KASHMIR
No Progress in the India-Pakistan Standoff
Pakistan spurned Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s peace proposal. A Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman described the plan for joint patrols along Kashmir’s disputed Line of Control as unlikely to work because of the state of relations between the two countries, which regularly exchange artillery and machine-gun fire. Pakistan said six civilians died in recent attacks. Earlier Vajpayee refused to meet Pakistan’s President, General Pervez Musharraf, at a conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan, until cross-border terrorism ceases. Police in Indian-administered Kashmir said that they killed at least six members of Lashkar-e-Toiba, a group of Islamist militants, in the frontier district of Poonch. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld went to India and Pakistan to step up diplomatic pressure on the antagonists.
MIDDLE EAST
Car Bomb Reignites West Bank Violence
A suicide bomber drove a van packed with explosives into a bus filled with soldiers in Megiddo junction in northern Israel, killing 17 passengers and injuring 40 others. The death toll is the highest number within Israel since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s recent incursions into the West Bank. Israeli helicopter gunships opened fire with machine guns on the nearby West Bank town of Jenin and tanks rolled into surrounding neighborhoods. Tanks also destroyed much of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s headquarters.
NORTHERN IRELAND
A Sinn Fein Mayor Elected in Belfast
Against Loyalist protests, votes from nonsectarian Alliance Party councilors sealed the election win of Sinn Fein’s Alex Maskey as lord mayor of Belfast — the first time the political wing of the I.R.A. has gained control of the city’s council. The vote came after days of rioting and shootings that injured five people. Both loyalists and republicans blamed each other for the violence. Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble accused the I.R.A. and the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force of breaking their ceasefires and asked the British government to restore order.
SPAIN
Vote Against Terror
By a majority of 304 to 16, deputies of the lower house of the Cortes, the Spanish parliament, voted to allow the Supreme Court to dissolve political parties that are deemed to support or encourage terrorism. The effect of the bill will be to outlaw Batasuna, the political wing of the Basque separatist organization ETA, which has killed over 800 people in a 30-year campaign for an independent homeland. Despite opposition by leaders of the Catholic Church in the Basque region, the Senate is expected to pass the law, without amendments, on June 25.
SYRIA
Dam Busted
Hundreds of homes were washed away when the Zeyzoun dam collapsed, releasing around 71 million cu m of water, inundating villages in the al-Ghab area 350 km north of Damascus. At least 20 people died and more than 8,000 hectares of crops and power lines were swept away by flood water and mud. Many villagers fled to higher ground after they saw cracks developing in the six-year-old dam, which may have been overfilled by 5 million cu m because of exceptionally heavy winter rains.
BURUNDI
Rebels Fight On
Rebels from the Hutu-dominated National Liberation Forces (NLF) attacked a military position north of Bujumbura, forcing thousands of people living in the northern neighborhoods of the capital to flee their homes as fighting neared and shells slammed into the center of the city. A transitional government, accepted by 17 political parties, was inaugurated last November but Hutu rebels refused to accept it. Recent talks between government and nlf rebels have stalled because of mistrust and disagreements.
MADAGASCAR
Presidential Battle
Forces supporting newly elected President Marc Ravalomanana fought off an attack by troops loyal to the defeated Didier Ratsiraka on an airstrip in the northeastern town of Sambava. Ratsiraka has refused to accept his electoral defeat and encouraged supporters to blockade the capital, Antananarivo. At least 40 people have died in fighting since the election in December last year, which Ravalomanana won after a recount of votes in April.
THAILAND
School Bus Attack
Clashes between Burmese troops and rebels spilled over into Thailand and forced the closure of the border between the two countries. Tensions increased after an armed gang attacked a school bus in Ratchaburi province, 20 km from the border, killing three children and wounding another 12. Some 300 Thai troops and police were sent to the border area to search for the gunmen, believed to belong to a Karen insurgent group.
PHILIPPINES
Rescue Tragedy
An attempt by Philippine troops in Zamboanga del Norte to rescue two American hostages held for more than a year by Abu Sayyaf rebels went disastrously wrong, ending in the deaths of missionary Martin Burnham and a Filipina nurse, Adeborah Yap, and the wounding of Burnham’s wife Gracia. Last month the rebels, who had beheaded another American hostage a year ago, had warned that they would kill the hostages if troops came too close.
AUSTRALIA
No to Kyoto
A day after Japan became the 73rd signatory to the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, Prime Minister John Howard announced that Australia would not sign the treaty. “For us to ratify the protocol would cost us jobs and damage our industry,” he told Parliament in Canberra. The protocol requires greenhouse gas emissions to be cut back to 1990 levels. Howard says Australia will ratify the agreement if the U.S., which produces 36% of the world’s carbon emissions, also signs.
GALAPAGOS ISLANDS
Enduring Damage
After the oil tanker Jessica ran aground on San Cristobal in January 2001, scientists thought that the Galapagos Islands’ wildlife had had a lucky escape. But researchers now believe that marine iguanas, which are unique to the islands, are particularly vulnerable to pollution and that 62% of the population on the island of Santa Fe died after 644 cu m of fuel spilled from the disabled ship into the sea.
U.S.
Traffic Highlighted
A survey of 89 countries by the U.S. government showed that at least 700,000 and perhaps as many as 4 million people are abused in a “modern form of slavery.” Secretary of State Colin Powell announced that 19 countries — including Afghanistan, Greece, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — had the worst records of failure to act against human trafficking. U.S. legislation, passed in 2000, calls for economic sanctions against countries that do not take action to halt trafficking or help its victims.
MEXICO
Logging Massacre
A land dispute that has festered since 1935 claimed 26 victims in Oaxaca state. An ambush of sawmilll workers left 87 children fatherless in the mountain village of Xochiltepec, which is in dispute with a neighboring town over clearance and logging rights to 8,000 hectares of land. The state government lists some 360 territorial disputes in Oaxaca, with the Xochiltepec conflict one of the 30 most combustible.
MEANWHILE..
Kangaroo Cocktail
Scientists in Australia believe kangaroos could help stop global warming. Methane emitted by sheep and cattle accounts for about 15% of Australia’s greenhouse gas. But kangaroos on a similar diet produce no methane at all, thanks to a cocktail of mysterious stomach bacteria.
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