Things Stand on Tiptoe in the Empire

Russia and the NATO allies agreed today that the slaughter in Kosovo represents a danger to peace in the Balkans, but failed to agree on what steps to take against defiant Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

The world's leading industrial nations, acting on a U.S. proposal, decided to deny nonhumanitarian loans to India and Pakistan in retaliation for their nuclear tests.

The security forces of Nigeria's latest military boss today forcefully broke up a planned mass protest by the nation's pro-democracy forces and arrested a leading dissident.

Two bombs were discovered and detonated at the airport in Eugene where Air Force One was to land today.

A private funeral will be held today for James Byrd Jr., who was savagely beaten, then shackled by his ankles to the back of the truck and dragged to death for 2 1/2 miles.

The civil rights case against two Riverside County sheriff's deputies who were televised clubbing illegal immigrants will be closed for lack of evidence.

The mayor who has rankled many New Yorkers by cracking down on jaywalking and street vendors apparently has plans for a special hideaway should disaster strike - a $15.1 million bomb shelter.

U.N. chief arms inspector Richard Butler held talks with Iraq on Saturday on steps to speed up final verification that it has scrapped its weapons of mass destruction.

After Morales openly called on coca growers to defend their lands against army and police units, the government blamed him personally for the killing of three police officers and the wounding of 15 others in a string of ambushes staged since April.

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) - A bomb exploded under a train west of the capital, killing 15 people and injuring 33, authorities said today.

Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo called on Friday for an end to violence in Chiapas as tensions mounted in the troubled state after a bloody clash between Zapatistas and police.

President Bill Clinton on Monday sought to mend fences with Mexico over a secret U.S. money-laundering probe on its soil, and urged international unity in the fight against drug trafficking.

President B.J. Habibie said Saturday he is considering releasing jailed East Timor rebel leader Xanana Gusmao, but ruled out a referendum on self-determination for the former Portuguese colony.

Despite a post-Tiananmen Square ban on U.S. companies selling equipment to the Chinese military, intelligence reports show that China's military has been using U.S.-made satellites sold to civilian companies, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

Chinese Defense Minister Chi Haotian told Vietnam's visiting defense chief Wednesday that the ''China threat'' is ''a rumor based on the ulterior motives'' of other nations and encouraged Hanoi to pursue ties, state press reported.

The Dalai Lama said on Friday he hoped a mutually agreeable solution to China's stance on his homeland could be found, which would allow him to return to the country he fled in 1959.

Asia is bracing for a very hard landing now that figures released by Japan have confirmed a recession, but the worst news is no one knows how long the fall will last.

An influential American aid organisation has backed NATO air power to stop ethnic cleansing in Kosovo and claimed that only days remain to avoid a wider Balkan conflagration.

Mississippi teen-ager Luke Woodham has been found guilty of killing his girlfriend and her classmate in a high school shooting spree last year and was sentenced to two life terms.

Troubled by the recent series of fatal school shootings, President Clinton appealed today for less violence in popular entertainment and congressional support for gun safety and juvenile crime initiatives.

Weak Blood Please give me a chance To exist as part of the world Without being the ruler of it. May only ideas which are wise Rule the day, while tearing down Old monuments to ignorance and violence. "You must sign this Or we will bomb you. You must give us all your secrets Or we will bomb you. You must not publicly denounce us Or we will bomb you." "We will 'surgically' kill Your wives and children Dispassionately as if We were playing a game Of teen violence On a video screen." The history of violence Will always show That violence produces Only greater violence In the sacred name Of "retaliation." And the weak Will retaliate against The weaker. The innocent will die Because they are the "weakest." God's cruel rapture Continually reaps The good from our earth While leaving only the tormentors With their lust for blood.