Camp David

THURMONT -- President Clinton ended a grueling nine-day effort at Camp David last night, failing to broker an historic, permanent peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. Hours later, however, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat announced that they would stay at the mountain retreat and continue talks. "We all thought it was over, and then we discovered that nobody wanted to give up," a weary Clinton said at 12:45 a.m. today. The president then prepared to leave quickly for a weekend economic summit in Japan.

HOW AWFUL that the place sacred to the most people in the world, itself a symbol of peace, is also very real -- rocks and traffic and swarms of humanity -- and the reason peace in the Middle East still eludes those who search hardest together in good faith for it. The banner headline across Page One of the Washington Post's home edition yesterday, "Mideast Summit Fails Over Jerusalem," may yet prove prescient and come true in the end. Jerusalem has...

WASHINGTON - No pressure, Mr. President. But a bit of advice for when you take the mound in Milwaukee tonight: Don't do as your father did. Think 1992, the elder President Bush, and one ugly, bouncing toss into the dirt at Camden Yards. But more on that later. Despite his diplomatic efforts to try to end a standoff with China, George W. Bush still plans to find time to fly to Wisconsin tonight to throw out a ceremonial first pitch at the Milwaukee Brewers' home-opener in their new stadium.

THURMONT -- People here in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains are used to presidential visits. They know that the Camp David retreat is tucked up in the hills and that President Bush spends many weekends there. They typically think little of it. But this weekend was far different. "Everybody's worried about him being up here," said Richard Stely, assistant manager at the Direct-to-You gas station in Thurmont. "We feel like our life's at risk. Just take him someplace else in a situation like this."

THURMONT -- No signs point to nearby Camp David, and it is not wise to walk up and down Main Street seeking directions to the presidential retreat. Especially not as President Bush huddles there today with British Prime Minister Tony Blair -- a wartime strategy session that, at least temporarily, turns this slow-moving Western Maryland town, population 5,800, into the center of the political universe. "If somebody asks [where it is], we're required to report it to the Secret Service," says James L. Fuss, the otherwise amiable Thurmont police sergeant.

THURMONT - The Camp David peace talks shifted back into high gear late yesterday as President Clinton returned from a trip to Japan, and Israel reportedly showed signs of making new concessions on Palestinian demands for a piece of East Jerusalem. Clinton arrived back from the G-8 summit of industrial nations more than six hours earlier than originally scheduled and was expected to meet into the night with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. "He's back.

THURMONT - Calling on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak "to bring about a just and enduring end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," President Clinton convened a high-stakes summit at Camp David yesterday to try to make significant progress in the Middle East peace process before a crucial Sept. 13 deadline. Both Barak and Arafat "feel the weight of history," Clinton said at the White House before leaving for the Catoctin Mountain presidential retreat yesterday morning.

THURMONT -- Before he left for Japan yesterday, President Clinton pushed negotiators at Camp David closer than ever before to a comprehensive peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, narrowing the gaps on Israeli security desires and on the borders of a potential Palestinian nation, diplomats said. But delegates were unable to bridge differences on the sensitive matter of Jerusalem, leading to a total breakdown in the talks before they were pulled from the edge in a surprising reversal early yesterday.

SHANKSVILLE, Pa. - A United Airlines 757 carrying 45 people crashed in a grassy field yesterday morning - moments after a 911 caller on the jet told a local emergency dispatcher, "We are being hijacked! We are being hijacked!" Flight 93 was en route from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco when it went down about 10 a.m. near an overgrown strip mine about 35 miles from the Maryland line. Pennsylvania state police said they did not expect to find any survivors. The jet was the last hijacked plane to crash in yesterday's horrific assault on U.S. targets.

1941: New Deal builds Greenbelt1942: Liberty ships sail from Baltimore1942: FDR picks Shangri-La site (later Camp David)