Arafat Death Watch

Has Palestinian president Yasser Arafat already died? Once again, the world is riveted by this question on Tuesday afternoon. The news wire Reuters, citing an anonymous source, reported earlier in the day that he had passed away. Shortly after, it began publishing denials. A Palestinian source was also quoted as saying that he is still alive, but that "we are counting the hours." The conflicting reports come as Palestinian leadership gathers in Paris waiting for the inevitable, with a number of them, including PLO second-in-command Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia having visited Arafat's bedside. Speculation is swirling as to who might succeed the Palestinian icon. The Palestinian foreign minister, Nabil Shaath, however, said such discussion wasn't necessary and that Arafat's brain, heart and lungs were still functioning. The renewed speculation about Arafat's health follows accusations that Arafat's wife was trying to control access to his hospital room. On Monday, Arafat's wife Suha accused Abbas and Qureia of conspiring to "bury" her husband "alive" by trying to replace him before he is actually dead. (5:25 p.m. CET)

Toilet Duty

Germany's unemployed may have a new calling: toilet watching. Not cleaning, mind you. Just watching -- and protecting the porcelain pots and stalls in schools from the hands and spray paint of teenage graffiti artists, who it seems are costing the nation loads in bathroom refurbishing. The proposal to have the unemployed guard toilets comes as part of a large-ranging scheme to solve the country's massive unemployment woes (4.2 million million people at last count) and to save schools money. It was initiated by Christian Democratic Union leader Antje Bothe and will be tried out in the land of Volkswagen -- the city of Wolfsburg, near Hanover. In addition to their regular benefits, the toilet watchers will be paid one euro and will be part of the so-called "one euro" initiative, initiated by the Social Democratic government to get more people working. The first toilet watchers will begin in January and if they succeed, the program will be tried in other cities. (4:52 p.m. CET)

Buttiglione: I'm Your Catholic Witch To Burn

Rocco Buttiglione: "I will lead the battle for the freedom of Christians.>Rocco Buttiglione, who was forced to back down as Italy's candidate to the European Commission last month after the European Parliament rejected him over what were perceived as anti-gay and anti-single mother remarks, says what happened was a "gift from God." A staunch Catholic and friend of the Pope, Buttiglione spoke Saturday at a debate in Milan held under the title "The Trial of the Catholic Witch," and said he would push for the formation of a "theo-con" (theological conservative) movement in Europe. "They have said that, for defending my religious beliefs, I cannot be a European Commissioner," he said. "If they want a Catholic witch to burn, then here I am." Buttiglione is hoping to spur a movement in Europe modelled partially on the success of recently re-elected US President George W. Bush, who believes religious beliefs should help shape public policy. "You can't have a political community without a conscience and without values," he said. And if the current atmosphere of political correctness in Europe isn't stopped, he warned, anti-religious discrimination may soon grow: "Because you are a Catholic you cannot be a university professor or a school teacher." (2:58 p.m. CET)

Iraq Update:

American troops closed in on Falluja's city center on Tuesday as part of a major military offensive to eliminate a rebel stronghold and regain control of the city. The gains followed a night of non-stop bombing and raids in the city's outskirts. More than 3,000 rebels are holed up in the city, where they have been putting up remarkably strong resistance against the US military for months. Their defeat is considered crucial to establishing security and order in Iraq. George Casey, the commander of the US troops in Iraq, said the invasion is going according to plan. Between 10,000-15,000 US soldiers are participating in the operation, with support from several thousand soldiers in the Iraqi army. However, it is still uncertain how many of the city's 200,000 to 300,000 residents remain in the city. The US says civilian casualties have been low. Nevertheless, a number of homes as well as a small medical clinic have been damaged or destroyed in fighting. So far, three US soldiers have died in the fighting. A soldier from Britain's Black Watch battalion also died after the vehicle he was traveling in around Falluja struck a roadside bomb. (2:30 p.m. CET)

Bosnian Serbs: Srebrenica Was "Genocide"

A report by Bosnian Serb commission released on Monday contains the first ever admission that the massacre at Srebrenica in 1995, in which 7,800 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered, had been planned by Bosnian Serb troops. For the first time ever, the Bosnian Serbs also admit that the atrocities, the worst seen in Europe since World War II, actually constituted "genocide." Bernard Fassier, a deputy international envoy who is part of the Office of the High Representative, the civilian peace administrator in Bosnia Herzegovina, said: "The report itself admits and provides details of the plan and deliberate liquidation of thousands of Muslims by the Bosnian Serb forces." Monday's revelations followed a long series of denials by Bosnian Serbs that ended in June, when officials first acknowledged their own forces had carried out the killings. Fassier said it must be followed up with "thorough investigations and prosecutions of those responsible." Of those killed, so far only 1,200 victims have been identified, and the two primary suspects are still at large: former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic and military chief Ratko Mladic. (1:45 p.m. CET)

Powell: Bush Plans "Aggressive" Foreign Policy

In a series of interviews this week, US President George W. Bush's top diplomats have taken a stab at demystifying what his foreign policy vision will look like during a second presidency. In an interview with the Financial Times, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Bush had been given a mandate by the American people to pursue an "aggressive" foreign policy. In the interview, Powell speaks of a "continuation" of US policy. "The president isn't going to trim his sails or pull back," he told the paper, adding that US policy would be "multilateral in nature," but that the US would also go it alone if necessary. So when Powell says aggressive, what does he mean? You don't really need to be a tea-leaf reader to figure that one out. In an interview published in DER SPIEGEL, former Bush speechwriter David Frum, who dubbed the term "axis of evil," elaborated, saying: "Bush will make the war against the terrorism the central point of his second term. That doesn't mean he will lead more preventative wars ... there may never be another one. If there is, Americans will think his firm act is correct." On Tuesday, Powell also addressed a bigger fear in the minds of many Germans and Europeans: Will the US topple the mullahs to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons? "Regime change," he said, is not part of the US' policy towards Iran.

In a second interview published in the Financial Times Deutschland, Powell said Bush wanted to bury differences over the Iraq war in order to cooperate better with Europe. "Europe will see that the US is engaged, it will listen, consult and cooperate," he said. "The president has made clear that he wants to work with the international community to the greatest degree possible." (1:02 p.m.)

Conflict of Civilizations Continues in Holland

What's happening in The Netherlands? One week ago, Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was shot and stabbed to death by a man investigators believe to be an Islamic extremist. Van Gogh had made a film critical of the way Islamic women are treated, and the killing has sparked an extraordinarily charged debate among Holland's 16 million people, 1 million of whom are Muslim. Though the two societies have co-existed more or less peacefully for years, political analysts have long warned that Holland's liberal tradition could be challenged by problems with the integration of immigrants. In a controversial editorial published in 2000 by the newspaper NRC Handelsblad, Dutch journalist Paul Scheffer warned ominously that Holland's famed tradition of tolerance could buckle. "Someday this tolerance will crack under constant pressure," he wrote. "The multicultural drama that will then play out here could turn into the greatest threat to peace in our society."

Given the events of the past week, that hypothesis no longer seems quite as far-fetched. When police discovered van Gogh's body, they found a note stabbed onto it with a knife in which his apparent killer, the Moroccan "Mohammed B.", threatened to kill Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born member of Dutch parliament who also penned the script for van Gogh's film. Investigators say the letter bears all the traits of a declaration of holy war. But there is also apparent unrest in the country's non-Muslim society. On Monday, unknown assailants bombed a Muslim school in the city of Eindhoven, and apparent attacks against mosques have been perpetrated in Rotterdam and Utrecht. "A hate-filled killing, fires in mosques, bombs in Quran schools: The Netherlands has become the stage of ethnic violence," German writer Frank Nienhuysen wrote in Tuesday's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. "The once idyllic coastal country is mutating into a land where the people's fear of unleashed radicals is slowly gaining the upper hand." "Now the North Sea is threatened with jihad," he warns. (12 p.m. CET)

Mrs. Arafat on the Defense