World Watch

SOUTH AFRICA On the lam? consider hiding out on the beaches of Cape Town — plenty of other fugitives do. Last week police in the South African metropolis arrested Americans Craig Michael Pritchert, 40, and Nova Ester Guthrie, 30, wanted by the fbi for a series of bank heists staged across the American West in the mid-'90s. U.S. officials say Guthrie and Pritchert spent much of the $500,000 they allegedly had stolen on day trading and traveling the world. The couple moved to Cape Town three years ago, where Guthrie got a job as a nightclub manager. The latter-day Bonnie and Clyde are not alone. In 1999 Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, an al-Qaeda agent wanted for the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Tanzania, was found there flipping burgers at a fast-food joint. And German con man Jurgen Harksen, who had lived in the city since 1993, was extradited last year and convicted of fraud. "Perhaps they think we're at the end of the world," ventures a spokesman for Cape Town's mayor. "Little do they know. Our international links are strong." — By Simon Robinson and Peter Hawthorne

A Fragile Peace
LIBERIA A peace deal signed by government and rebel groups in Liberia lasted just five days as fighting reportedly broke out in Buchanan late last week. The accord, designed to halt almost 15 years of deadly conflict, calls for an interim authority to assume control in October

MEANWHILE IN THE U.K. ... Hello, Goodbye stephen hird/reuters After failing a pop quiz on the Beatles, six Brazilian tourists were told to get back home by immigration officials at London's Heathrow Airport. The tourists said they were headed for a tribute to the Fab Four in Liverpool, but missed simple questions about the band; they were unable to identify Yoko Ono and claimed wrongly that Ringo Starr was dead. So officials refused entry. The tourists blamed their poor showing on fatigue, youth and a preference for Brazilian music

from acting leader Moses Blah, former deputy to now-exiled President Charles Taylor. Businessman Gyude Bryant was appointed chief of the new administration, where he will oversee a cabinet drawn from the outgoing government, rebel groups and opposition parties. Fully elected leaders will take over by January 2006. With armed youths still on the streets, the arrival of an advanced team from Ghana last week did little to temper calls for more peacekeepers. Around 1,000 troops, mostly Nigerians, have been deployed by ECOWAS, the union of West African states. With just 200 U.S. soldiers supporting ECOWAS from a force of 2,300 offshore, additional forces from South Africa, Senegal and Mali — and some $55 million in E.U. aid — are eagerly awaited.

Cleaning Up the Past
ARGENTINA The Senate approved legislation revoking amnesties for military officers accused of torturing and murdering opponents during the country's "Dirty War" two decades ago. Human rights groups claim that about 1,000 officials — implicated in the murder of as many as 30,000 people during the military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983 — could be prosecuted as a result. With President Nestor Kirchner in favor of sweeping away the protection, only the Supreme Court could stand in the way of future convictions.

Safe and Sand
MALI Fourteen hostages were freed after being held for up to six months in the Sahara desert by Muslim extremists. The nine Germans, four Swiss, and one Dutch national were captured in southern Algeria by the radical Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, which is allegedly linked to al-Qaeda. The German government denied claims that it had fronted a ransom of almost €5 million to secure the release of the tourists, and pledge to help track down the group's kidnappers.

Space Tragedy
BRAZIL A rocket exploded on its launchpad at the Alcantara Launch Center, killing 21 people and injuring 20. Those caught in the blast were mostly technicians carrying out final tests just days before the rocket's scheduled liftoff. Triggered by an accidental ignition of one of the rocket's four engines, the catastrophe marks Brazil's third failed attempt since 1997 to become the first Latin American nation to launch satellites into space.

High Seas Chase
THE SOUTHERN OCEAN An Australian customs ship and a South African polar vessel were chasing a Uruguayan fishing boat late last week, aiming to board the trawler suspected of poaching prized Patagonian toothfish before it reached Uruguay. Uruguayan authorities ordered it to keep going, and dodging icebergs, the trawler sailed on.