World Watch

INDIA
Back from the Brink in the Kashmir Conflict
India lifted its five-month ban on pakistani commercial aircraft flying through its airspace and ordered its five battleships back to port from the Arabian Sea. In a further effort to reduce tensions with its nuclear armed neighbor, India resumed diplomatic relations by selecting its new High Commissioner to Pakistan. While these moves coincided with the arrival in the region of U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Indian officials said they came in response to indications that terrorist infiltration into Indian-administered Kashmir had slowed or stopped in the past two weeks. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s military ruler, welcomed the announcement of the measures but said “as long as [Indian] forces remain deployed the danger is not over.” Pakistan said it wanted talks over the status of Kashmir — a move India said would be premature.

SPAIN
ETA Arrest
A suspected Basque terrorist, Aitzol Maurtua, was detained by police in the town of Algemesi, near Valencia, after a neighbor noticed that his Renault 19 had the license plate of a far older car. The plate had been taken from a scrapped Seat 127 and may have been intended for use in a terror attack. A second suspect, believed to be Iñigo Vallejo, escaped. The arrest of Maurtua led police to three ETA hideouts in an isolated mountainous area where the terrorists had hidden 131 kg of explosives along with detonators and fuses.

ITALY
Mugabe’s Loophole Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe took advantage of a loophole in international law to travel to Rome despite an E.U. travel ban imposed in February because of the violence and fraud surrounding his re-election. But the Italian government had to allow him access to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s World Food Summit because it was a U.N. event. Mugabe used the summit to praise his “fast-track acquisition and resettlement program” — his policy of expropriating white-owned farms. In Zimbabwe the opposition Movement for Democratic Change accused Mugabe of being a “world-class hypocrite.” Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi blocked an attempt by Mugabe to hold talks with Italian leaders.

NIGERIA
Hot Sahel
More than 60 people died as a result of a heat wave in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, and the actual death toll could be even higher because many families in remote areas fail to register their dead before burying them within the 24-hour period customary for Muslims. Seasonal rains have failed for two months, and temperatures above 50 have been recorded in the past few weeks. Reservoirs are empty and the earth is parched. Rain in the Sahel, which stretches across Africa from Senegal to the Red Sea, has declined between 20% and 50%, leading to severe droughts. Now scientists in Australia and Canada say that pollution from industrial economies may have caused these droughts — research suggests that sulphur dioxide from factories in Europe and the U.S. has cooled the Northern Hemisphere, driving the tropical rain belt south away from the Sahel.

ISRAEL
Powell on Palestine
In an interview with al-Hayat, a London-based Arabic-language newspaper, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell suggested that, as part of efforts to create a full Palestinian state, it might be necessary to have a provisional state as an interim step. He also made it clear that the U.S. would continue working with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer failed to endorse Powell’s remarks, saying that he was not expressing his own views but those of Arab leaders.

IRAN
Voice of David
Iranian state radio launched a daily broadcast in Hebrew aimed at countering what Iran sees as “the monopoly of one-sided news” coverage in the region. The bulletin — called the Voice of David — is aimed at Middle Eastern Jews, mostly in Israel, and will be broadcast nightly during the half hour before midnight. The broadcasts will not be heard by the largest Jewish community in the Middle East outside Israel — the 25,000 Jews who live in Iran itself. The move is partly a response to Israel radio’s broadcasts in Farsi.

CHINA
Freak Floods
At least 205 people died and hundreds are missing in floods that struck northern China. In the worst-affected area, a normally arid region south of the city of Xian, nearly a meter of rain fell in just two days. Torrential rains triggered landslides and caused rivers to overflow their banks. More than 3.6 million hectares of farmland have been inundated in the flooding.

NEW ZEALAND
Snap Election
Prime Minister Helen Clark called an election for 27 July, two months before the end of her government’s three-year term. Despite the Labour Party’s long lead in opinion polls Clark said that the recent breakup of Labour’s coalition partner, the center-left Alliance party, had had an impact on the day-to-day running of parliament. She blamed opposition parties for time wasting, which she said was delaying the passage of important legislation. Bill English, leader of the National Party, disputed the charge, and accused Clark of manipulating the people of New Zealand.

The U.S.
Dirty Bomber
The White House backed off from its initial alarm over an alleged plot to explode a “dirty bomb,” a conventional explosive laced with a radioactive element. The U.S. government said that the threat of such an attack on an American city was minimal. The clarification followed U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft’s announcement of the arrest in May of José Padilla, an American citizen who converted to Islam and calls himself Abdullah al-Muhajir, and his incarceration in military custody as an “enemy combatant.”

55 CANCRI
Homely Star
Planet hunters at the University of California have found the first solar system that resembles our own. The star, 55 Cancri in the constellation of Cancer, is circled by at least two planets, one similar in size and distance from its star to our own Jupiter.

AFGHANISTAN
Karzai Keeps Power in A Kabul Compromise
Hamid Karzai won a second term as Afghanistan’s leader by an overwhelming majority at a U.N.-organized loya jirga, or grand tribal council, in Kabul. Zahir Shah, the country’s 87-year-old former King, who was talked of as a presidential candidate, urged the 2,000 delegates (including 200 women) to choose U.S.-backed Karzai to lead the country until elections in 2004. In return for standing aside, the King received the ceremonial role of “Father of the Afghan Nation.” The only other serious challenger, former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, also pulled out of the race.

PAKISTAN
Consulate Car Bomb
A car bomb exploded outside the U.S. consulate in the southern city of Karachi, injuring more than 40 people and killing at least 11, including the bomber. The blast left a crater about 1.5-m deep and a 3-m-wide hole in the consulate’s perimeter wall. The victims included security guards and drivers on the road. One U.S. Marine and five Pakistani consulate employees were among the injured. The U.S. immediately closed diplomatic missions in Pakistan as well as the American Center in Islamabad.

MEANWHILE
Camels to Arabia
In a new twist on coals to Newcastle, Australia has exported more than 100 camels to Saudi Arabia — for their meat. Introduced in the 19th century, 500,000 camels now roam wild in Australia while in Saudi Arabia, the breeding of beasts for racing has left fewer available for the table.