Explanation

Is that foundation you bought last fall still safe to wear? What about the lipstick you found in an old purse? We consulted some experts to find when cosmetics and other personal care products - often little more talcum powder, minerals and coloring - really should make their way from the bathroom counter to the wastebasket. Here's a roundup of their best advice. Mascara How long to keep it: Three to six months Expert explanation: Your eyes are a haven for bacteria, because they're wet and warm, explains Justin Klabin, who designs and manufactures personal care products.

BEIJING -- China has publicly rejected the latest U.S. attempt to portray last month's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, as a mistake.Undersecretary of State Thomas R. Pickering spent more than five hours on Wednesday with high-ranking Chinese officials in an attempt to heal the rift in relations caused by the bombing but his detailed explanation was described as "not convincing.""The explanations the U.S. side has supplied so far for the cause of the incident are not convincing, and the conclusion that it was a so-called mistaken bombing is by no means acceptable to the Chinese government and people," the official Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday.

CONSPIRACIES ARE often convenient vehicles for explaining events that seem to defy conventional explanation.During the 1973 Arab oil embargo, for example, many Americans believed that large oil companies had colluded to create the worst economic crisis since World War II. Many believed oil tankers were anchored off the coasts merely waiting for gasoline prices to rise before unloading their shipments. Even though news reports debunked that notion, many clung to the belief nonetheless.In Anne Arundel County, we've reached a similar point regarding development.

IS that it?Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy learns that her prosecutors sometimes trample the Constitution to get convictions, and the most she can muster is a list of excuses for their behavior -- rather than explanations and a remedy plan?That's not good enough, not by a long shot. And no one ought to accept the idea that Ms. Jessamy's response, printed Wednesday in a letter to the Sun, is sufficient to be the final word on this issue.Ms. Jessamy's letter came in response to two Sun stories that detailed cases involving eight defendants since 1995 in which prosecutors failed to disclose to the defense all of the evidence they had.These weren't minor procedural gaffes; they were serious breaches of constitutional protections.

Many know that the first person to conquer Mount Everest was the New Zealander Edmund Hillary. Few know that the second person, Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa guide from Nepal, reached the summit only seconds later.Hillary was knighted by the queen of England and became a household name around the world for the 1953 feat. Norgay, considered the world's most experienced climber at the time, is a postscript.If anyone knew their names, history would be littered with also-rans such as Norgay - the deserving but anonymous scientists, inventors, explorers, athletes and beauty queens who missed enduring fame and glory because they placed second in a competition or were second to accomplish a goal.

WASHINGTON -- White House press secretary Mike McCurry was merely saying what many other Americans are thinking when he blurted to an interviewer the other day that if President Clinton had "a simple, innocent explanation" about his relationship with former intern Monica Lewinsky, "I think we would have offered that up already."Mr. McCurry's further comments -- "I think it's going to end up being a very complicated story, as most human relationships are" and "I don't think it's going to be entirely easy to explain" -- were at the very least a remarkable leap into conjecture by a man known for his discipline as the president's chief press spokesman.

THE SAD TALE of Larry Young continues.Early this year, the veteran West Baltimore lawmaker was expelled from the Maryland Senate for turning his elective office into a profit-making enterprise. Now a state grand jury has indicted the former state senator on counts of bribery, extortion and a related tax-evasion charge.The losers in this unfortunate set of events continue to be the impoverished Baltimore constituents who had put their faith in Mr. Young's integrity. They were betrayed.It will be up to a jury to determine if the criminal charges are true.

ON Nov. 19, 1863, with the Civil War only half over and the worst yet to come, Abraham Lincoln delivered a speech now universally regarded as both the most important oration in U.S. history and the best explanation -- "government of the people, by the people, for the people" -- of why this nation exists.We would expect the history of an event so monumental as the Gettysburg Address to be well-established. The truth is just the opposite. The only thing scholars agree on is that the speech is short -- only 10 sentences -- and that it took Lincoln less than five minutes to stand up, deliver it and sit back down.

WASHINGTON -- The Central Intelligence Agency acknowledged for the first time publicly yesterday that an American Catholic priest may have been murdered in 1983 by the Honduran military, which was strongly backed at the time by the United States.One possibility acknowledged by the CIA yesterday was that the Rev. James Carney may have been thrown from a flying helicopter.The agency declassified 36 documents yesterday involving the disappearance of Carney, a Jesuit who after years of ministering to Honduras' poor joined the leftist insurgents.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Gary Williams isn't going anywhere.The question is: Where is Maryland going?This season ended much like the last and even the one before, with the Terps staggering to the finish, disappointing their followers.The expectations this time were created not by the presence of Joe Smith or four senior starters, but a 17-2 record that everyone knew was an illusion.Still, that doesn't excuse Maryland's losses to North Carolina State and the College of Charleston in the ACC and NCAA tournaments.

The noble, sportsmanlike statement to make was the one Ray Lewis made in the most somber post-game Ravens' locker room at M&T Bank Stadium this season. "That," he said, "didn't win or lose the game for us." Except "that" might have done exactly that. Deride the Ravens for allowing the Pittsburgh Steelers to march 92 yards in the final 3 1/2 minutes, with the season on the line, and the record home crowd and a supposedly impenetrable defense on their side. They sure deserve it. Ninety-one and 92 yards, however, are not the same thing.

When the Labor Department reported Friday that the unemployment rate had soared from 5 percent to 5.5 percent in May, the largest spike in two decades, President Bush had a quick explanation - a surge of young new workers into the job market. But economists said that jump arrives every spring and noted the loss of more than 320,000 jobs this year. Something larger is at work. The price of oil hit a record high of more than $138.54 dollars a barrel, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 400 points, an indication of investors worried about a serious recession.

NEW YORK -- Once upon a time, in a country called South Africa, the color of your skin determined where you lived, what jobs you were allowed to have and whether you could vote. Decent countries around the world fought the evil of racial apartheid by turning South Africa into a pariah state. They barred it from global events such as the Olympics. Businesses and universities boycotted South Africa, damaging its economy and adding to the isolation of the white-minority government, which finally repealed apartheid laws in 1991.

Is that foundation you bought last fall still safe to wear? What about the lipstick you found in an old purse? We consulted some experts to find when cosmetics and other personal care products - often little more talcum powder, minerals and coloring - really should make their way from the bathroom counter to the wastebasket. Here's a roundup of their best advice. Mascara How long to keep it: Three to six months Expert explanation: Your eyes are a haven for bacteria, because they're wet and warm, explains Justin Klabin, who designs and manufactures personal care products.

Though there are still a few playoff spots to be decided, the most intriguing story line in the remaining days of baseball's regular season revolves around Ryan Howard and his long-shot run at one of the most hallowed records in sports. In a game that loves its past, we're forced to skip over an entire chapter in the history books, the one titled "Too Good to Be True." Despite whatever whispers you might be hearing or whatever nagging doubts you might be having, all indications suggest that Howard is helping to write the next chapter, the one about a clean athlete giving honest pursuit to the single-season home run record.

It has been exactly one year since news broke of Rafael Palmeiro's positive steroid test - and what have we learned? Steroid testing and discipline are tougher than ever, but - judging by the Tour de France testosterone flap involving Floyd Landis - the quality of the excuses has not improved at all. Landis continues to profess his innocence and insist he has a naturally occurring elevated level of testosterone, even though multiple tests before his...

NEXT QUESTION Do you believe Tour de France winner Floyd Landis' explanation for his high testosterone level? Selected responses to today's question will be printed Monday on The Kickoff page. Please e-mail your answer (about 25 words) to sports@baltsun.com by 3 p.m. tomorrow. Include your name, address and a daytime telephone number for verification purposes.

Should the Orioles be buyers, sellers or neither before the non-waiver trade deadline? Here's one deal that would please every O's fan. Trade Matos, Chen, Peter Angelos and the ornithologically correct bird for Mark Cuban. We get an owner who's committed to winning while dumping our dead weight. Mitchell Golden Baltimore The Orioles remind me of my wife. She never sells or discards anything. All her prized possessions sort of head in the direction of the basement. When she needs to buy a new pair of black slacks, she leaves for the mall, comes back four hours later and says she couldn't find any. Tom Morton Columbia To me, if there ever was a team that didn't have any untradable players, it's the Baltimore Orioles!

PARIS --Iran threw negotiations over its nuclear program into disarray yesterday, abruptly canceling a high-level meeting with the United Nations' nuclear monitoring agency in Vienna, Austria, as the head of Iran's negotiating team was said to have returned to Tehran. The unexpected move stunned and frustrated foreign diplomats and officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency. They scrambled to make sense of the Iranians' failure to attend the meeting, which was scheduled so that Tehran could explain its decision to restart sensitive nuclear research and development activities on Monday.

"It's not only great players who have trouble walking away from the game. Great coaches do, too. ... There is no rational explanation for a 60-year-old to delay hip surgery and put his house plans on hold so he can try and convince a group of pampered millionaires to play harder than they have been." Tim Dahlberg Associated Press, on the coaching return of Pat Riley (above) "I would go to battle with T.O. any day of the week. A lot of people don't understand him." Freddie Mitchell Former Philadelphia Eagles receiver, on his ex-teammate, Terrell Owens