Paris
France will hold a referendum next year to decide whether the nation's presidential term will be shortened from seven years to five. Despite his previous opposition to the move, President Jacques Chirac said polls indicating wide public support for the reform justified a referendum on the issue — which if passed would bring France's presidential tenure into line with its parliamentary terms, as well as those of most executive offices elsewhere in the world.
Warsaw
Poland's troubled coalition government collapsed last week after five cabinet ministers from the liberal Freedom Union Party resigned in protest at what they saw as unwillingness on the part of Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek and his post-Solidarity alliance to push through necessary reforms. Among those who quit were respected Finance Minister Bronislaw Geremek and Freedom Union leader Leszek Balcerowicz. Buzek said he would continue to lead a minority government, vowing to maintain Poland's efforts to achieve E.U. membership in 2003 and push through parliament the 2001 budget, drafted by Balcerowicz. That should prove a difficult task without the support of the Freedom Union, and failure is likely to trigger early elections next year.
Alkhan-Yurt
Two Chechens, a woman and a man, drove a truck loaded with explosives into the central military command post in the village of Alkhan-Yurt. Russian military officials reported that two soldiers died in the bombing. Both suicide bombers were also killed in the blast. Kavkaz.org, the website run by a Chechen rebel spokesman, Movladi Udugov, as usual put the casualty figure much higher, at 27 dead. The website confirmed reports that the female suicide bomber was Khava Barayeva, a 22-year-old cousin of Arbi Barayev, one of the most notorious of the Chechen field commanders. The day after the attack, President Vladimir Putin signed a long-expected decree establishing direct presidential rule in Chechnya.
Athens
In the latest attack by 17 November, Europe's most deadly terrorist group, two gunmen shot and killed Britain's defense attaché to Athens, Brigadier Stephen Saunders, as he was driving to work in early rush-hour traffic along Athens' busiest boulevards. In its proclamation the Marxist-Leninist group, which has claimed the lives of 22 Greek and foreign citizens, said it targeted the 53-year-old British military official because he "actively took part in organizing bombing raids against Yugoslavia" last year. Months before the attack, British intelligence had provided a list of terrorist suspects to Greek police, but no arrests followed. The attack increased international calls for Greece, host nation of the 2004 Olympics, to bolster its fight against terrorism and its tracking of 17 November.
Jerusalem
The U.N. oil-for-food program, in place since 1996, was extended for another six months. The program allows Iraq to sell unlimited quantities of oil under U.N. supervision to buy food, medicine and other goods for its 22 million people who are suffering from sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The first oil under the program was exported in December 1996 and the first shipments of food arrived in March 1997. Since then, more than 10 million tons of foodstuff, worth more than $6.95 billion, and $845 million of medicine and health supplies have been delivered under the program.
Baghdad
The Indonesian city of Banda Aceh was rocked by several small explosions only hours before a landmark cease-fire agreement was due to take effect. More than 6,000 residents in several villages in Pidie Regency, North Aceh, fled from their homes to nearby mosques as the Indonesian army searched for Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels. The Indonesian army insisted that it was only a routine patrol. Separately, GAM's secretary-general, Tengku Don Zulfahri, was gunned down in Malaysia, allegedly for his strong support of the cease-fire agreement. With both parties still busy accusing each other of violence and intimidation, it seems doubtful that the cease-fire agreement can hold. Signed in Geneva on May 19, it was an attempt to put an end to violence that has killed more than 5,000 people in Aceh province in the past 10 years, with more than 300 deaths this year alone.
N'Djamena
The World Bank approved funding for a controversial 1000-km oil pipeline that will run from 300 new oil wells in Chad through Cameroon to the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the money for the $4 billion pipeline will come from a consortium led by U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil. The World Bank will contribute $200 million. The pipeline's backers say it could provide as much as $2 billion for Chad and $500 million for Cameroon over 25 years. But environmental groups say the project, one of the biggest in Africa, threatens rainforests, water systems, wildlife and indigenous tribes such as the Pygmies. Human rights groups have also criticized the project because Chad has one of the worst human rights records in the world.
Lagos
Riots broke out in Nigeria's commercial capital and other cities after the federal government increased the price of fuel by 50%. A nationwide strike by the country's unions, who oppose the price increases, closed schools, hospitals and banks. The government says the price hike, from 20 a liter to 30 a liter, was necessary because it can no longer afford the $2 billion in annual fuel subsidies. It also wants to stop black market exports of fuel to countries where the price is higher. Nigeria is the world's seventh-largest oil producer and Nigerians have come to see very cheap fuel as a right. But years of military misrule and economic mismanagement have left the country with a foreign debt of $30 billion.
Kisangani
Fighting broke out between Rwandan and Ugandan troops in the diamond-rich city of Kisangani, eastern Congo. The clashes began just days after both countries agreed to withdraw from the city following earlier fighting. Artillery duels and heavy machine-gun fire between the two armies killed at least 50 Congolese civilians and injured many more. The city's cathedral was destroyed. Rwanda and Uganda are ostensibly allies in the war against Congolese President Laurent Kabila. But the two fell out last year and have clashed sporadically ever since. Meanwhile, the U.S. aid group International Rescue Committee said that more than 1.7 million people have died in eastern Congo as a result of the 22-month civil war there. The irc estimates at least 200,000 have been killed by violence and the rest died as a result of disease and hunger caused by the war.
Colombo
Twenty-four people, including Industries Development Minister C.V. Gooneratne and his wife Shyami, died when a suicide bomber suspected to be from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Tamil separatist movement, exploded a bomb in the suburbs of the Sri Lankan capital Colombo. The bomb, which wounded 60 others, went off in the midst of a fund raising march to mark the country's first War Heroes Day. More than 60,000 people have been killed in the 17-year-old war for a separate state for the minority Tamils.
Bengkulu
At least 85 people were killed and 600 wounded after an earthquake measuring up to 7.3 on the Richter Scale shook Bengkulu, on Sumatra island. At least 24,000 houses and buildings were ruined. More than 600 aftershocks have been reported, including one measuring 7.2 on the Richter Scale. Aid is being sent from Singapore, Switzerland, Australia, Japan and the U.S. Bengkulu residents, complaining that the local government has been very slow to respond, closed roads to the airport to stop government officials from leaving the scene.
Honiara
Rebels agreed to a cease-fire to allow Commonweath foreign ministers an opportunity to find a solution to the ethnic conflict that erupted on Monday when Malaita rebels took Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa'alu hostage and seized Honiara. Rebels demanded Ulufa'alu's resignation within 48 hours. Ulufa'alu decided to wait to face a vote in Parliament to remove him from offic. The vote will be held on Thursday. This is the worst vilence in the Solomons' history as an independent state. More than 400 Australians, Canadians and New Zealanders were evacuated from Honiara since Thursday. Two British Members of the European Parliament who had gone to act as mediators were shot at during the evacuation.
Santiago
Chile's court of appeals' vote to strip General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte of his judicial immunity sparked small street protests and paved the way to have the former dictator tried for human rights abuses committed during his rule. Pinochet's defense said it would appeal to the Supreme Court. Chilean law requires medical examinations of Pinochet, 84, owing to his age. BostonAn estimated 50,000 gallons of oil spilled into Chelsea Creek near Boston Harbor when a Panamanian oil tanker was struck and ruptured by a tugboat.