BERLIN
Germany's former Chancellor Helmut Kohl announced he had raised $2.9 million toward a $3.1 fine his CDU party faces over illegal funds he accepted between 1993 and 1998. Kohl personally contributed $100,000 in cash plus $250,000 from a mortgage on his home and presented a list of 30 helpful donors--including actress Uschi Glas, British publisher Lord Weidenfeld and media mogul Leo Kirch. Kohl termed "absurd" the idea that anyone had ever used donations to buy political influence from him. He also denied he wanted to "buy redemption" from the party that stripped him of his honorary chairmanship in January when he refused to name the donors of the original secret sums. The CDU reacted cautiously to Kohl's financial goodwill gesture, indicating that trust could only be restored by "elucidation."
PARIS
An official report confirmed rumors--circulating since January--that the 10,000 tons of fuel washed up on France's Atlantic coast after the tanker Erika broke up on Dec. 12 contained carcinogenic chemicals that present a health risk, particularly if they come into contact with bare skin. As government agencies launched a damage limitation exercise, concern increased over the volunteers who helped clean polluted beaches and stricken seabirds. In the operation's early stages, some volunteers were not given protective gloves and masks. The authorities have not revealed the nature of the health risk, although the ship's manifest specified that the cargo could "cause cancer."
MITROVICA
More than 40 people, including 16 French peacekeepers, were wounded by grenade blasts and gunfire in Kosovo's divided city. Riots started, a French spokesman said, when a Kosovo Albanian opened fire on a Serb man in the Serb-dominated northern part of the town. NATO peacekeepers have been escorting Kosovo Albanians into the northern part of Mitrovica and providing them with 24-hour protection as part of a plan to restore the city's multiethnic identity, but ethnic enclaves on both sides of the Ibar River remain flashpoints for continuing violence.
GROZNY
Ambushes of Russian forces in Chechnya in which more than 100 Russian paratroopers and paramilitary police were killed gave the lie to Kremlin assurances that federal troops had finished off the Chechen resistance after six months of war. Russian forces seized two of the Chechens' strongholds--the villages of Komsomolskoye and Shatoi to the south of the ruined capital Grozny. However, the Chechen fighters' website (www.kavkaz.org) promised a protracted war, and claimed the rebels were not cornered in the mountains, but had returned to Grozny and surrounding villages.
RAMALLAH
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat agreed to resume peace negotiations after a month's gap. Arafat halted official talks after Israel refused to consult with the Palestinians over which territory in the West Bank it would hand back in the next expansion of self-rule. Under the new agreement, negotiations over the final status of the Palestinian territories will resume next week in Washington. The Palestinians favor U.S. involvement, while the Israelis seek to limit mediation. Earlier, the Israeli cabinet unanimously approved a plan to withdraw Israeli forces from south Lebanon by July. Barak, who made withdrawal an election promise, prefers to do so in the context of an agreement with Syria, the de facto ruler in Lebanon. But he has made it clear he intends to pull out, with or without such a deal.
DAMASCUS
Syria's President Hafez Assad appointed provincial governor Mohammed Mustafa Miro as the country's new Prime Minister, the first in 13 years, after the government resigned. It signals a fresh effort to revive the economy as Syria pursues closer relations with the West and a peace treaty with Israel. Bashar Assad, the President's son and heir apparent, who recommended candidates for ministerial posts, told an Arabic newspaper that Miro's task is to modernize the government and tackle official corruption. Syrian officials suggested that the new "government of change" is a sign peace talks with Israel could resume soon after a two-month impasse.
JOHANNESBURG
A Human Rights Commission inquiry into allegations of racism in the South African media dropped its subpoenas of senior journalists and accepted voluntary submissions which included complaints by black editors of white media domination, and criticism of the research analysis on which the commission based its probe. H.R.C. chairman Barney Pityana praised the editors' "constructive approach," which he said would help the inquiry untangle the complexities of the South African media.
HARARE
Britain recalled High Commissioner Peter Longworth from Zimbabwe after airport customs officials opened a sealed diplomatic consignment from London. The Zimbabwe authorities later released the 6.7-ton package that Britain's Foreign Office Minister, Peter Hain, said contained "routine equipment," including computer parts and attachments. Referring to the "unfolding tragedy of Zimbabwe," Hain summoned Zimbabwe's High Commissioner to the Foreign Office, saying it demonstrated "the level of paranoia with which Zimbabwe views the international community." Diplomats in Harare said Longworth would return if Britain received an adequate apology from the government of President Robert Mugabe.
COLOMBO
Last Friday evening's rush hour in Sri Lanka's capital was violently halted when police discovered a group of seven heavily-armed separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which has been fighting a guerrilla war against the government for 17 years, waiting to attack a motorcade of government ministers and senior military officers. In the ensuing firefight, 13 civilians, all the rebels and six policemen were killed and over 40 civilians were injured.
JAKARTA
Haze from forest fires in the Indonesian provinces of West Kalimantan and Riau drifted over parts of Singapore and Malaysia, and Jakarta declared the fires a national disaster. Satellite images revealed as many as 500 hot spots where large timber and plantation companies are accused of illegally using fire for rapid land-clearing. The two neighboring countries recorded higher than average pollution levels, raising fears that Indonesia's approaching dry season could lead to an increase in respiratory ailments and other smog-related health problems.
NANCHANG
Hu Changqing, deputy governor of southern Jiangxi province, was executed for corruption. Hu was accused of accepting $657,000 in bribes, possessing $194,000 worth of property from unidentified sources and handing out $9,500 in bribes to further his career. Hu's execution during the National People's Congress showed that the ruling Communist Party's anti-corruption campaign was serious.
LOS ANGELES
In one of the state's regular ballots, California's voters rejected gay marriage. Proposition 22 amends the state's Family Code to read: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." Though Catholics mainly supported the ban, both churches and parties were split on the issue. Opponents argued it would threaten medical and workplace benefits for same-sex partners.
SANTIAGO
Though General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte received a hero's welcome from the armed forces on his return to Chile, he may not escape legal action. Further charges against him were filed by lawyers for relatives of victims of his regime, bringing the total to over 70. And the public prosecutor's office declared it would be a party in the "Caravan of Death" case against Pinochet and others led by Judge Juan Guzmán, who is in charge of investigations against the General. As a Senator for life, Pinochet is immune from prosecution at home, but this situation is disputed by lawyers. If his immunity is lifted, as Guzmán requested three days after his return, mental ill health is the only bar to prosecution. His regime is blamed for over 3,000 deaths, disappearances and torture cases.
MONTREAL
Canadian police arrested three people for possessing explosives amid allegations they were linked to a terrorist plot to bomb Israel's embassy in Ottawa and its Montreal consulate. One of the three, Egyptian-born Ayman Bondok, also faces a charge of extortion relating to a recent telephone call made to Israel's Montreal consulate demanding that Israel release Lebanese prisoners. Bondok was arrested in Ottawa with Kim St-Louis. Egyptian refugee Tarek Adealy Khafagy, the first arrested, insists he was framed and knows nothing of the explosives found in his Montreal apartment.