SERBIAHot Seat
Are Slobodan Milosevic’s days as the Serbian leader almost over? Two weeks ago few people would have said so. But a series of rallies in the past fortnight has given Serbs–and the world–reason to wonder. Crowds came out last Monday in the southern town of Leskovac, considered a key Milosevic stronghold. At least 20,000 people showed up in the town square, chanting anti-Milosevic slogans and demanding the resignation of the region’s political boss. The following day, the council of Novi Sad, Serbia’s second largest city, passed a resolution calling for Milosevic to resign. The protests have buoyed the opposition Alliance for Change. “Things are moving quickly now. This is the beginning of the end,” Milan Protic, a key figure in Alliance for Change, told NEWSWEEK. At the very least, it will be a hot summer for Serbia’s strongman.
SPORTSA Track Milestone
Hicham el-Guerrouj brought some dash back to one of track and field’s old glamour events last week. The Moroccan star believed he could set a new world record in the mile–and at Rome’s Olympic stadium, he did it. El-Guerrouj shaved more than a second off the old mark, set six years ago, winning the mile race at the Golden Gala meet in 3 minutes, 43.13 seconds. El-Guerrouj now holds four world records–the outdoor and indoor standards for both the mile and 1,500 meters. The pace in Rome was so quick that the time of runner-up Noah Ngeny, from Kenya, was the second fastest ever.
HILLARYA Gender Gap?
Hillary Clinton said she was in New York last week to listen, but when she did speak, she spoke to women. Focusing mostly on “soccer mom” issues like education and health care, the First Lady hoped to solidify her support among female voters, who, an early poll shows, prefer her to likely foe Rudy Giuliani in the race for a U.S. Senate seat. In New York’s largely Republican north and west, that gender gap may be Hillary’s best hope in 2000. Leaving Binghamton last week to shouts of “You go, girl!” Hillary hopped into her van and whooped, “I love that!”
ARTIFACTSBy the Dozen
The elephant bird, or Aepyornis maximus, has been extinct for 1,000 years, but its eggs still sell by the dozen. Last week 315 elephant-bird eggs–each about a foot high–were seized by customs agents in Le Havre. The eggs, which are the world’s largest, had been smuggled from southern Madagascar, where they had been pillaged from fossil sites. Most had been reconstructed from fragments. French officials say the eggs would have been sold to collectors at prices ranging from $1,000 to $100,000. The U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization forbids trade in items of cultural importance, and the agency lists elephant-bird eggs in that category. Still, the smuggling continues.
A ROYAL VISITFifteen Minutes With the Queen
What do you serve Queen Elizabeth when she stops by for a visit? Susan McCarron, a widow living in a two-bedroom bungalow in Glasgow, offered her royal visitor Tetley tea (accepted) and chocolate biscuits (declined) served on fine china over a white crocheted tablecloth. The two women chatted for 15 minutes. “It went well,” said Mrs. McCarron.
WINEThe Tsar’s Bubbly
Last July, treasure hunters salvaged 2,500 bottles of 1907 Heidsieck and Co. Monopole champagne from the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The cache–bound for the cellars of Tsar Nicholas II–went down in 1916 on a ship sunk by a German U-boat. Caviar House, a Swiss luxury-food company, bought 2,000 of the bottles, which are now available at $4,000 a pop. Wine experts say the bubbly will likely go flat in minutes after being opened.
EXCLUSIVEReceiving a $19 Million Phone Bill
Governments normally don’t act like deadbeats. But Yasir Arafat’s Palestinian National Authority isn’t a normal government. Last month a U.S. district-court judge ordered the PNA to cough up $18.75 million a U.S. arbitrator had awarded to a telecom firm for breach of contract after a drawn-out legal proceeding. (The firm had won a contract to build a telecommunications network in the West Bank and Gaza, and the contract stipulated that any disputes be submitted to binding arbitration in Washington.) The PNA could have put up a bond and appealed the ruling. Instead, on July 2 the judge cited “evidence that the PNA may attempt to transfer assets from its New York accounts” and ordered the authority not to move funds held by Citibank, Arab Bank and Salomon Smith Barney. Arab sources say Arafat had a top aide begin emptying U.S. accounts in June; the plaintiffs’ law firm, Baer Marks & Upham, went to the judge after getting wind of it. Arafat now hopes for help from Washington, but national-security adviser Sandy Berger’s office was “not aware that [Berger] is involved.” The next step, actual seizure of the money owed, could come this week. An Arafat spokesman declined to comment on this “small matter,” and his U.S. attorneys didn’t return phone calls–or show up in court to fight the new order.
TRANSITIONA Moon Walker
Just before Charles (Pete) Conrad became the third person to step onto the moon in November 1969, he recalled the famous words of Neil Armstrong. Jumping the last three feet, the 5-foot-6 astronaut –shortest in the corps–shouted, “Whoopee! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me!” Commander of the Apollo 12 lunar mission and veteran of four rides into space, Conrad later worked on the Delta Clipper rocket and started three aerospace companies. He never lost his energy or lust for life. He died last Thursday at 69 after crashing his motorcycle about 80 miles from his home in Huntington Beach, California.
