Baltic States

Despite the vastness of the Soviet Union, the question remains whether it is big enough to accommodate both Mikhail S. Gorbachev and his arch-rival, Boris N. Yeltsin. No reconciliation seems possible: Mr. Yeltsin is campaigning against the Communist Party, the military and the KGB, which are the cornerstones of Mr. Gorbachev's rapidly waning political power base.Mr. Yeltsin scored an important victory in persuading the Russian Congress of People's Deputies to grant him sweeping decree powers to deal with the republic's economic and political paralysis.

MOSCOW -- President Mircea Snegur of Moldova imposed a state of emergency on the former Soviet republic yesterday, ordering his forces to take the offensive against Russian and Ukrainian separatists but acknowledging that it may bring civil war to his country.Mr. Snegur, declaring that all efforts at a political settlement had failed in the escalating, two-year conflict, told his nation, "As God as my witness, I never wanted bloodshed, (but) the hour has come when we can no longer delay putting our own house in order in the way that we consider proper."

LAST YEAR, George W. Bush impressed political observers here by surpassing their cartoonish low expectations of him. Now he has done it in Europe, too. That appears to have been the chief goal of his five-day, six-stop trip. If so, it was a success. No longer will respectable British newspapers bill him as a "cowboy in Yurp." He impressed all as a responsible and informed leader of the most powerful nation on earth. That said, Americans need time to compare the coziness with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to the chill with fellow Western conservatives.

PARIS -- The European Parliament suspended nearly $1.5 billion in food and technical aid to the Soviet Union yesterday, delivering a stern condemnation of Soviet repression in Lithuania and Latvia.The parliament's decision to withhold approval of the aid package came a week after European Community foreign ministers warned Moscow against further military crackdowns in the Baltics, following the Jan. 13 deaths of 14 people in the army takeover of a broadcast center in Vilnius, Lithuania.Last weekend, the Soviet army killed five more people when it stormed Riga police headquarters in a drive to reassert control of Latvia.

Faced with rising multimillion-dollar losses and recent ratings that show a growing appetite for a break from war coverage, the television networks sought yesterday a return to a near-normal schedule of entertainment programs.But the Persian Gulf war did not cooperate.An Iraqi missile slammed into a residential neighborhood in Tel Aviv at 1:37 yesterday afternoon (EST). And shortly after the first pictures of bloody victims -- cleared by the Israeli censors -- started showing up on CNN and NBC about 2:20 p.m., ABC and CBS interrupted soap operas to join the story.

UNITED NATIONS -- As the U.N. General Assembly prepares to open its 46th annual session today, negotiators from 22 nations have agreed on a plan that would deprive the United States and other powers of the senior posts they have automatically claimed in the world organization.The plan, worked out by the group of 22 industrial and developing countries, including the United States and the other permanent Security Council members, is intended to streamline the unwieldy U.N. Secretariat, increase the power of the new secretary general -- who is to be chosen next month -- and make the organization more responsive to humanitarian disasters.

Although Ukraine introduced Christianity as well as organized government to Russia, outsiders have often viewed it as a nation on the periphery. The name itself conveys that sentiment: Ukraina means "outskirts" (or "vastness"). English-speakers have only added to that sense of marginality by referring to it as the Ukraine.For the past four centuries, Ukraine has been dominated by a succession of foreign usurpers -- Russians, Poles and Germans. As a result of Sunday's referendum, a seemingly impossible change in political geography has occurred: Ukrainians have given birth to a major new nation in Europe.

On WHAT island did the Ark and the Dove land? Which county is proud to have Maryland's tallest peak and largest lake? Can you find Harmony, Maryland?And why is it important to know? Getting to know our piece of the planet helps us understand how it has influenced our history, culture and identity as Marylanders. It also gives us a foundation for understanding how our actions affect the environment, say social studies teachers. But geographic education has been sliding off the map."The level of geography literacy in the United States reached rock bottom a couple of years ago," says Barbara Fallon, spokeswoman for the National Geographic Society.

LONDON -- In a stinging rebuke of the new rulers of the Soviet Union, the European Community strongly condemned yesterday "the removal of President Gorbachev from office," declared the coup d'etat "a clearly unconstitutional act" and voted to cut more than $1 billion in aid to the Soviet Union.The 12 foreign ministers of the EC, gathered in The Hague, the Netherlands, demanded that Mikhail S. Gorbachev be restored to power and that "constitutional order be re-established forthwith."In language surprisingly undiplomatic, the ministers also denounced acting President Gennady I. Yanayev and his cohorts in the military and KGB for their "suspension of democratically elected bodies and censorship of the media," saying that such action "leaves no doubt as to the true nature of the regime that now holds the reins of power in the Soviet Union."

WASHINGTON -- Soviet ambassador to Washington Viktor Komplektov yesterday defended his hand-delivery of messages from the Moscow coup leaders to the White House and State Department earlier this week, and declared his loyalty to President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.Mr. Komplektov also said he did not become suspicious of the coup until Monday night when its leaders failed to produce promised evidence that Mr. Gorbachev was too ill to carry out his presidential functions.Mr. Komplektov revealed that Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander A. Bessmertnykh, who told a Moscow press conference that he was too ill to work during the coup or to speak out against it, sent a directive from the Foreign Ministry to major Soviet embassies Monday, saying Kremlin foreign policy would not change.