Britain's European neighbors stepped up frantic efforts to prevent foot-and-mouth disease from crossing the English Channel. As new cases of the contagious animal virus turned up in Northern Ireland and Scotland, Germany ordered the destruction of sheep and goats recently imported from Britain. France sent 50,000 sheep to the slaughter and the European Commission banned U.K. livestock imports until at least March 9. Britain—which had already halted the export of all livestock, milk and meat products—restricted animal movements. The crisis bit deep into the rural economy and reignited national debate about food safety, the future of agriculture and the global marketplace.
Brussels
European Union foreign ministers agreed to open their markets to 48 of the world's poorest nations. Duties and quotas are to be phased out on all but military goods coming from such countries as Haiti, Somalia, Sudan and Cambodia. The move came despite French and Spanish fears that their own products could become uncompetitive if protective measures were lifted too quickly. Pressured by the farm lobby, the E.U. pushed back the dates when the market will be open to the most controversial products. Restrictions on banana imports will not be phased out until 2006, and those on rice and sugar until 2009.
Presevo Valley
NATO ordered a "phased and conditioned" narrowing of the 5-km-wide buffer zone between Serbia and Kosovo in an attempt to flush out Albanian extremists operating there. In a sharp rebuke to Albanian rebels, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said: "This is not the time to start a new conflict in Europe." Details of the narrowing have yet to be worked out, but Serb troops would have to withdraw first from the frontline. Established after the nato bombing of 1999 as a no-go area for Serbian troops and intended to keep nato and Serbian forces apart, the zone has become a haven for rebels attempting to annex their patch of southern Serbia to Kosovo.
Chisinau
Moldova's Communist Party scored a surprise comeback in parliamentary elections. Led by Vladimir Voronin, the Communists won nearly 51% of the vote and will command a majority in the legislature. Voronin lost no time in signaling that he would strengthen ties with Russia. The Communist triumph was a bitter setback for Prime Minister Dumitru Braghis, whose centrist coalition won only 13.5% of the vote.
Beira
Rescue and relief operations were stepped up to help hundreds of thousands of Mozambicans under threat from flood waters sweeping down the Zambezi River following torrential rains over southeastern Africa. At least 60 people have been killed and the raging waters are already affecting tens of thousands in Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique. The floods—which come a year after Mozambique's worst deluges in decades, in which 700 people died—have left more than 80,000 homeless.
Rumbek
In the largest such operation ever, the U.N. Children's Fund airlifted more than 2,800 demobilized child soldiers from the frontlines of the war in southern Sudan. The airlift, conducted over five days, followed a pledge last October by John Garang, leader of the guerrilla Sudan People's Liberation Army, to demobilize all of his young fighters, who ranged in age from eight to 18. unicef director Carol Bellamy called the evacuations "a marker of the growing global recognition that children should never be made instruments of adult conflicts and violence."
Pweto
Rwanda and Uganda began withdrawing some of their troops from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where they back rebel movements inside the country. Rwanda pulled out more than 2,000 troops while Uganda began the withdrawal of 1,500. The pullbacks are the most significant step toward peace since war broke out in the former Zare in 1998. A peace accord signed in 1999 was broken almost immediately.
Ankara
Turkey appointed a World Bank vice president, Kemal Dervis, to the cabinet with responsibilities for overseeing the central bank, state banks and the banking regulatory board. In further steps aimed at getting the country's shattered economy back on track, the government began talks with the International Monetary Fund about billions of dollars in new loans, and moved to take over the small Ulusal Bank, which was in danger of becoming insolvent. A political clash between Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer two weeks ago—over banking reform and corruption—led to a currency free fall and market chaos. Ecevit is now assembling an economic team—including a new central bank governor—in the hope of restoring investor confidence.
Tel Aviv
Israel's deeply divided Labor Party agreed to join Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon's governing coalition. It will hold eight of 30 cabinet posts. The party chose its elder statesman, Shimon Peres, as Foreign Minister and Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a former general who headed the Israeli military government in the West Bank and Gaza in the 1980s, as Defense Minister. Salah Tarif was named a Minister Without Portfolio; he is the first Arab ever appointed to an Israeli cabinet.
Kabul
Ignoring international protests by governments, religious leaders and archaeologists, Taliban forces fanned out across Afghanistan to begin destroying all statues, including ancient works of art that the hard-line government contends violate the tenets of Islam, which forbids the worship of images. Two huge 5th century depictions of Buddha, carved into a mountainside in Bamiyan, west of Kabul, are among the works being destroyed. Iran, ruled by Islamic clergy, and Pakistan, Afghanistan's closest ally, joined the protests.
Beijing
China ratified a U.N. human rights treaty, but indicated it would follow its own laws in regard to the labor rights clause of the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. China recognizes only one state-sanctioned labor organization, bars independent unions and outlaws strikes. Scores of activists have been detained in recent years and worker unrest has grown.
Uwajima
The U.S. Navy's second-ranking officer, Admiral William Fallon, apologized in person to the families of four fisheries students, two teachers and three crew members missing and presumed dead since a surfacing U.S. submarine sank their training vessel off the coast of Hawaii. Earlier, Commander Scott Waddle, who was in command of the U.S.S. Greeneville when the accident occurred on Feb. 9, delivered to the Japanese consulate in Honolulu his own written apologies to the families of the missing, and to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.
Sampit
As a wave of ethnic violence that claimed at least 469 lives in Borneo came to an end, Indonesian Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri comforted victims and indicated that declaration of a civil emergency—a step short of martial law—was not required. After 10 days of attacks on Madurese settlers by Borneo's native Dayaks, security forces brought the conflict to an end. The Dayaks have long sought to drive out the Madurese, contending that they were taking Dayak jobs and land.
Suva
An appeals court in Fiji declared the country's military-backed government illegal and ordered it to give up power. The decision may provoke new ethnic confrontations between indigenous Fijians and the country's large Indian minority. Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase said the government would decide how to implement the decision—which "is not going to happen overnight"—in consultation with traditional tribal chiefs. Qarase's civilian government was installed last July after hard-line nationalists led by George Speight ousted Mahendra Chaudhry, Fiji's first ethnic Indian Prime Minister. The court said President Ratu Josefa Iloilo must step down by March 15, after reconvening the disbanded Parliament.
Quito
Nearly five months after their abduction, seven foreign oil workers were freed in a jungle region of Ecuador. The men—four Americans, a New Zealander, a Chilean and an Argentine, were taken from an oilfield owned by Repsol YPF, a Spanish-Argentine company. Their employers paid a $13 million ransom before they were set free. The abductions have been attributed to either Colombian guerrillas or "common criminals."