WORLD

NATO FINALLY WADES IN

Spurred by pressure from the Clinton Administration and yet another Bosnian Serb outrage--this time a shell that killed 39 Sarajevans and wounded 88 more--NATO decisively entered the Bosnian war. In the largest mission of the alliance's 46-year history, NATO aircraft flew more than 500 sorties over 48 hours, bombing Serb targets in several parts of the country, including Serb headquarters in Pale. The besieged residents of Sarajevo, who have long felt abandoned by the West, shouted with joy from their balconies as they listened to the bombs fall near by. The only NATO casualty: a French Mirage, shot down by Serb gunners; the fate of the two airmen, who were seen ejecting from the jet, is unknown.

BALKAN POLITICS

For the first time since fighting in Yugoslavia began in 1991, a possible path to a peace settlement began to emerge. Their military position weakened by the nato bombing and recent losses to the Croatian army, the Bosnian Serbs made what most observers viewed as a key concession when they agreed to be represented by Serbia in peace negotiations. At week's end the U.S. announced that talks were slated to be held late this week in Geneva between the foreign ministers of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia. Said U.S. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns: "The tide of war has turned against [the Bosnian Serbs]. It's time to face the responsibility of peace."

CLOSE CALL IN GEORGIA

TROUBLE AT WOMEN'S FORUM

Eduard Shevardnadze, the political leader of Georgia, survived an attempted car bombing on his way to sign a new constitution strengthening law and order in the disorderly former Soviet republic. Shown on national television with his face lacerated by glass, She vardnadze said of his would-be assassins, "They want to turn Georgia into a country where the mafia rules. But I won't allow it as long as I'm alive."

The Nongovernmental Organizations Forum on Women opened in China amid charges that visas were being denied to thousands of would-be attendees and that some of those who had managed to show up were being harassed by state security officers. Organizers of the conference, a parallel meeting to the larger United Nations' Fourth World Conference on Women, which opens Monday, suggested they might even cancel the forum if the Chinese didn't stop the intimidation.

POWER MOVES IN RWANDA

Hard-liners in the Rwandan government ousted four Cabinet ministers who had been calling for more severe punishment of soldiers trying to avenge last year's genocide. Hutu Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu also lost his job. New appointments of less outspoken, less experienced politicians were seen to strengthen the hand of the Tutsi-led military. Pierre Rwigema, a moderate Hutu, was sworn in as Prime Minister.

U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS IMPROVE

After four months of turmoil, U.S.-China relations hit a warming trend last week with preliminary agreement on a summit meeting between Chinese President Jiang Zemin and President Clinton in late October. Following the release of American human-rights activist Harry Wu, bilateral meetings in Beijing concluded with China's decision to return its ambassador to Washington soon and to speed up approval of Clinton's choice as the new American ambassador to China, former Tennessee Senator James Sasser.

FRANCE ARRESTS MILITANTS

Five days after an unexploded bomb was found on a Lyons-to-Paris high-speed train line, police arrested 20 Islamic militants for questioning, 13 of whom were later released. During the early-morning raids in Paris and Lyons, police seized weapons, propaganda and a gas canister similar to those used in two other bomb attacks.

PUNJAB LEADER ASSASSINATED

In an attack reminiscent of the bloody separatist insurgency of the 1980s, Sikh rebels assassinated the chief minister of India's Punjab state as he climbed into his car outside government offices in Chandigarh. A powerful plastic explosive detonated in Beant Singh's armor-plated car, killing him and 15 aides. The Sikh militant group Babbar Khalsa International, which is fighting for an independent homeland in Punjab, claimed responsibility for the attack.

SRI LANKAN REBELS SEIZE FERRY

Tamil separatist rebels who hijacked a Sri Lankan ferry off the island nation's northeastern coast sank two naval gunboats drawn to the scene, killing 19 of the vessels' 21 crew members. The hijackers released the ferry's 136 passengers, mostly ethnic Tamils, after three days, but the fate of the eight crew members was not known.

FRANCE STORMS PROTEST SHIPS

As Greenpeace intensified its campaign to halt France's nuclear tests in the South Pacific, French commandos seized two of its vessels close to an atoll where underground trials are to be conducted. The boarding of the two vessels was ordered after several Greenpeace inflatable dinghies were intercepted near the site.

THE U.S.

O.J.: TAPES OF RAGE

Ruling on new evidence in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, Judge Lance Ito said jurors could hear only two relatively tame snippets-out of at least 41 instances-in which ex-Los Angeles Police Department detective Mark Fuhrman used the word nigger on a screenwriter's interview tapes. The decision enraged Simpson's defense lawyers, who had been counting on the tapes to bolster their contention that Fuhrman is a racist who planted the famous bloody glove at Simpson's house in order to frame him.

CLINTON: A WORKING STIFF AGAIN

DR. DEATH ON THE STAND

After two mostly idyllic weeks in the Wyoming wilderness, President Clinton returned to the Oval Office to grapple with Bosnia and a fractious Republican-led Congress just returned from its summer recess. "We've seen breathtaking mountains, lakes, streams and meadows," he rhapsodized in his Saturday radio address. "And all of this belongs to you, the American people, for all time to come." Before heading back to Washington, the President flew to Hawaii for ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of the defeat of Japan.

BUSINESS

A Michigan judge ordered right-to-die advocate Jack Kevorkian to stand trial for assisting in the 1991 suicides of two chronically ill women; however, he cannot be tried for murder, the judge ruled, because it cannot be proved that Kevorkian actually started up the devices that killed the women.

URGE TO MERGE: PART I

Time Warner offered more than $8 billion for Turner Broadcasting in a deal that would place Time Warner back on the throne as the world's largest media company, a title recently threatened by the planned union of Disney and Capital Cities/abc. The famously independent Ted Turner was said to be serious about considering the offer, one provision of which would make him Time Warner's vice chairman.

URGE TO MERGE: PART II

Chemical Bank and Chase Manhattan agreed to join forces in a $10 billion deal that will create America's largest bank, operating under the better-known Chase name but with the leadership of Chemical chief executive Walter Shipley. The merger, which will lead to the elimination of 12,000 jobs, is a cost-cutting measure for both banks.

SCIENCE

A NEW METHOD FOR ABORTION

Two prescription drugs that are already on the market in the U.S. can be given together to allow a woman to end her pregnancy at home, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. While pro-choice groups welcomed the study, anti abortion activist Randal Terry faxed his outrage to the journal's offices." When abortion is made illegal again, you will be hunted down and tried for genocide."

DOUBTS ABOUT HEART DRUG

The U.S. National Institutes of Health issued a warning that a drug commonly prescribed in the U.S. to treat high blood pressure and angina may not be as safe to use as was once thought. Studies have con cluded that the medication, marketed under the brand name Procardia, appears to increase the risk of suffering a fatal heart attack--especially at higher doses. Doctors caution, however, that no one should stop taking the drug without first consulting a physician.

FROM THE WORLD'S HEADLINES

Glee that the Bosnian Serbs were finally being punished was tempered by recognition that bombs alone cannot restore peace in the Balkans

THE ECONOMIST, BRITAIN: "At last the bullies...have been given a bloody nose."

LA JORNADA, MEXICO: "There are various protagonists in the war...but it is frankly irregular and inauspicious that joining them now is the body responsible, according to its statutes, for keeping world peace."

JERUSALEM POST, ISRAEL: "NATO at last pushed the United Nations over the line from peace keeping to peace enforcing."

NEW YORK TIMES, U.S.: "There is a thin but clear line between using military force to support diplomacy...and using force to try to press a military solution where there is not an essential American security interest. Mr. Clinton must be vigilant not to cross it."

THE AUSTRALIAN, AUSTRALIA: "The West [must now] show at least as much resolve on the diplomatic front as it has begun to show on the military front."