Earth Summit

A man who was fatally shot Monday night in a triple shooting in Northwest Baltimore was the intended target, and two wounded teens were bystanders, police said yesterday.Detective Kenneth Welsh said Theodore Shaw, 32, of the 2800 block of W. Garrison Ave. was shot several times in the head and body by two men who came out of an alley about 9: 45 p.m. in the 3200 block of Woodland Ave. in Pimlico. Investigators did not know of a motive or suspects.The other victims, both of Northwest Baltimore, were a 13-year-old girl, who was shot in the foot, and a 17-year-old boy, who was shot in the right side.

Medicare changes will destroy programThree cheers for Mark Weisbrot for his brilliant July 1 column ''Medicare isn't broke, so let's not convert it to a welfare program.''The recent reprehensible action by the Senate to raise the future age of Medicare eligibility from 65 to 67 and to quadruple the premium for higher-income seniors clearly lays the groundwork for the eventual destruction of Medicare as just another ''worthless'' welfare program.In our throw-away society, according to these senators, why not also throw away the old and the sick who have outlived their usefulness?

If you've got the money, honey, they've got the time."They" being the artists, designers and marketing people who bring you the Swatch watch, currently en route to achieving cult status among a small but growing band of devotees.How devoted are they?So devoted they pay an annual membership of $100 to belong to an international Swatch Watch Club.So devoted they stand in line for hours for the privilege of owning a particular design.So devoted they pay up to $25,000 for a hard-to-find kind.

Bush administration foreign policy started out as a "status quo-plus" operation, with the emphasis on status quo, and more than three years later the description still fits. Well, let's make it "status quo-plus-plus-plus." The Bush-Baker-Scowcroft team did pull off the gulf war, seize the moment on German reunification and push Middle East negotiations. But on the whole this administration was and remains as compulsively cautious as any American government could be.This week, after months of hesitation, President Bush will unveil his plan for long-range economic support for the tottering states of the former Soviet Union.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Thabo Ntisana has been responsible for the destruction of thousands of acres of vegetation across South Africa. Armed with chain saws, machetes and herbicides, his legions of workers have chopped down eucalyptus trees, tugged water hyacinths out of ponds and poisoned castor oil plants. When more than 100 world leaders gather this week in Johannesburg for the largest-ever international meeting to save the planet, Ntisana wants to teach their countries to do the same.

WASHINGTON -- Once again seeking to strike a balance between jobs and the environment, President Clinton yesterday announced a voluntary, seven-year energy efficiency program designed to head off what he called "the serious threat of global warming."As with his other environmental policies -- covering Western logging and cattle grazing and Eastern wetlands and factories on the Mexican border -- the president's plan aligns him with Middle America rather than extremists on either side.By launching 50 separate initiatives to limit future air pollution, Mr. Clinton won the appreciation of some environmentalists, although others complained that his Climate Change Action Plan doesn't go far enough.

In a persistent irony of television news, most broadcasts fill their air time with what amounts to visual filler, comprising footage taken long after news has happened.Thus, more often than not we see accident scenes only after the accident, with people milling about, body bags being loaded into ambulances and lots and lots of "talking heads" delivering "sound bites."Ah, but now the average viewer can make television with a compact camcorder. And the popularity of ABC's "America's Funniest Home Videos" made it inevitable that newsier home videos would get their own show.

Yes, indeed, there is only one real superpower -- and in the oil sector its name is Saudi Arabia. It was strong before the Persian Gulf conflict, even stronger when the war was over. When Saudi Arabia wanted world oil prices low, as it did during recent years, prices stayed low. Now, suddenly, it indicates it wants prices to go up. Up they go!Why the wealthy desert kingdom has switched tactics is a matter of intense speculation. One persuasive theory has it that Saudi Arabia wanted to show its opposition to European Community planning for a carbon-energy tax that would have amounted to a $3 levy on each barrel of oil now, and $10 by the year 2000.

The nearness of a new year brings this column's annual roundup of people worth noting in television during the past 12 months:* Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, Dennis Miller and David Letterman:Late-night just doesn't seem as comfortable without the venerable Mr. Carson, who retired gracefully in May after 30 years on night-light duty.As for the others, they are part of the roiling ratings race that has produced a comedy of errors. Mr. Miller's syndicated show came and went in 1992. Mr. Leno, NBC's designated Carson successor, is struggling.

WASHINGTON -- A deeply split Supreme Court put tight new limits yesterday on the right of nature conservation and wildlife groups and their members to sue in federal court to protect the environment from threats by the government.In a ruling that apparently allows U.S. agencies more authority to take actions in other countries that may threaten endangered species of wildlife there, the court barred the courthouse door to a legal challenge aimed at those actions.By mere coincidence, the ruling came as the Earth Summit -- a multi-nation conclave designed to find global solutions to environmental threats -- was reaching a decisive phase in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.