World Watch

INDIA
The Return of Sectarian Violence
Nearly 60 hindus were burned alive Wednesday on a train returning from a disputed holy site at Ayodhya. A stone-throwing crowd, thought to be Muslims, stopped the train outside Godhra and set it alight. Hindus in Ahmedabad set Muslim businesses, shops and houses on fire. Muslims died inside their homes or were attacked in the streets. Violence spread, and despite a heavy troop presence the death toll in Gujarat state neared 350. Hindu activists want to build a temple at Ayodhya on the site of a mosque they destroyed 10 years ago, an action that prompted nationwide rioting in which thousands died. Defying government orders, hundreds of Hindus have gathered to start building on March 15 and are urging others to join them. Much of the ornate temple has been prefabricated.

GREAT BRITAIN
Food for Sex
A survey by the U.N. High Commission for Refugees and British charity Save the Children reported that locally hired officials in camps in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia were demanding sexual favors in return for food and medicines. The preliminary report claimed that the abuse, mainly of girls between the ages of 13 and 18, was “extensive” and that children living in camps without their parents were the most vulnerable. The study, of more than 1,500 adults and children in the area, found that almost 70 aid workers from 40 agencies were involved.

BOSNIA
Hide and Seek
Twice last week NATO troops tried and failed to arrest former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic in a village in the mountainous region of eastern Bosnia. Acting on intelligence that Karadzic was hiding in Celebici, hundreds of troops sealed off the area, cut phone lines and forcibly entered homes, schools and churches. Karadzic is wanted by U.N. war-crimes prosecutors in the Hague on charges of genocide, including the Srebrenica massacre of more than 7,000 Muslims.

BELGIUM
Democracy Rules
Under the chairmanship of former French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, representatives of the 15 current members of the European Union, as well as the 13 states applying to join, met to discuss reforms to the 45-year-old organization. Even as the Convention discussed how to make the E.U. more democratic and efficient, critics denounced the decision to allow a 12-member Presidium, not the full 105-delegate meeting, to decide the agenda.

RUSSIA
They Seek Him Here
Even as Russian Interpol spokesman Igor Tsiryulnikov was announcing that Victor Bout, wanted by Interpol on charges of arming the al-Qaeda network, “for sure is not in Russia,” Bout was giving a live interview to Ekho Moskvi radio, just a short distance from the Kremlin. Bout, who runs his air-cargo empire from the United Arab Emirates, denied allegations of illegal arms trafficking in the interview and confirmed that he “never had any problems traveling across Russia.”

ZIMBABWE
Election Fever
In the run-up to this week’s presidential election, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change was cautioned by police over allegations that he had plotted to murder 78-year-old leader Robert Mugabe, though Mugabe told visiting South African officials that Tsvangirai has not been charged with treason. In a confusing legal skirmish, one court overturned a law that disenfranchised many Zimbabweans, including expatriates, only to have the law reinstated later by another court. Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party said it would accept any outcome of the election.

GEORGIA
Front Line Moves
The war against terrorism moved into the volatile Trans-caucasus region as five U.S. military advisers arrived in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. The five are the advance guard of a unit that could number up to 200 to train Georgian troops to counter possible terrorist activity in the mountainous Pankisi Gorge area. Moscow reacted cautiously, with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov saying the Americans “could further aggravate the situation in the region.”

IRAN
Student Shutdown
Reformists in Tehran suffered another setback last week when police and religious hard-liners closed the offices of the country’s largest student group. The organization, the Office for Fostering Unity, strongly supported moves by President Mohammed Khatami to ease some of Iran’s strict social laws. The police moved in, they claimed, to quell disputes between rival groups of students after right-wingers in the southern city of Shiraz claimed to have won control of the organization’s council.

MADAGASCAR
Bad Loser
Ongoing protests against the results of December’s elections caused chaos in the capital, Antananarivo, and pushed President Didier Ratsiraka to declare martial law. Opposition leader Marc Ravalomanana claimed to have won, even though official polling figures showed he had drawn less than half the vote. Though Ratsiraka, who has been in power for 23 years, continued to occupy the presidential palace, Ravalomanana declared himself President.

MIDDLE EAST
A Princely Plan and Hopes for Peace
E.U. foreign policy chief Javier Solana visited Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt to discuss a plan put forward by Saudi Arabia’s Prince Abdullah that promises recognition of Israel by Arab states in return for a withdrawal from occupied territories. But violence continued, and hours after a Palestinian woman blew herself up at a checkpoint, Israel Defense Forces mounted an assault on West Bank refugee camps for the first time in the 17 months of fighting since the declaration of the Aqsa intifadeh.

PAKISTAN
Possible Handover
As police continued to search for the killers of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, President Pervez Musharraf agreed in principle to hand chief suspect Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh over to the U.S. for trial, though it’s unlikely to happen. The State Department announced a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture and conviction of those responsible for Pearl’s kidnap and murder.

UNITED STATES
Prayer Protest
An improvised turban caused a hunger strike at Camp X-Ray, Cuba among suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban captives. Turbans had been banned, lest they conceal weapons. When one man used a bedsheet to cover his head during prayers, guards ordered it removed. In protest nearly two-thirds of the 300 inmates went on a hunger strike. Most relented when camp commander General Mike Lehnert conceded that they would be allowed turbans and that they would be kept informed about their legal status.

BRAZIL
Killer Epidemic
An outbreak of dengue fever has killed at least 18 people as it laid low one in 10 workers in Rio de Janeiro state. The mosquito-borne disease, which causes such pain that it is also known as breakbone fever, first appeared in January and is spreading at a rate of 1,600 cases a day. Thousands of soldiers have been called in to spray insecticide and clear stagnant water where the mosquitoes breed.