World Watch

WAR ON TERROR
Al-Qaeda's Christmas
For each of the last few years, al-Qaeda terrorists have sought to make the holiday season anything but jolly. Based on the reappearance and arrest of operatives involved in past plots, investigators are increasingly concerned that preparations for new year-end attacks may be under way. "Al-Qaeda has threatened and attempted attacks during the holiday season since 1999, and we have to assume it will be the same this year," says a French official. In an effort to disrupt any potential strikes, French authorities last week arrested Slimane Khalfaoui, a 27-year-old French citizen of Algerian origin and a veteran of jihads in Bosnia and Afghanistan. Material evidence ties Khalfaoui to a Frankfurt cell busted in December 2000 as it prepared an attack on Strasbourg Cathedral. Khal-faoui has also been linked to "Millennium Bomber" Ahmed Ressam, an al-Qaeda operative convicted in the U.S. for his foiled plan to strike the Los Angeles airport in December 1999. Evidence and testimony indicate both actions were overseen from London by al-Qaeda's main European terror commander, Abu Doha, an Algerian Islamic extremist arrested in February 2001 trying to flee to Saudi Arabia. French investigators say Khalfaoui is also an associate of Rabah Kadre (a.k.a. Toufik), one of three North Africans arrested last month in London amid media reports that they were planning a gas attack in the Underground. Investigators suggest new attacks may be planned. Last year, "shoe bomber" Richard Reid tried to blow up a Paris-Miami flight. French police last week detained several Pakistanis suspected of having met Reid and given him a place to sleep. However, officials tell Time that none of their palm prints match those found on the plastic explosives packed into Reid's shoe — meaning that those operatives are still at large this holiday season. — By Bruce Crumley/Paris. With reporting by Helen Gibson/London

ISRAEL
Staying Power
Benjamin Netanyahu's dream of an easy return to Israel's Prime Minister's mansion collapsed when incumbent Ariel Sharon thrashed him by 15% in a Likud leadership primary. Netanyahu vowed to work with Sharon in the Jan. 28 general election. Although his chances of retaining the Foreign Ministry after an anticipated Likud victory have dwindled, Bibi can't be written off yet. At 53, he is 20 years younger than Sharon. Much will hinge on how many of Bibi's supporters within Likud win seats in the new legislature. About 45% of the 300,000 party members turned out, despite a Palestinian attack on a polling station in the northern city of Beit She'an, which killed six people and wounded 30. They were, one commentator said, "voting under fire." When the gunmen struck in the early afternoon, barely 30% of the voters had turned out. Worried that a low turnout might help the challenger, Sharon summoned a press conference and urged party members: "Go and vote, go and vote!"

TURKMENISTAN
Death Plot Foiled
An apparent assassination attempt was made on Turkmenistan President Saparmurad Niyazov as he drove in the capital, Ashgabat. According to the President's spokesman, Serdar Durdyev, gunmen opened fire from two minibuses, a sedan and several nearby buildings. The President escaped unhurt, but three of the alleged attackers were left dead and several people were injured. Police arrested 16 suspects, and mass rallies were staged across the country to demand the death penalty, abolished in 1999, for anyone convicted in the assassination attempt. Detainees interrogated by the police are reported to have said the attack was set up by four former government officials, including ex-central bank chairman and former Deputy Prime Minister Khudaiberdy Orazov. All four are émigrés and active members of the anti-Niyazov opposition. Orazov, who is chairman of the Vatan (Motherland) opposition movement, dismisses the alleged attempt as "a filthy provocation" concocted by the regime to smear its opponents. "The years of Niyazov's rule have ruined Turkmenistan," Orazov told TIME. "We don't want him dead. We want him alive to stand trial" for alleged embezzlement and other crimes. Over 100 people were detained and more arrests are expected.

PORTUGAL
School for Scandal
Prime Minister José Manuel Durão Barroso ordered an investigation into claims of a high-level cover-up of 30 years of sex abuse at the Casa Pia, the country's biggest school for deprived children. Families Minister Felix Bagão sacked the school's administration, and its employee Carlos Silvino was arrested and charged with being a pedophile and using children for prostitution. The announcement followed claims by former Families Minister Maria Teresa Costa Machado that Silvino procured children for a ring of top people including diplomats, journalists and society figures. Machado said she drew police attention to the allegations in 1982 but the investigation was dropped in 1987, with evidence and statements from alleged victims destroyed.

BELGIUM
Race Riot
Police charged Dyab Abu Jahjah, the head of an Arab militant group, with conspiracy to cause disorder, criminal damage and wounding a police officer during rioting in Antwerp. Police also held 20 youths of North African descent after two nights of rioting in the country's second city. The violence began after schoolteacher Mohammed Achrak was shot dead, allegedly by his 66-year old neighbor, whom authorities charged with the murder. Prosecutors said he was mentally unstable.

AUSTRIA
Party Pooper
Maverick far-right politician Joerg Haider said that he would remain in politics despite the disastrous performance of his Freedom Party in the country's general elections. Haider threatened to resign as governor of the region of Carinthia — he has often threatened to leave politics — after his party's share of the vote fell from 26.9% to 10.2%.

CYPRUS
Enemies Reunited
The Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash told United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan that he is ready for talks on reunification. The decision followed Greek Cypriot support for Annan's plan calling for Cypriot Greeks and Turks, divided since 1974, to unite under a six-member executive council and rotating presidency.

IRAQ
And What's in Here?
After a gap of four years, Hans Blix and his United Nations inspectors began looking once more for proof of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. Inspectors visited two sites outside Baghdad and were expected to spread out across the country in search of possible mobile laboratories, underground factories and other signs of banned weapons. Though secrecy is essential to the success of this mission, the U.N. unofficially admitted that a lack of funds meant that no part of the inspectors' HQ had been swept for Iraqi bugs. The building is believed to be infested with them.

NIGERIA
Death Sentence
Fashion writer Isioma Daniel reportedly fled to the U.S. after the state of Zamfara issued a fatwa (religious edict) telling Muslims to kill her. Daniel wrote a story in the newspaper ThisDay suggesting that the Prophet Muhammad would have approved of the Miss World contest and might have married one of its contestants. Nigeria's supreme Islamic body said that Muslims should ignore the fatwa and the country's federal government said it will not allow the death sentence to be carried out.

SRI LANKA
Tigers Grow
Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels, warned that he would return to fighting for complete independence if he did not get provincial autonomy in Tamil-dominated areas in the east and the north. Despite the threat of violence, the government's chief negotiator, G.L. Peiris, said that the statement raised hopes of a settlement as peace talks move into their third round in Oslo.

CANADA
Foot in Mouth
Françoise Ducros, a top aide to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, resigned after she was overheard privately telling a reporter that the U.S. president was a "moron." Opposition politicians accused Chrétien of further souring his relations with Bush by being slow to accept the resignation.

MEANWHILE
Arachnophobia
Britain's largest supermarket chain, Tesco, had a hairy problem on its hands after six women found Black Widow spiders in grapes. While the chain does allow predators to protect organic fruit from pests, Tesco said its suppliers don't deliberately use Black Widows, whose venom is 15 times deadlier than a rattlesnake's.