Algeria

Government forces reportedly killed 77 rebels in a four-day crackdown on suspected Islamic insurgents. Travelers said 11 civilians were also killed during the weekend. The victims had been tortured and their throats cut. At least 75,000 people have died in the fighting since 1992.

Earthquakes

» A series of earthquakes have been rumbling south of Tokyo, Japan, since mid-April, registering in the lower 5-magnitude range. A strong 7.5 quake struck a remote region of the Philippine Sea on May 3, shaking the ground from Taiwan to Okinawa.

» A 6.9 temblor struck a remote, mountainous region of northeastern Afghanistan on May 30, killing over 3,000 people.

Fire

Since January, firefighters have been battling Mexico's deadliest rash of forest fires in 50 years. This year, 49 people have died and 9,000 separate fires have scorched 550,000 acres. Clouds of smoke have made Mexico City's notorious smog worse than normal, and the haze from the fires affected skies hundreds of miles away. Officials expect massive erosion in the burned areas when the next heavy rains occur.

Middle East

Israel's intelligence service has reported to the security cabinet that Egypt constitutes a major military threat to Israel "if it retreats from peace or has a change of regime." Egypt has been accumulating large quantities of modern weapons, indicating that it is planning for war with Israel. Most of Egypt's new weapons would not be necessary if it were to go to war with its neighbors, Sudan and Libya.

Technology

A hot trend in agriculture is using genetics to develop plant varieties that resist diseases or pests or include traits that consumers demand, like low-fat oils. One new technique involves inserting an array of new genes into a cotton plant that, when sprayed with a chemical compound, blocks the production of fertile seeds. This will protect profits but end the age-old practice of saving part of a crop's seeds for the next year.

Violent Racism

» German federal officials confirmed on May 6 that right-wing violence is on the rise. Half of the attacks occurred in depressed eastern Germany and involved young men beating up foreigners, whom these skin-heads and Neo-Nazis accuse of stealing jobs from Germans or of milking the welfare state. In 1997, 11,700 right-wing offenses were recorded.

» In honor of Adolf Hitler's birthday, Russian Neo-Nazi groups threatened to kill an Asian each day in Moscow, "protecting Russian culture from contamination." So far, skin-heads have attacked an Asian woman, a Nigerian, an Indian, a Kenyan and a black American. Since communism fell, Russian racism has been steadily increasing.

Weather

» Torrents of mud and debris roared through Sarno, Italy, on May 6, killing at least 119 and burying countless others under hardened mud. At least 2,100 people were reported homeless. One survivor said, "It's the fault of all of us because we destroyed nature. We burned forests to build houses."

» In late April, two avalanches struck Manabi Province, Ecuador, within two days of each other. One killed 8 people—seven of them children—and the other took 10 lives. Since November, at least 240 people have been killed in Ecuador alone from flooding and mudslides attributed to El Niño.