World Notes Pakistan Irreconcilable Differences; World Notes Israel an Eye for an Eye

Pakistani President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq and Benazir Bhutto gave all appearances of having made a deal. Bhutto, the leader of the outlawed Pakistan People's Party, the most popular political movement in the country, was allowed to return to Pakistan from Britain last month for the burial of her brother Shahnawaz, who died under mysterious circumstances in the south of France last July. Her part of the deal was not to engage in antigovernment political activities during her visit. Last week, however, the bargain was called off and the charismatic Bhutto was placed under house arrest at the family home in Karachi.

The President's move was preceded by a flurry of political activity by Bhutto, the daughter of the former Pakistani leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was hanged by the Zia government in 1979. She received several opposition leaders at her Karachi home and called for a return to democracy. Then she insisted on visiting the families of two party activists hanged earlier this year after being convicted of murdering a pro-Zia politician. Before Bhutto could meet with them, the President decided he had had enough and ordered the police to turn her home into a prison.

When Israel withdrew the bulk of its forces from Lebanon last June, it warned that attacks on northern Israel would provoke retaliation. Last week, after rocket assaults on northern settlements, the death of two Israeli soldiers in a south Lebanon ambush and a string of suicide car-bomb attacks, the country made good its vow. Backed by helicopter gunships and heavy armor, Israeli troops stormed into three Lebanese Shi'ite communities near Israel's border. The primary target was Qabrikha, from where, Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin said, Israel has been attacked by Katyusha rockets. The Israelis ordered residents out of their homes, then conducted house-to-house searches for weapons.

At the same time that its forces were detaining about 30 suspects, Israel announced the release of an additional 113 who were being held at the Atlit prison near Haifa. Freedom for the Atlit prisoners was one of the principal demands made by the hijackers of Trans World Airlines Flight 847 last June. An estimated 150 Lebanese remain at Atlit.

Elsewhere, the value of marriage may be incalculable, but in the United Arab Emirates, men feel that it is not worth $50,000. Women often demand sums of that size in the Emirates, where dowries are supplied by grooms rather than by brides. Young women in this Persian Gulf federation of sheikdoms view the dowry as an insurance policy. Because Islamic law allows men to take up to four wives and obtain divorces easily, brides believe they risk losing their husbands' affection.

But as the price of an Emirates bride has increased, the sheikdoms' men have turned to foreign brides, particularly from India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines, who typically settle for dowries of only about $1,000. Such marriages are now thought to account for as many as half of all those in the sheikdoms, raising government fears that the region's Arab identity will be diluted. To lure men away from the non-Arab brides, the government is / considering a national fund to subsidize the dowries of grooms who marry native brides. Some women in the Emirates have another solution: give wives more rights, they say, and the bride price will drop.

WORLD NOTES

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

What Is a Wife Worth?