Gathering

WASHINGTON -- As the United States and its allies weig possible military action against the Bosnian Serbs, the Pentagon has begun intensifying its efforts to marshal allied intelligence data to help plot possible targets and tactics, analysts here say.Led by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the military is gathering a wide array of information, ranging from photographs taken by U.S. spy satellites to firsthand reports from allied troops on duty in Bosnia-Herzegovina...

The Carroll County Farm Museum is again putting on its finery to present visitors with a holiday treat."A Gathering of the Greens" tours will begin Saturday at 10 a.m. at one of the county's most popular tourist attractions.Dottie Freeman, administrative marketing specialist for the Farm Museum, said this will be the 26th year for decking the farmhouse halls."These holiday tours have been taking place since 1967," said Mrs. Freeman. "This is a time when we can experiment and incorporate fun ideas.

The 86-year-old woman murdered alone in her apartment. The man shot watching Fourth of July fireworks. The 18-year-old man gunned down senselessly on the street.The Rev. Richard Poetzel led funeral masses for all three in the past 14 months at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church in Highlandtown. The mourners always ask, Why?"Unfortunately, I don't have the answers," Father Poetzel told a gathering of Southeast Baltimore residents yesterday. "I know that all of us, as we confront neighborhood violence, can and must make our presence felt."

To a hilly clearing in the woods near Monkton they came yesterday, bringing their contributions to a genealogical work in progress, an African-American family's search for itself amid the old homesteads and modest churches of rural Baltimore County.The Walton family reunion -- billed in a flier as "the real Waltons," to distinguish them from a figment of television's imagination -- drew more than 100 second-cousins-once-removed, great-great aunts and long-lost nephews from as far as Texas and Florida and Ohio.

In early April 1672, word went out and preparations began in South County, in the village now known as Galesville, for the first gathering of Quakers in Maryland. In fact, the Fourth Month (Quakers eschew the usual names for months) four-day meeting of the Religious Society of Friends is considered the birth of American Quakerism. What made the event an important moment in religious history is that George Fox, the English founder of the faith, was present to inspire and "convince" Quakers with his teachings.

County planners and leaders from different municipalities will meet this afternoon to begin sorting through data that might help the Carroll commissioners revise their growth-control policies. The meeting will not be open to the public or press, however, a fact that has raised the ire of county activists. The gathering does not fall under state open meetings laws because no public body will be represented by a voting majority and no formal decisions will be made, said County Attorney Kimberly Millender.

WASHINGTON -- In the seven years since Promise Keepers was founded, the mass gatherings of evangelical Christian men have been criticized by some for having an almost entirely white, middle-class attendance, with just a smattering of minority participation.Acknowledging past failures, Promise Keepers founder Bill McCartney said yesterday that an Oct. 4 gathering on the Mall in Washington, which is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of men from across country, will be notable for its diversity.

TEHRAN, Iran -- A singing, chanting, cheering crowd of about 8,000 people filled a cavernous basketball stadium yesterday in support of the reformers who aim to wrest control of Parliament from the insular clerical establishment that has ruled and, they said, repressed Iran for 21 years. The enthusiastic pep rally was the first organized gathering in Tehran since the one-week campaign for parliamentary elections officially opened Friday. The rally featured some of Iran's most outspoken liberals, who freely borrowed symbols and songs of the Islamic revolution that overturned the monarchy and brought the religious hierarchy to power in 1979.

THE ISSUE at the United Nations is whether President Clinton or President Castro will more grossly violate the rule limiting speeches to five minutes. That wishful regimentation is either an outrageous infringement on sovereignty or the only feasible traffic pattern for 150 visiting heads of government and state. Just as the arrival of stars at an Academy Awards ceremony is more significant than any specific Oscar, so the three-day Millennium Summit is more important for its convening than for anything that may be said or done there.

The first gathering of Democrats seeking Rep. Kweisi Mfume's 7th Congressional District seat was held yesterday -- but not all the candidates were invited, the session was closed to the public, and the meeting might have been an effort to pare the number of aspirants.The hastily called meeting with some of the candidates in the 28-person Democratic primary was sponsored by Marylanders Organized for Responsibility and Equity (MORE), an organization with roots deep in the city's black power structure.