World Watch

SOUTH AFRICA
Development in Deadlock
At least 20,000 people from 193 countries were in Johannesburg for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The summit agreed to restore most of the world's major fisheries to commercial health by 2015 by reducing catches to a level that can be maintained indefinitely. Yet other progress was scant. The U.S. and the E.U. declined to discuss cutting their subsidies to agriculture. And they disagreed over targets for renewable energy, the cleanup of pollutants and the protection of endangered species. The Europeans want renewables to account for 15% of the world's total energy production by 2010; the Americans object to such deadlines, preferring partnerships with industry, environmental groups and local governments. But the U.S. did promise to spend $1 billion to relieve poverty and protect natural resources.

FRANCE
Sanctuary
The Roman Catholic basilica of St. Denis, on the outskirts of Paris, is playing host to a growing number of illegal immigrants demanding work and residency papers. Since the movement began in mid-August, the numbers of sans-papiers (those without papers) occupying the church has grown to around 2,000, raising concern for this popular tourist destination. "I am not sure that we can continue to manage the movement for much longer," said Bernard Berger, the priest of St. Denis. With one eye on his commitment to curb illegal immigration in France, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy reiterated that each case will be dealt with in a humane and realistic way.

YUGOSLAVIA
Kosovo Shoot-Out
In the most serious attack since the U.N. mission arrived in 1999, nato-led peacekeepers and U.N. police came under fire from ethnic Albanian gunmen. Serb farmers, and U.N. police guarding them, were attacked in the village of Gorazdevac, about 90 km west of the provincial capital Pristina. No one was hurt, but the situation was brought under control only after a two-hour gun battle.

ZIMBABWE
Dumbing Down
An independent radio station in the capital Harare was destroyed in an explosion. Staff at the Voice of the People station said they suspected that the building was bombed, though police would not confirm this. The incident, in which no one was hurt, comes after claims by the government of Robert Mugabe that the independent media are conducting an anti-government campaign.

MIDDLE EAST
No Withdrawal
Israel canceled talks with Palestinians aimed at implementing a plan for an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The meeting between Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razak Yahya was abandoned after violence hit the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Defense Ministry said. Hours before the ministers were to meet, Israel sent its forces to foil what it claimed was an attempt to bring arms into Gaza by sea. Four Palestinian civilians were killed.

INDIA
Wanted: U.S. Exec
A court in Bhopal rejected an attempt to reduce charges against a former chairman of Union Carbide arising from a 1984 industrial disaster that has killed 20,000 people. The Indian government wanted the charge of culpable homicide against Warren Anderson, a U.S. citizen, to be reduced to negligence. But a judge argued that Anderson had not yet applied to have his charges reduced.

INDONESIA
Migrant Malaise
Dozens of Indonesians have died while stranded in a refugee camp in Borneo after being ousted from Malaysia for working there illegally. Of the 25 deaths since the end of July in Nunukan, East Kalimantan province, 15 have been children under age five. The Indonesian Red Cross said that the camp, now home to more than 25,000 refugees, is overcrowded and unsanitary, with most deaths caused by diarrhea and respiratory problems. The fatalities came amid growing tension among Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines over Malaysia's new immigration laws, which stipulate that illegal workers face imprisonment and caning.

JAPAN
Germ War
Judges in Tokyo acknowledged for the first time that the Japanese army in the early 1940s waged germ warfare and conducted lethal bio-weapons experiments on people in China. The decision will embarrass the Japanese government, which for many years denied the existence of such experiments. Nonetheless, the Tokyo district court rejected claims for compensation from 180 Chinese plaintiffs who said relatives were killed by Unit 731 of the Japanese army based near Harbin in northern China. The court ruled that all issues of compensation were settled in postwar treaties.

U.S.
War Talk
In a speech in Nashville, Tennessee before the Veterans of Foreign Wars, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney pressed the Bush Administration's case for a war with Iraq. Cheney said that if the U.S. gave Iraq time to develop nuclear weapons and to refine its chemical and biological weapons, "the implications would be enormous." He stressed the U.S. government's desire to act soon: "We will not simply look away, hope for the best and leave the matter for some future administration to resolve." And he played down the importance of U.N. weapons inspections: "A return of inspectors would provide no assurance whatsoever of [Saddam Hussein's] compliance with U.N. resolutions."

SPAIN
Biting Batasuna
Basque nationalists formed blockades around the offices of Batasuna, the political wing of the separatist group eta, as riot police enforced a court order to close down the organization that authorities say funded and assisted terrorists. Police raided offices in five cities in northern Spain's Basque region and fought crowds of up to 300 with batons and rubber bullets. Here Batasuna's Eusebio Lasa resists in his own way. After a lopsided vote in parliament, the cabinet agreed to ask the Supreme Court to ban the party.

GEORGIA
Russia and the Pankisi Gorge
Eduard Shevardnadze used a visit to the lawless Pankisi Gorge to renew his criticism of Russia's alleged Aug. 23 air raid on Georgian territory. It "has broken all limits," Georgia's President said at the funeral of Guram Otiashvili, supposedly killed in the raid on Matani village. Shevardnadze's trip to the Gorge followed his decision to send 1,000 troops to flush out the Chechen separatists Russia says are hiding there. Shevardnadze spurned Russia's suggestion of a joint operation against the Chechens: "We will solve our problems on our own, and the Pankisi Gorge will become one of the country's exemplary and stable regions."

MEANWHILE
The Axman Cometh
Guests at a British banker's 50th birthday party at a chteau in the south of France were surprised when "a very special guest" came on stage to play guitar — Tony Blair, with his shirt raffishly unbuttoned. Blair, who played in a band at Oxford called Ugly Rumours, belted out vintage rock 'n' roll for two hours. Said a guest: "For a Prime Minister, he was a good guitarist."