World Watch

Capital Of Despair
Hours after the funeral service of a teenage suicide took place in his Belfast church, Father Aidan Troy found himself giving last rites to another boy who hanged himself in the bell tower. The twin suicides are part of a mounting trend: Belfast has gone from being a city with a global reputation for murder to one of the U.K. 's suicide black spots, with as many as a dozen suicides reported there last year.

Despite the benefits of Northern Ireland's 1998 Good Friday accord, the effects of 30 years of conflict are aggravating ordinary social problems; the two recent suicides were linked to intimidation by the paramilitary groups. Says city councilor Pat Convery: "Paramilitary violence, drugs and

Prime Minister at Last SERBIA Breaking the political deadlock following December's parliamentary elections, moderate nationalist Vojislav Kostunica accepted the post of Prime Minister in what will be a minority government. The coalition, including Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia and three smaller parties, will rely on the support of Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia. The deal blocks the hard-line Serbian Radical Party from taking power. ANJA NIEDRINGHAUS/EPA/AFP Vojislav Kostunica

unemployment have pushed too many of us to despair." Last year that despair saw the suicide rate in North and West Belfast hit 19 per 100,000 people, almost 60% higher than the average for the U.K. as a whole.

For the politicians still struggling to make the peace process work, it's a timely reminder that, even if the guns aren't pointed at each other, stable government can still be a matter of life and death — By Chris Thornton

Britons Freed
U.K. Home Secretary Jack Straw announced that five of nine British prisoners held on suspicion of terrorism for two years at the U.S. detention center at Guantánamo Bay are to be released. Straw said it would be up to police and prosecutors to decide whether the men would face any charges in the U.K.

Families Find Fault
AUSTRIA Relatives of the 155 people who died in a ski train fire in 2000 reacted with anger to the acquittal by a Salzburg court of 16 people charged with negligence in relation to the disaster and said they would seek compensation in civil courts. Prosecutors lodged an appeal.

Impeachment Ball Rolls
LITHUANIA Parliament formally launched impeachment proceedings against President Rolandas Paksas, following a report into accusations by the security services that his alleged links with criminal groups make him a threat to national security.

Checking in on Saddam
IRAQ A delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited ousted leader Saddam Hussein in U.S. custody for the first time since his capture in December 2003. An ICRC spokeswoman said that two of the organization's officials checked on Saddam's health condition.

Nuclear Prowess
LIBYA The International Atomic Energy Agency said that Libya had clandestinely acquired a range of nuclear technology and expertise and had even succeeded in producing a small amount of plutonium before Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi announced in December that the country was abandoning its unconventional weapons program.

Road to Peace Mapped
KASHMIR India and Pakistan agreed to a staggered timetable for peace talks to begin after Indian elections due to be held in April, and to include negotiations over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

A Last Attempt?
HAITI President Jean-Bertrand Aristide accepted an international peace plan aimed at ending the violence that has seen armed rebels take control of a large swath of the north of the country. However, neither the political opposition nor the rebels immediately endorsed the proposal, which would see Aristide remaining in office with reduced powers.

MEANWHILE IN THE U.K. ...
Safe as Houses
British drivers nervous about car theft now know where to park their cars. Science magazine Focus has included a parking lot in the northern town of Derby on a list of the world's 10 most secure places, alongside more well-known entries such as Fort Knox and Air Force One. The car park made the cut because, thanks to its sophisticated network of CCTV cameras, panic buttons and patented movement sensors, it has not suffered a single theft or case of vandalism in six years.