.

SRI LANKA Face-to-Face
Government negotiators sat down for direct talks with Tamil Tiger rebels for the first time in seven years. The landmark discussions came 90 days after the signing of a historic Norwegian-brokered cease-fire. In belated compliance with the agreement, the Sri Lankan military also began pulling out of houses of worship in the war-torn north. A full round of peace talks is expected to take place next month in Thailand.

NEPAL Crisis of Confidence
A day after Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba asked King Gyanendra to dissolve the lower house of parliament and call a general election two years ahead of schedule, Deuba's own party suspended him. Three of his ministers also quit to protest his plan. The ruling Nepali Congress Party had earlier nixed Deuba's proposal to extend the state of emergency, which was imposed six months ago to aid the ongoing struggle with Maoist guerrillas. Despite the political turmoil, the government pledged to "further intensify military operations against the rebels."

CHINA Stop! Stop!


Roadblocks and barbed-wire fences went up as China tried to deter North Koreans from seeking sanctuary in embassies. Dozens of defectors are rumored to have arrived in Beijing recently, planning to find refuge in diplomatic missions there. Last week, five who sparked a row between China and Japan were allowed to fly to South Korea. Tokyo had accused Beijing of breaking international law after Chinese officers seized the group in Japan's consular compound in Shenyang. China said that diplomats invited the police in.



JAPAN Whale of a Tale
Seas were stormy at the International Whaling Commission's annual meeting. Pro-whaling Iceland walked out after its bid for full membership failed for the second year in a row. A proposal to lift the ban on commercial whaling was also rejected. Pro-whaling states hit back, refusing to renew quotas for bowhead-whale hunts by native groups in Russia and the U.S. Other traditional-hunt quotas were approved, but a Russian delegate called the votes "the equivalent of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks" for the tribes.

COLOMBIA The Fighting Spirit
The wrong kind of campaign dominated the run-up to the presidential election. Battles between the government and left-wing rebels spilled into the city of Medellín. At least eight people died in some of the worst urban fighting in the largely rural 38-year war.

AFGHANISTAN New Mandate and Two New Clashes
The U.N. Security Council extended the mandate of the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul for another six months. Turkey will take over command of the force from Britain. Meanwhile, U.S.-led forces raided what the Pentagon said was a compound west of Kandahar being used by Taliban leaders. British Marines were involved in their first direct military conflict in Afghanistan after being attacked at an observation post near Khost. And on a separate front, U.S. military instructors arrived in the former Soviet republic of Georgia to train the local army.

EUROPE Mending Fences with U.S. Allies
George W. Bush carried his message on terrorism, trade, defense and nuclear weapons to Europe, where he hoped to ease strained ties with allies who have come to view the U.S. as high-handed and unilateralist. Before moving on to Moscow, where he and President Vladimir Putin signed a pact reducing long-range nuclear warheads by two-thirds, Bush gave the first speech in the Reichstag by a U.S. President. Alluding to Hitler, he told German legislators he did not intend to appease terrorist groups or "evil" nations.

ISRAEL Feathers Fly
Hebrew University researchers hatched a controversy, unveiling a crossbred, featherless chicken they say will grow fast, lean and succulent while reducing production and processing costs, as well as pollution. Critics say the move is cruel to the birds, which need their feathers for protection.