MULTINATIONAL EFFORT: Washington and London believe Afghanistan is a success story, but others don't
Afghanistan was the first battleground in America's "war on terror." Now it has become the unlikely proving ground for a different struggle: nation building.

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SOUTHERN VISITOR: The vessel was first spotted in waters near Sakishima islands, which are located between Taiwan and Okinawa
Japan's navy went on alert yesterday when an unidentified submarine made a brief incursion into waters near Okinawa, and Tokyo was trying to determine where the vessel came from.

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A Thai court has released on bail a policeman accused of gunning down a young British couple two months ago, sparking fears that he might try to intimidate witnesses, a public prosecutor said yesterday.

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NOT AGAIN!: After more than a decade of decastating civil wars, West Africa appeared to be getting back to normal, then hitherto stable Ivory Coast plunged into violence
On a continent that absorbs 75 percent of the world's UN peacekeeping forces and budgets and 75 percent of the UN Security Council's time, Ivory Coast's violent downward spiral threatens hard-won gains achieved after West Africa's devastating civil wars of the 1990s.

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RETALIATION: The slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh has plunged the country into a cycle of violence between Muslims and Christians
Dutch Muslims and Christians called for an end to a cycle of retaliatory vandalism of mosques and churches as slain filmmaker Theo van Gogh was cremated, a week after his killing by a suspected Islamic radical.

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FIGHTING THE FLAB: The new drug, which helps people lose weight, does so by reducing the amount of pleasure the brain registers from eating
The biggest test yet of an experimental pill that promises to help people lose weight and stop smoking found that it helped people not only lose weight but also keep it off for two years -- longer than any other diet drug. Cholesterol and other health measures improved, too.

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Luciano Benetton, the Italian textile magnate, has agreed to give up 2,500 hectares of land in Argentina to end an indigenous land rights controversy which risked wrecking his company's caring image.

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AP, Abidjan, Ivory Coast and Cape Town, South Africa and

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TWO BATTLES: Although they are fighting together, different stories are emerging from Iraqi and US military leaders over the situation in the city
Fighting is fierce, or maybe it's not, in "Operation Phantom Fury," or perhaps "Operation Al-Fajr," which was launched this week to wrest control of Fallujah from Iraqi insurgents -- or maybe foreign terrorists.

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Iraqis still living in the city of Fallujah said Tuesday that conditions were deteriorating, with no electricity, food shortages and limited medical aid for the wounded.

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ARAFAT'S PROMISE: Refugees worry that the Palestinian president's successor will strike a deal with Israel preventing them from returning to properties lost in 1948
Yasser Arafat promised Palestinians he would return them to the homes they lost when Israel was founded in 1948. He never delivered, and now many refugees wonder whether anyone can.

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British Black Watch commanders are reviewing their tactics in the light of attacks on their soldiers that have left four dead and two seriously injured in three weeks.

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■ Hong Kong
`Longhair' conviction upheld
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