World Watch

MIDDLE EAST
Israel Takes the Heat for a Deadly Attack
An israeli attack on Gaza City killed a Hamas leader and 14 other people, including nine children. About 150 people were injured by the one-ton guided bomb, which destroyed two buildings and blew open three others. The attack’s target was Sheik Salah Shehadeh, a founder and leader of the Izzedine al-Qassem Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon hailed the killing of Shehadeh as “one of our major successes.” Yet the attack was condemned around the world, and U.S. President George W. Bush called it “heavy-handed.” Israeli President Moshe Katsav said Israel’s political leadership “must take responsibility” for the “mishap” of civilian deaths. Diplomats noted that Palestinians had been close to a deal to end attacks on Israeli civilians. Now all bets are off.

UNITED KINGDOM
I.R.A. Warned
The British Government warned the Irish Republican Army that its political wing Sinn Féin could be thrown out of power in Northern Ireland if paramilitary violence persists. The warning came as the government pledged a stricter approach to assessing cease-fire breaches. Prime Minister Tony Blair told M.P.s that particular weight would be given to any evidence that paramilitaries are engaged in training and targeting and the acquisition or development of weapons. The announcement came during a week of continuing sectarian violence in which a Roman Catholic man, Gerald Lawlor, 19, was killed by the Ulster Freedom Fighters, a Loyalist terror group.

FRANCE
Spy Chief Sacked
President Jacques Chirac fired the head of France’s foreign intelligence service, the DGSE. The spy agency is accused of launching a probe that resulted in two reports, in 1999 and 2000, into the nature of Chirac’s links with disgraced Japanese banker Shoichi Osada. The reports were undertaken while Chirac’s socialist opponents were in power. Earlier this month, the President sacked the head of France’s domestic intelligence service following leaked allegations that his RPR party benefited from an alleged ransom paid to free French hostages in Lebanon in 1988.

ESTONIA
SS Monument
Authorities in the city of Parnu removed a monument honoring Estonians who fought alongside the Nazis in World War II. The monument showed a man in an Estonian SS uniform and bore a dedication to servicemen in what it called their efforts to liberate the homeland. The removal took place after the city blocked the unveiling of the monument and ordered a change in the inscription.

SPACE
The End Is-Kind of-Nigh
Maybe Astronomers set a new date-and time-for the end of civilization. It will happen at 11:47 on the morning of Feb. 1, 2019. That is, if the earth were to be hit by a newly spotted asteroid called 2002 NT7. The chance of the 2-km-wide rock scoring a bull’s-eye lengthened from 1 in 60,000 to 1 in 75,000 as astronomers continually recalculated its orbit. If the lump of space rock did hit the earth it could wipe out a continent, throw up dustclouds that would block sunlight for months and quickly take humankind to the brink of extinction. So plan accordingly.

RUSSIA
Lost Young Men
The Helsinki Federation, an international human-rights organization, accused the Russian military of a campaign of executions in Chechnya aimed at reducing the breakaway republic’s male population. The Federation alleged that around 50 to 80 Chechen men are abducted and murdered each month during sweep-and-search operations by Russian special forces.

SUDAN
Peace at Last?
Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir and rebel leader John Garang met for the first time, following the signing of a preliminary peace deal by the Sudanese government and the opposition Sudanese Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA). After almost two decades of war, the two sides agreed on what they said were the most contentious issues, self-determination and the separation of religion and the state. But two tricky issues remained outstanding: power-sharing structures and the distribution of oil revenues. Analysts said that Washington’s involvement had been crucial. A coalition of Christian fundamentalists, black legislators and human-rights activists built support in the U.S. Congress for legislation that would have armed the SPLA and punished the oil companies backing the government in Khartoum.

SOMALIA
Militia Battles
At least 28 people were killed and more than 25 injured in fighting between rival militias in Mogadishu’s residential Medina district. Many of those who died were civilians. Thousands fled their homes after indiscriminate gunfire and shelling broke out between the forces of Muse Sudi Yalahow, one of the former capital’s most powerful militia leaders, and his former ally Omar Mohammed Filish. Somalia has had no effective administration since 1991.

Afghanistan
New Army
Afghanistan began building a national army as its first battalion of soldiers graduated from a U.S. special-forces training program. The 350 men and 37 officers who completed training will, Afghan officials hope, begin replacing the country’s war-lord armies. The graduates, mainly Pashtuns, Hazaras and Tajiks, had to come with references stating they had not served with the Taliban. Meanwhile, Afghan President Hamid Karzai asked for American bodyguards to reinforce his security after the murder of Vice President Haji Abdul Qadir earlier this month.

SOUTHERN AFRICA
Adding More to Africa’s Woes: Famine
Two years of drought, flooding, political instability and incompetence have caused food shortages affecting as many as 15 million people in six southern African countries. Worst hit are Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia, where rains fell at the wrong time and floods washed away crops. Internal strife has not helped. Angola is emerging from decades of civil war. Land seizures have disrupted the commercial farms that once made Zimbabwe Africa’s breadbasket. And Malawi sold off its grain reserves last year.
See Also: A Journey Through Angola

U.S.
Funding Cut
The U.S. government said it would not make an expected $34 million contribution to the U.N. Population Fund, contending that the fund aids Chinese government agencies that force women to get abortions. The move was seen as a blow for U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who praised the Fund at his Senate confirmation hearings-and for his State Department, which said a May fact-finding mission found no evidence the fund “knowingly supported or participated in the management of a program of coercive abortion and forced sterilizations.”

PERU
Family Planning
More than 200,000 men and women were pressured into being sterilized by the government of former President Alberto Fujimori, an official Peruvian report revealed. Health Minister Fernando Carbone said the Fujimori government pursued its family planning program through a campaign of lies and threats. Of 510 people giving evidence to a commission of investigation, 10% said they had agreed to be sterilized after promises of food, free operations and medicines. Others said they were threatened with fines and the loss of medical help if they refused to be sterilized.

MEANWHILE
Bella Figura
An alternative beauty contest in Italy chose a new Miss Cicciona (Tubby) to signal resistance against her countrywomen’s worship of svelte bodies. Maria Dore, 36, crushed rivals to win the contest after weighing in at 194 kg (427lbs). Afterward she revealed her weight-gaining secret: pizza with mushrooms.