Coalition

ANNAPOLIS -- A diverse coalition of Maryland groups backed yesterday a package of bills intended to strengthen state laws against employment, housing or religious discrimination and to extend civil rights protections to homosexuals.A number of the proposals pushed by the newly formed Maryland Civil Rights Coalition are direct attempts to reverse decisions made by the U.S. Supreme Court or to put in Maryland law protections of civil rights proposed by the U.S. Congress but vetoed last year by President Bush.

The vacant lots and dilapidated storefronts along Park Heights Avenue and Reisterstown Road seem to signal a community on the decline.But that is not the whole picture, say a group of area residents who will converge today to plant trees and flowers, and paint murals on the two major thoroughfares running through the heart of several Northwest Baltimore neighborhoods."

The South Carroll Coalition would like to become the voice of the community, said members who met with about 50 residents last night at the Eldersburg Library to explain the group's purpose and enlist new members."

JERUSALEM -- In an attempt to win right-wing support for the coalition it is building, Israel's Labor Party dropped yesterday its calls for a one-year freeze on settlement activity in the occupied territories while Mideast peace talks are under way.New guidelines approved by Yitzhak Rabin say the Labor-led government will "reinforce settlement along the confrontation lines," which had been defined by Mr. Rabin as the Jordan Valley and the Golan Heights.In...

COHASSET, Mass. - Debate about American foreign policy has been discreetly muffled since Sept. 11. But the argument between unilateral and multilateral action has reappeared as a subtext of the response to global terrorism. Of course, in the real world, policy is a mix of the two, depending on the circumstances. What is new is the notion of "coalitions" as a flexible version of the old multilateralism. President Bush praised our allies on March 11 as "a mighty coalition of civilized nations."

For more than a year, the Rognel Heights Recreation Center in West Baltimore has been closed, a victim of budget cuts that left the city's recreation department without enough staff to run it.Now the center, located in the 1200 block of Wicklow Road, will reopen as a community-based facility run by a coalition of eight community groups.The Board of Estimates on Wednesday approved a contract with the Edmondson Village Community Coalition to operate the center in return for $100 monthly payments to defray the cost of utilities.

More than 200 parents, students and education advocates gathered at Fort Worthington Elementary in Baltimore last night to celebrate their victory in fighting for school funding. The Baltimore Education Coalition, a network of more than 30 advocacy groups, was formed this winter in response to proposed changes in the state's funding formulas that would have disproportionately hurt schools in the city and Prince George's County. The coalition had planned a rally in Annapolis for last night.

A group billing itself as a "grass roots" coalition of consumers and businesses" launched a campaign yesterday to abolish "the monopoly that allows Bell Atlantic to control local telephone service in Maryland."

TOKYO -- Japan's 4-year-old governing coalition fractured yesterday, as the Social Democratic Party formally announced that it would quit and strike out on its own.It is a measure of how far the Social Democrats have fallen in popularity that their departure will scarcely matter. The Liberal Democratic Party, which has dominated Japanese politics since the 1950s, will continue to govern Japan, with no need for new elections or a Cabinet reshuffle.The collapse of the coalition had been expected and was not expected to cause any particular instability.

A broad-based coalition of unions and community organizations formally began yesterday the process of trying to change the City Charter to trim the City Council by four members and create 14 single-member districts. The coalition, Communities and Labor United for Baltimore, filed a proposed petition with the city election board. The language of the petition, which requires 10,000 signatures to be placed on a ballot, must be reviewed and approved by election officials. Norma Washington, chairwoman of Maryland's Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)